A solid debut novel! The Stranger Upstairs tells a twisted story about lies, betrayal and the secrets we all keep! When social media influencer Sarah buys a house with a famous past she gets more than she bargains for! This kept me on the edge of my seat until the very end and I could not get enough!

Social media influencer and successful author Sarah Slade buys Black Wood House, the site of a murder-suicide forty years before. The house has been closed up ever since. Sarah is hoping to use the renovations as new subject matter for her blog and to possibly heal the rift between her and husband Joe. But as strange things start to happen at the house it only drives a bigger wedge between them. The more time she spends in the house alone, the more she falls into the fear that something in this house doesn't want her here.
This is such a creepy haunted house thriller by a debut author. With the main character as an unreliable narrator, hints of her secret past, and news articles of what happened after, you're never totally sure what exactly is going on until the end. What a way to start spooky season!! I highly recommend this psychological horror thriller.
I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group-Ballantine as well as the author for this ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.
#NetGalley #RandomHousePublishingGroupBallantine #TheStrangerUpstairs #LisaMMatlin

Author: Lisa M. Matlin
Publisher: Random House Publishing Group-Ballantine
Publication Date: September 12, 2023

This is a creepy horror/thriller debut from Lisa M. Matlin. It tells the story of Sarah, who is an influencer and therapist. She and her husband, Joe, have just bought the infamous Blackwood House and she’s excited about renovating and flipping it. Immediately, however, she begins to suspect that all is not as it seems within the house and around the neighborhood. Every neighbor is either hostile or shuns her. The house makes odd noises and Sarah’s cat is acting very odd. Maybe the house doesn’t want to be renovated. We’ll see!
This was a fun book. It’s a twisty thriller with a pretty cover. I really enjoyed the dynamic between Sarah and her neighbors. The author gave out little tidbits along the way in order to keep the reader clambering for more. Each time, the protagonist lost her temper or had a door slammed in her face made me want the twists more and more. Sarah’s multiple plights will have the reader second guessing every turn, especially if one goes into the story knowing as little as possible.
White there’s no denying that this twisty character study is fun and a pleasure to read, there is a little bit of the feeling that I’ve read this same type of plot in a lot of other twisty thrillers. The twist trend right now makes it a bit difficult to be truly surprised. We may not know the specifics of the twist but we can mostly guess what direction it will go in. We’re always looking for the character that has been dead the whole time, so to speak.
This book had a lot of positive things about it. It had great character development, some twists, and a cute cat character. It may have been a tad cookie cutter, but if you enjoyed “Gone Girl” and you’re looking for a fun way to pass an afternoon and you enjoy feeling a bit creeped out and unsettled, then this one's for you.

This was an enjoyable ride. I partially guessed the twist but I had such a good time with the author's writing style that I still had fun figuring out where I was right and wrong.

Thank you NetGalley and Bantam for the advance copy.

3.5 stars

A spooky and tense read. I don't think a book has ever made me feel so uncomfortable.

I liked the mystery element, but I do think the mentally ill mc trope is a little overdone in thrillers. I also feel like this book tied up the ending pretty quickly, leaving a lot of plot holes.

This book just wasn't for me.

I really enjoyed this book. The book was a good mix of horror, psychological thriller, and creepy. I kept wanting to pick this book up to read, life gets in the way sometimes of that. I always wanted to know what was going to happen next and that ending, wow.

Thank you NetGalley for this advanced copy of The Stranger Upstairs by Lisa M. Matlin. A social media influencer buys a murder house to renovate then flip and all doesn't well . This was super creepy. I literally wouldn’t read this at night.

I really gave this one a shot but had to DNF at 50%. The main character, Sarah, was so beyond insufferable that I just couldn't keep reading. The storyline was mediocre and not strong enough to make up for how awful the MC was.

Sarah Slade, a therapist and blogger has the opportunity of a lifetime. She and her husband are able to buy Black Wood, a huge house in a great town. It needs a lot of work and someone was murdered there, so the price is right. Sarah has big plans. Her and her husband will live there and renovate it, while she blogs about the daily events which she hopes will earn her sponsors and money to continue the renovations and offset costs. However, strange things begin to happen right away. It's like the house doesn't want her there. The townspeople certainly don't. And, is Sarah really who we think she is?
This was just an okay book for me.

Marked as DNF @ 10% on 9/25/23 | Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the digital review copy! This did not affect my reading experience or review in any way.

Sadly, this was a fairly quick DNF for me and I was so excited to read this. WOW, the main character was so annoying! We get it, she's a bad person. Maybe it would have been less annoying if the book was in third person, so we got some other input besides being inside her head? It would have maybe made it a little more mysterious and a little less blunt/in-your-face. She kept talking about what a bad person she was, being obnoxious, etc. It was just way overkill and I couldn't listen to this whole book from her POV.

Thankfully, my sister read this one first and gave me all the details 😆 I'm happy I skipped most of this, sad I missed one juicy part. I would have been upset about the way that it ended so I'm glad this one was a DNF. I would have been livid by the end if I kept reading... Mostly, the writing style wasn't for me. If I hadn't been so turned off by the writing and the MC, I would have kept reading and it likely wouldn't have been so bad, but starting off that poorly is a sure way for me to hate the whole thing.

