There's a lot going on in this book, and I kept bracing myself for it to become gimmicky. But Fine does an impressive job juggling multiple narrative elements without dropping a single one. While one of these is postpartum mental health, I also appreciated that the entirety of the book isn't devoted to questioning the narrator's sanity, as that would have made for a tedious read. Instead, after establishing the narrator's precarious mental state, Fine commits fully to the haunting, which is quite chilling. Unlike hauntings by traditional ghosts with clear motivations, this haunting follows more of a dream logic, which makes sense contextually. At one point toward the end, though, Fine attempts to tie things up a little too neatly, suggesting a dichotomy between Margaret Wise Brown and Michael Strange that isn't fully realized. Overall, though, the book picks up pace and energy in the last quarter, which is refreshing after so many contemporary novels that lose momentum here. [cross-posted to GoodReads]

This book was strange, and I loved it, but I know it won't be for everyone.

So, here's a short summary: Margaret Wise Brown (author of children's book Goodnight Moon) is a ghost haunting the condo of Megan, who just had a baby. She says she is building her house for Michael (Brown's former lover who is also long dead). And really that is all I will say without giving anything away.

I read Fine's first book a few years ago and I liked it a lot so I was excited to see she had another one coming out. This book takes a deep dive into motherhood, PPD, and postpartum psychosis and I do think it will probably appeal to parent's but it's also an intriguing mystery/suspense with a fun literary element.

For me, this was a deep and emotional read as well as a gripping ghost story that kept me turning the pages. Coincidentally I read a lot of it while feeding and rocking my own baby and a lot of the postpartum feelings Megan had really hit home for me.

When Julia Fine’s publicist at HarperCollins approached me with a pitch for an interview, I demurred. I had a lot of books on my plate already; I knew Fine’s first novel was classified as fantasy—not a genre I seek out; and the main subject of this new book, The Upstairs House, seemed to be a contemporary young mother struggling with the reality of adjusting to a newborn infant in her life.

Not that I couldn’t sympathize with the young mother’s plight; every woman who bears a child has to confront the clash between expectations and a kind of craziness compounded from sleepless nights, a body that feels as if it’s taken on a life of its own, and overwhelming love for a demanding and utterly dependent infant (or, worse, the absence of overwhelming love because of the demands and dependency). When I went through that, I was lucky to have had more help at home than Julia Fine’s Megan Weiler and a more adaptive body chemistry; for whatever reason, I suffered less. Even so, I was in no hurry to revisit that part of my life through someone else’s eyes.

But the second part of the story, involving Margaret Wise Brown and Michael Strange, kept tugging at me, and in the end I became caught up in the book, which is a fast and enjoyable read.

Finally home after giving birth to her daughter, Megan is ready to rest and bond with her baby. But there is a persistent knocking and banging coming from upstairs, that is driving her nuts. Her husband doesn't seem to hear it at all. To prove it to herself that she isn't imagining it, she investigates. Megan finds a turquoise door that opens to the 1940s world of Margaret Wise.
Margaret Wise is the author of the classic bedtime story, Good Night Moon. Her ghost is looking for Megan's help in reconnecting with her former lover, Michael. But their relationship was toxic and Megan is quickly consumed by the negativity. She can feel the danger approaching as their ghosts become more real.

While I appreciated the idea of a haunting from a beloved author, I don't know that I would have chosen Margaret Wise. I do appreciate the amount of research the writer did, to really tell Margaret's story, but I didn't go into this book looking for an autobiography. The amount of facts and storyline about the author was overwhelming and honestly not that interesting.
I did like this angle of Postpartum psychosis. Its an interesting idea that it could manifest as a haunting. I knew early in the book that it was happening, and was really looking forward to see where it went. But this storyline fell flat for me as well.
The book was not what I expected. If there were less focus on Margaret and Michael and more on Megan's spiral into madness, it could have been amazing.

