ou never know who you let in.
Soon after her twenty-fifth birthday, Libby Jones returns home from work to find the letter she’s been waiting for her entire life. She rips it open with one driving thought: I am finally going to know who I am.
From then on she starts a journey of unfolding her life, why she was left in her crib, with there dead bodies in that big house.

Through her journey, she did not only discovered the mystery surrounded this house but her family as well.

It was my first time reading a Lisa Jewel book, and I must say, I enjoyed it. It got me trapped until the end. Though the end, was not as expected, it was a brilliant way of still conveying the mystery, and makes the reader feel unsettled if it makes sense.

Meh. The more I think about this book, the more I get annoyed with it. I was so bored the whole time and a lot of the story lines were odd. The part where Henry/Phin locks Libby and Miller in their room, tampers with their phones, and listens to their conversation seemed pointless because they just gloss over it in the end and pretend like it didn’t happen? This is my least favorite Lisa Jewell book.

Thank you and the Author and publisher for an ARC copy of this . The opinions expressed are my own.

What I liked. Good read. This was more of a family drama/ suspense than a murder mystery. The writing was solid and held my interest. The plot was intriguing and held a bunch of twists I didn't see comming.



What I didn't like: Some of what happens is "Off the wall" but it fits in the story. It just kind of bothered me. Not sure about the characters. It's not that I didn't like them they just all seem "weird" and I couldn't really connect with any of them. I understood them they just didn't seem real enough to me. I also wish the title fit a little better.
Still, it was a very good story and earns 4 stars.

Totally loved this book and the twisted events and ending! highly recommend! I never hesitate to read a Lisa Jewell book..she's consistently good!

Wow!! This is one crazy, crazy story! When I thought the plots were dragging, the author would throw in a curveball to shake things up. The ending is definitely well worth the wait!

This took me a few chapters to really get into because there are different characters, not defined by name or date/time period, but eventually you figure out how they're related & I was hooked! The ending threw me a little bit-- I think I was expecting something more shocking, or another big twist, or something? It definitely ended with a quietly creepy feel though, that made me wonder if she was setting it up for a sequel.

Lisa Jewell knows how to write page-turners. The Family Upstairs can be read in one sitting, easily. The story is about a series of events that the main character lived through when she was just a baby, which resulted in her losing her family in a violent way that the reader discovers early in the story. It’s really compelling, although I wasn’t a fan of several characters.

The Family Upstairs by Lisa Jewell is a fast-paced novel that keeps the reader intrigued until the very end. Libby has just turned 25 and has inherited a house from her biological family. The house turns out to be a mansion worth millions, but it also has a dark past. Thrillers are generally not my go-to genre, but this book was fantastic.

As usual, Lisa Jewell hit it out of the park with this one. Many others have discussed the plot and characters of this novel. so I won't reinvent the wheel. Much to my shame, I have never read a Lisa Jewell book but I loved the cover so I was hooked. I wasn't disappointed. Even though I was not familiar with the author's previous work, I am now a fan. I look forward to future novels from this prolific author.

This is probably my favorite Lisa Jewel book now. It is very twisty, dark, and suspenseful. I never guessed any of the twists at all, so they all completely shocked me. This was a wonderful slow burn thriller that won’t leave you disappointed.
Three members of a cult commit a planned suicide pact and leave a baby in her nursery. Some how she is cared for. Did they actually commit suicide or was it murder? Where did the teenage siblings go? What is that baby up to now? What about that house?

Having enjoyed the other couple of books I've read by Lisa Jewell, with their compelling family drama featuring, as I see it, realistic characters in heightened situations, I was looking forward to this one's having a bit of a Gothic bent -- orphaned baby, abandoned mansion... This book didn't disappoint, with loads of twisted family drama, multiple interlocking perspectives (at least one of whom is an unreliable narrator!), a lot of atmosphere, and a complex whodunnit with details that'll surprise you even as you manage to piece together the broader strokes.

I was not entirely able to disregard certain points of contestable realism upon which a few of the key plot elements hinged, and I'd have preferred a darker ending, but overall this was ripping. I don't read many thriller/suspense novels because I'm usually disappointed (mainly mainly by sexist crap if the author is male), but I'm sure this won't be my last one by Jewell.

Traveling With T’s Thoughts:

CREEP-TASTIC. This book kept my flipping pages and totally hooked.

What I Liked:

The cover. Well both of the covers. The ARC is different than the finished copy- but both are great covers!

The creepiness of the book. Suspenseful. Dark. Kept me flipping pages.

The ending. Yes!

Bottom line: This book has a lot going on- but is absolutely delicious- and I HIGHLY recommend you add it to your TBR list. Like now.

I stumbled across Lisa Jewell a couple of years ago, and she became one of my must-read authors. The Family Upstairs did not disappoint either! Another phenomenal book by Jewell!

The Family Upstairs by Lisa Jewell is a stunning novel of dysfunction and of neglect. A tale of children’s lost innocence, when their parents lose their way. It is haunting character study in the ghosts of who they might have been and the damaged spirits of who they are.

“…She stares at Mr. Royle. ‘Is that…? The baby left behind-is that me?’

He nods. She can see genuine sadness in his eyes. ‘Yes,’ he says. ‘Such a tragic story, isn’t it? And such a mystery. The children, I mean. The house was in trust for them, too, but neither of them ever came forward. I can only assume, well, that they’re…anyway.’ He leans forward, clutches his tie, and smiles, painfully. ‘May I offer you a pen?’

He tips a wooden pot of expensive-looking ballpoint pens toward her and she takes one. It has the name of the firm printed on its barrel in gold script.

Libby stares at it blankly for a moment.