Time of death: 44% - I had to DNF this one, unfortunately. Sometimes it be like that. 💀

The characters in this story are SO MESSY. If you like unlikable MCs then this is the book to read. I was appalled and fascinated with Sarah, who is a a complete narcissist. She works as a marriage therapist, whose own marriage is on the rocks, and who has some dark ways of making herself feel better about it all.

She and her husband purchase a home together in an effort to start fresh and repair their broken marriage. They buy a "murder house" where a husband killed his wife because why not? It's cheaper this way, they think, and after they fix it up and sell it they will have made a profit.

It's clear the couple have secrets, but the book doesn't reveal them all at once. The mystery element of this was fun at first but eventually became redundant. I think it was written purely for entertainment purposes as it lacks the finesse of writing that I enjoy in deeper literary works. But if you're looking for a quick easy read that doesn't go in hard on the prose, then this may be a good thriller for you.

The Stranger Upstairs, set in Australia, is one of those thrillers with an unreliable narrator. At the beginning of the book, Sarah seems totally together, and her picture perfect life unravels as you learn more. She and her husband Joe have bought a "murder house" as a fixer-upper, and living in it while they fix up the house and their marriage. But it seems the house does not want to be fixed - or is it the neighbors causing trouble for Sarah? This was a fast read, not anything new, but entertaining.

This was such a good horror/thriller. I enjoyed the atmosphere, and descriptions of Blackwood House. I really did picture this as a movie the whole time.
Sarah is a Psychologist and social media influencer. In order to boost her following she decides to buy " The Murder House". 40 years ago a husband murdered his wife, tried to murder his daughter, and killed himself. Sarah believes if she renovates the house, and blogs it, that this will boost her numbers. Things are never this easy. Now her husband is never home, spooky noises and occurrences are happening, and she is alone.
This is a read on one sitting, glued to the page read. I cannot wait to see what this author does next.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced copy of the book in exchange for a honest review.

2 1/2 stars rounded up for this debut novel. I actually did enjoy the first part of the book but for some reason the last part/ending left me confused and I don't think I understood the ending. There are a lot of great reviews so somehow I think maybe I overlooked something in the book that caused my confusion. This book has a gorgeous cover - the design is just perfect. I do think this author does have great potential.

In this debut novel by Lisa M. Matlin, Sarah Slade buys a murder house where a murder/suicide happened and plans to renovate it to boost her lifestyle blog reach but things do not go as planned. She hears footsteps coming from the attic at night and there are still blood stains on the floor from the house's horrible past. The builders start acting odd and accident keep happening. She thought this would be a way to get her life back on track but everything is happening the opposite of what she envisioned. Wonderful debut novel! Can't wait to see more from Matlin.

This was a psychological thriller that I did not expect to have me mind blown. At the beginning of the story I thought I knew exactly what was going to happen but boy was I wrong. Thinking this was going to be a typical murder mystery with the whole town in on this big conspiracy to find out it is all in the characters head (supposedly) Very interesting storyline. The last chapter was kind of disappointing for me and I would have liked it more if it ended another way but I still enjoyed the book as a whole. I'm left after the epilogue thinking what is up with that house??!!

I have no idea how I heard of this book, but I requested the ARC from NetGalley and received it. It was scarier than I normally like, but it was good! I enjoyed the twists and turns, and at one point was alone in the house with all of the lights on because I was pretty freaked out! 😳 But I wanted to finish it, so I powered through! 😆

Sarah Slade is a social media influencer who is starting over. So she buys Black Wood House, the scene of a violent murder many years ago, with plans to renovate it with her husband and resell it. But Black Wood House has other plans. The workers start having strangely and having accidents, Sarah receives notes that only someone who really knows her would send, and the neighbors want nothing to do with her.

Then she starts to hear footsteps in the attic and believes someone, or something, is trying to kill her. She does not know who or what it is, but she trusts no one. Not her husband, her co-workers, or her neighbors. As Sarah's life falls apart her secrets start to be exposed and she wonders if any of this is worth it.

Thank you to NetGalley for my ARC!
I didn’t love it, but I didn’t hate it.
The FMC was too whiny and bratty for me to like.
I did think that it was a little over the top with all the allusive EVERYTHING, but it kept me guessing for sure.
Overall, a decent story that I would recommend to friends.

If your neighbor shares the following, "be careful, they're watching" I'd be nervous about my new home purchase.

This cover screams, READ ME! The Stranger Upstairs has a lot of build-up, then stumbles at the end. Bits of this story were confusing, and its plot moved so slow. If you enjoy a thriller with incredibly unlikable characters, this book is for you.

Thank you Random House for the complimentary copy.

Thanks to netgalley for this ARC. What a great book to read during spooky season! The main character has a lot of flaws but makes her very relatable. I loved how much personality is given to this house and the grumpy cat, Reaper, as well. A great debut book by the author. I also really appreciated the author's note and her opening up about her personal struggles.