Megan is having trouble bonding with her newborn baby, Clare, even though her husband is bonding and providing great support. She keeps hearing noises no one else can hear and discovers that the children’s author, Margaret Wise Brown (long dead) has moved in upstairs. Megan’s dissertation is about children’s authors including brown. Margaret Wise Brown house she is building upstairs looks remarkably like the bedroom in Goodnight Moon. I found the connection between reality and fiction jarring, but then I imagine that’s exactly how Megan felt. Unable to work on her dissertation and hour after hour spent caring for a baby. Its also the story of women who are often overlooked. Even Margaret Wise Brown can attest to that. In The Upstairs Room Julia Fine explores the reality of womanhood, the complications, the creativity and the intelligence. Eventually, Megan finds a solution, yet like real life not everything is solved, but instead remains unsettled.

I think I wanted to like “The Upstairs House” more than I did. Julia fine captures new motherhood in a terrifying way that I can only assume is accurate for some women. She makes motherhood feel isolating, chaotic, and messy. In the beginning, I empathized so strongly with the narrator that I even began to resent her husband. This post-partum breakdown was my favorite part of the novel, and it manifests itself with the main character being convinced there is a woman living in a door in the stairwell. However, I was so disinterested in the plot and backstory of the old lady living in the stairwell. I honestly started to skim those chapters towards the end I think it would have been a more suspenseful and confusing plot if the reader didn’t know from the beginning that this stairwell woman was a famous historic author with a well-documented biography. This book just meandered for too long and hit me over the head with the post-partum themes to the point that I then began to resent our main character, even though I usually love sad girl vibes. Maybe people who’ve experienced motherhood will appreciate this more than I did. I won’t post a goodreads review for this until after publication since I don’t want to bring down the ratings on a pre-released title. I do think it has a market and other readers will love this.

This novel is the tale of Megan, a mother who gives birth to her daughter, Clara, and is suddenly haunted by her “upstairs neighbor” Margaret, who is preparing for the return of her lover Michael. Of course, both of those people, only Megan and Clara can see.

I didn’t find this story to be haunting, riveting or even the least bit creepy. I was concerned it would be postpartum depression or psychosis, but the backstory and the plot just didn’t do it for me.

I found the main character to be just slightly tolerable and the absence of her husband so frequently just too convenient and weird. 1.5 stars from me.

Rating: 4.5 stars
Recommend? For people who enjoy strange books. This reminded me both of <i>The Need</i> and of <i>Bunny</i>,

When Megan brings her newborn daughter Clara home, she's feeling overwhelmed by new motherhood, annoyed with her husband's busy work schedule, and overall uncertain about being a mother. One day, when Clara is a few days old, Megan finds a mysterious turquoise door in the wall. She opens it to find Margaret Wise Brown, author of beloved children's book <I>Goodnight Moon</i> and the subject of Megan's dissertation that she abandoned when she had Clara. Megan becomes convinced that Margaret (who died in 1952) and her lover (who died in 1950) are haunting the house.

This is an incredibly smart book. It is also at times funny, suspenseful, infuriating, and sad. I don't have children, but the language used to describe postpartum depression (and the metaphor of the hauntings) immediately connected me to the narrator. There were times in the middle when the book lagged a bit, but this one was definitely a stay-up-all-night-to-finish book by the end.

I’m judging a 2021 fiction contest. It’d be generous to call what I’m doing upon my first cursory glance—reading. I also don’t take this task lightly. As a fellow writer and lover of words and books, I took this position—in hopes of being a good literary citizen. My heart aches for all the writers who have a debut at this time. What I can share now is the thing that held my attention and got this book from the perspective pile into the read further pile.

“The name came to her in a dream, not just a pen name, but a better self, the leading lady role of any lifetime—Michael Strange, iconoclast and luminary. Michael Strange, the benevolent sun.”

This story was bizarre. I spent most of it trying to figure out if Megan's experience was all in her head or if it was truly a ghost story. Many times, I was convinced either way. Now I think it must be both.