A brother,

A sister.

A suicide pact…”

SUMMARY –

It is soon after Libby Jones’ twenty-fifth birthday that the letter arrives. In it are the secrets that she has searched to unravel all her life. Who is she? Who were her parents? Who is her family? But what Libby finds instead is a mystery of a family that hid itself away from the world inside their home until one fateful day, the parents committed suicide and the children disappeared. All except for one child. A baby. Libby.

“…I was nearly eleven when they came, and my sister was nine.

They lived with us for more than five years and they turned everything very, very dark. My sister and I had to learn how to survive.

And when I was sixteen, and my sister was fourteen, the baby came…”

The Lambs were an affluent family living in London’s fashionable Chelsea neighborhood on Cheyne Walk. They lived with their two children. Henry Lamb, the father, had inherited the estate and his wife, a beautiful woman of German and Turkish descent, Martina, was well known in fashion industry. One day Martina invited a young couple to stay in the home on Cheyne Walk and they never left. Martina was a woman living a life of quiet desperation whose wealth and material gains could not satisfy her. But this gaping hole in her life was about to let someone into her home who would change everything forever. Leaving her children defenseless, in the grasp of a man who wielded his power and influence like a tyrant.

Rumors said that they were part of a cult. That they had abandoned the outside world. What truly happened no one knew for sure. The result being an abandoned newborn. Two missing teenage children and three dead bodies.

Libby has inherited the abandoned mansion in Chelsea where her family had died. She is frantic to learn more about what happened. But what she doesn’t know is that others have been waiting for this day as well. The day that Libby, the abandoned baby, would turn twenty-five and inherit the family home. Others who now are heading on a collision course to find Libby. Others, who have their own secrets to hide.

“…You are very welcome,’ he replies. The he rubs his hands together and says. ‘Ask me something else! Ask me what really happened on the night that everybody died.’

Miller smiles grimly and says, ‘OK. So, what really happened then? On the night that everyone died?’

Phin looks at both of them, mischievously, then leans in so that his mouth is directly over the microphone on Miller’s phone and says, ‘Well, for a start, it wasn’t suicide. It was murder…”

REVIEW –

Lisa Jewell is a premier writer of suspense filled dramas and family dysfunction. It would be wrong to characterize her novels as mysteries because there is usually not a crime involved. What they are instead are dramas, introspection of family life that somehow slides off the tracks into the dangerous valley below. Jewell is a master at revealing how the selfishness and neglect of the parents lay the groundwork for the lives that the children must somehow overcome.

In The Family Upstairs, Jewell opens the door to one family’s descent into chaos and imprisonment. But it is an imprisonment that they walked into and gave their captors the keys so very willingly. For so many I know they will see David as the evil player in this game of power, but Birdie is right behind him, driving him on and fueling his need to control. Though in truth the true evil her lies with Henry and Martina. Their willful dereliction of their responsibilities as parents of young children and the sad blindness that they actually think they are doing what is best.

Like almost all of Jewell’s novels, the characters are so rich and well crafted that you begin to wonder if they are based on real people. The breathe, the pulse, in the confines of the pages they truly exist.

A Lisa Jewell novel is cause to celebrate and to immerse yourself in a world that cries out for your attention. Do so and you will be so well rewarded.

A really good read.

This book was a wild ride. I enjoyed not knowing how the characters related until the very end - how it all started out very vague and gradually the reader got more details to figure out the connections with everyone. They characters were described with much detail - I had a very clear picture of them in my mind. This was a very good book.

I love coming of age stories and crime mysteries, and this novel is both. It follows the lives of five children from their early years living together in a mansion through their scattered lives as adults. They somehow survive severe abuse by an evil antagonist who is the biological father to a few of them. I highly recommend this book.

Want to read something really good? Pick up this book. It will be a page Turner. It will captivate you. You will cry and you will scream and you will understand.
Books like that are rare. The author is truly a jewel with her creativity and style if writing.

Lisa Jewell does it again! I was completely hooked from the first page to the last. I was constantly trying to figure out what was going to happen next and [spoiler alert] I was never able to! Needs to be a movie. A really wonderful mystery/thriller!

I am a follower of Lisa Jewell and appreciate having the chance to get an ARC from NetGalley. I am so disappointed how many times I tried to give this story a chance and started it over at least 3 times and not being able to make any heads or tails as to what was happening. I ended up giving up. I made my peace that this was just not my cup of tea.

Libby has been a budget watcher her whole life. She shops at T.J. Maxx and celebrates a small raise at work by buying one eye shadow from a department store instead of her usual drugstore. Then she turns 25 and receives a letter saying she's just inherited from her birth parents a mansion on the finest street in the Chelsea area of London.

Meanwhile, Lucy receives a text saying, "The baby is 25," and urgently seeks a way to travel with her two kids and dog from France to England. The problem: she's currently homeless, has no passports or money and is hiding from the law.

Libby's and Lucy's present-day chapters alternate with accounts that take place in the past, told from the point of view of a boy named Henry. He lived with his family in the above-mentioned Chelsea mansion until his mother took in temporary boarders--and they never left. Not only that, the interlopers invited friends over and soon the strangers had taken command, imprisoning Henry's family in their own home--until one night when police arrived to find multiple dead bodies and a crying baby.

The way Lisa Jewell brings these plotlines together in The Family Upstairs continues to solidify her reputation as a master weaver of stories. She takes a hard-to-believe situation--wickedness seeping into and taking over a seemingly normal household--and makes it plausible. The story twists in unpredictable, disturbing ways, and shows how hard it is to repel evil when it has invaded one's home. --Elyse Dinh-McCrillis, blogger at Pop Culture Nerd