Wow. A stunning debut. This is a book that may (literally) haunt me forever. I read a lot of thrillers and horror. But this book genuinely SCARED me. Something about how the author set the atmosphere was so haunting and gave me goosebumps. I enjoyed every moment of this read, and I only didn’t finish it in one sitting because I was too scared to read it at night!! This would be such a great book to add to your shelf in anticipation of spooky season!

Thanks to NetGalley, the publisher and author for this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Good thriller and a nice debut novel by Lisa Matlin. I look forward to reading more from this author. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the advance copy.

A solid debut that gave me the chills and had me looking over my shoulder all night. A haunted house/unreliable narrator combo made this a quick, intriguing read. I look forward to reading more from this author!

A social media influencer with a dark past buys a "murder house" to fix up with her husband. But neither of them are who they claim to be. As Sarah starts to unravel and her house begins haunting her, her paranoia really gets the best of her. Who is sending her threatening letters? Why does she keep losing track of days?

Thanks to NetGalley and Random House Ballantine for the ARC.

I wanted to love this book, and I really thought I would. A thriller with a spooky-house premise is literally right in the center of my wheelhouse. However. This one didn't do it for me. Right out of the gate I was jarred by the opening chapter, which was from the main character's blog. So the bad internet writing in the beginning kind of put me off and at first I was worried the whole book would be like that (luckily it wasn't). And I never did resonate with the main character, or her husband. Every element of the story, including the hostile neighbors, the house flipping idea, just seemed overly contrived,

I still kind of enjoyed the story and I like the idea behind it, it is after all, the exact type of story I like to read. I was kept guessing so I have to hand it to the author for that. I just wish I could have connected with the characters a bit more.

I enjoyed this one. It is apparent that the author is in the early stages of developing her talent but definitely shows promise. The story was entertaining but at times jumped around and lacked depth.

It was well researched, had a satisfying conclusion, and was a great summer read. I look forward to future books from Lisa.

3.5 Stars

This was a great book for debut horror thriller. It did great job pulling me in and having me curious what was going on. I loved the premise of an influencer buying a fixer upper Murder house,

The things this did really well was the pace and twists. There are twists revealed, big and small through out the book. The author also does a great job with setting the scene and overall uneasiness.

However I found Sarah's character to be just grating and annoying me thru the book. It was really hard to care what happened to her since she just had no redeeming qualities. I also don't understand the whole point of having Joe in this story other than being a plot device. There were also a handful of items just left unanswered making the ending feeling incomplete.

I do look forward to seeing what else Lisa Matlin creates as this was a solid debut start.

Thank you to NetGalley, Random House, and Bantam for this advance reader copy. My review is voluntarily my own.

3.5 stars* I enjoyed this horror book overall, and the author did a great job for a debut novel! The premise and cover of this book pulled me in. An Instagram influencer buying a murder house to fix it up? Count me in.

Although, I guess what’s keeping me back from giving this a 4 is that the story didn’t go quite where I was expecting. The beginning really hooked me, then the story lost me in the second half, and then the last 15% or so had me really invested again. I liked the newspaper clippings/blog posts in this book, although at times I got confused on the timelines of them. Some newspaper clippings are “published” after certain things happen, but in the timeline in which you’re following Sarah, those things haven’t happened yet. That made me kind of confused and it took me a while to realize that. You don’t get the date in Sarah’s timeline throughout the book save for a brief mention of the month in the beginning of the story (which I had forgotten while I was reading).

This story was also more in the main character’s head than I was expecting. You follow Sarah as she descends into madness, and wonder if the cause is because the house is haunted, if it’s someone in the small town messing with her, or if she’s just paranoid. I liked that but wanted more about the house’s history, especially in the second half. I feel like if you liked the female main character losing her sanity in All’s Well by Mona Awad, you’ll like this (I also gave that 3.5 stars). Sarah also reminded me of Gillian Flynn’s morally gray female protagonists, which I enjoyed. The FMC was messy but also kind of relatable at times? I wanted to root for her, while she was still an unlikable character. I think the author did a great job with this main character, I just personally wanted a bit more things happening.