I could hear myself in Megan's musings about being a first-time mother. Even now that my "baby" is almost 17 years old, I vividly remember those moments (and DAYS) of self-doubt. There were times that I felt it should be illegal to drive when you're so tired from the newborn nights. I could hear the well-meaning relatives forcing me to take walks with them & the baby when all I wanted to do was nap.

Though it's strange and peculiar, The Upstairs House will likely open conversations about the needs of new moms. Hopefully its message prods readers to reach out to friends and neighbors who have new babies. You know, just in case a mid-century author is haunting the new mom's house.

The Upstairs House
A Novel
by Julia Fine
Harper
You Like Them You Are Auto-Approved
General Fiction (Adult) | Literary Fiction | Women's Fiction
Pub Date 23 Feb 2021 | Archive Date 20 Apr 2021

This story felt flat for me. Maybe because at this time in my life I am not suffering from sleep deprivation and a crying infant. It will find its audience, however. Good book, just wasn't a good book for me.
Thanks to Harper and NetGalley for the ARC.

3 star

As someone who doesn't have kids yet but wants nothing more to be a mom, I found the postpartum psychosis and fears of being a new parent sometimes challenging to read at times. This book is INTENSE, haunting, scary and compelling. I think the end was kind of predictable but if you enjoy a little horror and psychological thrillers, this is the book for you!

TW: Anxiety, postpartum depression, psychosis

The Upstairs House is a well-written book that captures the feelings and emotions of being a new mother. Megan gives birth to a beautiful daughter, but immediately feels some postpartum depression and anxiety. Her husband helps (some) but also has to travel for work. Megan discovers a door in her apartment building that no one else seems to be able to see, and through that door, she walks into the life of Margaret Wise Brown. Megan was writing her dissertation about Brown and the movement in children's literature away from the fantastical to the more realistic.

Unfortunately, letting Margaret into her life also lets in her lover, Michael Strange, who is a more malevolent spirit. She opens windows, locks Megan out on the balcony, turns on the gas stove full blast and makes her presence known in ways that makes Megan look unbalanced.

When reading this book, I felt myself go back in time to when I had a newborn in the house. You aren't sure what is real and what is fantasy, you aren't sure if you like this little creature who relies on you for everything and doesn't let you sleep, and yet you love your child so much. You simultaneously want to go back to your old life where you slept and ate when you wanted to and were free to go anywhere, and to never leave this moment of time right now when your child is beginning to explore the world and nothing else matters but them.

The flashbacks to Margaret and Michael's life were very interesting. I hadn't known anything about Margaret Wise Brown's life before, and she did lead an interesting life. I liked that the book was written in a way that you believe Megan is really experiencing these hauntings and don't really know until the end if they are real or imaginary.

However, real or imaginary, the hauntings illuminate how strange those postpartum months can be for a new mother, and how easy it is to lose yourself in the minutiae of caring for a baby.

Thanks to Netgalley for an advance copy for my unbiased review!

"Sleep was a distant memory, and I was a cow, and a human had come out of my vagina. Why shouldn't Margaret Wise Brown live upstairs?" **

Yep. Why the fuck shouldn't she? Pretty much anything can seem reasonable when you're sleep deprived, isolated, and struggling to survive life with a newborn.

Everything has been turned upside down in Megan's life following the birth of her first child, Clara. One day Megan finds a doorway she's never seen before in the stairwell of her condo building, and behind the door is "Goodnight Moon" author Margaret Wise Brown getting things ready for the arrival of her fellow ghost girlfriend, Michael Strange. There are cold drafts and weird noises, objects move, lights flicker - Megan is haunted and isolated and becoming increasingly untethered from reality.

Julia Fine does an excellent job balancing the ordinary horrors of new motherhood with the supernatural horrors of a haunting and the psychological horrors of postpartum depression. I loved this book and can't stop thinking about it.

Side note: Goodnight Moon is creepy AF - after 9,000 readings of it with my kids when they were small, remembering saying "goodnight nobody" still gives me the heeby-jeebies.

** Quotes were taken from an uncorrected advanced review copy and changes may be made prior to publication.

Chills. I found this book about a haunting to be haunting — unsettling, nerve-racking, worrisome, strange. I fretted over the characters when I wasn’t reading it and ached for them when I was. Loved it so very much.

A tale of what dark paths literature and motherhood can take us down. You begin with some slow turns around the entrance but then find yourself being pulled down into the story faster and faster by the main character and her two literary ghosts. You end with a thud in a painfully real ending. This story will remain with you like a memorable trip.

"'In the 16th century the word baby meant the tiny image of oneself seen in the pupil of another person's eye.'"

This book. This book was SO GOOD. How many thrillers give you chills and also bring you to tears? My copy is full of highlights because the writing is so beautiful and concise and insightful and full of depth. And original AF. I loved this book, I loved everything about it.

Megan and Ben have just had their first child, Clara. Prior to Clara's birth, Megan was working on her dissertation about mid-century children's literature. So when the late Margaret Wise Brown, the legendary children's author, suddenly appears to have moved in upstairs, behind a turquoise door that wasn't there before, Megan hardly bats an eye. Megan and Margaret become friends and Margaret tells Megan she is waiting for Michael--Michael being Michael Strange, whom Margaret had a tumultuous love affair with prior to her death. Michael was an arrogant, rich socialite who thought of herself as an artist and disparaged Margaret's success. So when strange things begin to happen in Megan's condo--windows open of their own accord, fans turn on and lights brighten and dim, Megan attributes these events to Michael's ghost.

As Megan struggles to find peace in her new role as a mother and simultaneously understand what Michael wants from her and Clara, the tensions just builds and builds. This novel is a haunting look into postpartum life, the relationship between a mother and her child (and a child to her mother) and the legacy we leave behind.

*Please note I am quoting from uncorrected advanced review copy and changes may be made prior to publication.

I was very excited for this book, but I think my expectations were misplaced. The concept is appealing - the ghosts of Margaret Wise Brown and her lover working through unresolved issues via a new mom sounds really intriguing. However, the plot fell flat for me. I believe that readers can react to books differently at distinct parts of their lives. For me, I felt no connection to the protagonist, who struggled with her newly minted motherhood.

I am certain this will find an audience and become beloved. It just was not for me.

As an exploration of Margaret Wise Brown and her lover, Michael Strange, this book is a great success. For those who've never heard of Strange, which is probably most of us, this novel is a wholly intriguing introduction. As a look at one way postpartum depression can affect a new mother, this book is also very wonderfully done. Fine does not shy away from tackling the ugliness of a difficult subject. As a story, it's a bit hit and miss. There are times when the narrative really pulls the reader along, but there are other times when the story gets lost in the mess of what's real and what's imagined. Overall, The Upstairs House is a great novel that provides a much needed review of a beloved children's author (and her lover).

Megan is in the middle of her PhD when she takes maternity leave for the birth of her first child. As she struggles with postpartum depression her half written dissertation comes to the life in the form of a ghost upstairs. The ghost is none other than famed Children’s Book author Margaret Wise Brown. While Megan’s husband travels for work she is left to balance new motherhood, guilt about her unfinished thesis, and the supernatural haunting of Brown and her former lover Michael Strange. As Megan works to make sense of her life and motherhood she mulls over her dissertation; contemplating language development, modernist literature and how Margaret Wise Brown fit into the landscape of children’s literature.

I loved the way the text mixes Megan’s present day with historical flashbacks to Margaret Wise Brown’s life that read like a biography. This book is perfect for those who enjoy character driven, introspective books. The book mixes mystery, horror & fantasy and touches on themes of motherhood, mental health & social isolation.