With NO spoilers, I will say that there were a couple of reveals in the story (even though I would not classify this as a thriller). I did semi-guess one of them, and was surprised by a couple other things in the story. One thing was mentioned only to be “solved” too quickly, so I would have liked a bit more clues/build up to that reveal.

I read this very quickly and enjoyed this overall. I would read from this author again!
Read this if you like…
🤔Being inside the main character’s head
🏘️Small town settings where everyone knows everyone
😶‍🌫️Morally gray/unlikeable female MCs
🌀Descents into madness
🏚️Potentially haunted houses

Thank you so much to Bantam, Lisa Matlin, and Netgalley for the ARC! The Stranger Upstairs comes out on September 12, 2023.

This book is by far my most favorite thriller! The storyline captured my attention for the very first page and I was invested in each character, the home and its secrets until the very last page. This was creatively written, especially the blog posts and diary entries of the main character; watching as an outwardly put together therapist unravels was quite the read!

An atmospheric, gothic thriller, told by an unreliable narrator. Lisa Matlin's character development is compelling, especially that of the house itself. The story pulls the reader forward with the constant need to know. Loved it.

Thank you to #NetGalley for the ARC of #TheStrangerUpstairs

“The Stranger Upstairs,” a debut novel by author Lisa M. Matlin gave me Riley Sager and Grady Hendrix vibes (in a good way) early on. It is the story of a woman who buys a murder house along with her reluctant husband in the hopes of using the planned renovation to monetize her social media accounts and blog once more.

Sarah Slade is clearly an unreliable narrator, which makes the story all the more interesting. Her marriage is failing, her therapy business is far from thriving, and she is struggling to write a follow-up to her bestselling self-help book. The Black Wood House, where a man murdered his wife and attempted to kill his teenager daughter decades before, takes on a life of its own as soon as Sarah moves in. The house is as much a main character in the story as Sarah herself, and the story is spooky without using a lot of the horror tropes so often seen in writing by new authors hoping to break into the genre.

There is just the right amount of mystery, dread, and suspense built throughout the story to make you care what is happening, who (or what) is behind all of the strange things occurring in this wealthy Australian suburb, and how it will all turn out. The flashes forward in time to blog posts and news stories added to the desire to figure out what was going on, rather than detracting from the story by giving too much away up front to keep readers interested.

I read all of “The Stranger Upstairs” in one day, and am excited to see what Lisa M. Matlin comes up with next. If you are a fan of horror, mystery, and suspense, I highly recommend you grab a copy of this one when it is released in September!

This book had such potential: I love a haunted house and I really love a messed up protagonist. The Stranger Upstairs has both in spades, but something was missing. I wasn't scared of the house, and I thought the character of Sarah Slade was despicable.

eARC provided by NetGalley in return for an honest review.

Black Wood House is trying to kill Sarah Slade. From the moment the best-selling self-help author and therapist moves into the house with her husband things aren’t right. True, she bought an infamous murder house in the middle of nowhere where Bill Campbell murdered his wife Susan and attempted to do the same to his daughter, but that’s not why Sarah is uneasy. Someone is watching her, leaving her notes, breaking into the house at night. There are strange noises coming from the attic and someone is poisoning her beloved cat Reaper. As her husband Joe pulls farther and farther away from both her and the house, Sarah wonders just how much danger she’s in, especially after she discovers there was another resident of Black Wood House before her, one that looked eerily similar, and one who disappeared without a trace. Is Sarah Slade next?

This was a quick, enjoyable read, right up my alley with a creepy house that serves as its own character in the book. Being in the middle of renovating a creepy old house myself, I quite enjoy reading about houses with an evil streak. Matlin did a great job weaving in the mystery of Sarah’s sister and how her relationship with Joe started, giving context to how it slowly ends and the twist in the ending, while easy to predict, fit well into the story and made for an enjoyable ending.

Thank you to NetGally and Random House Publishing- Ballantine for the ARC of Lisa Matlin's novel!

The Stranger Upstairs follows social media influencer and therapist Sarah Slade as she moves into an infamous "murder house" hoping to document the renovations. However, things don't go quite as she planned as things in her house, and life, start to fall apart.

I had been hearing great things about this book and was so excited to get my hands on it early-- I absolutely loved this page turner! I did not know where the end was heading and I found myself wanting to devour each page!

There were a couple things in the ending I would have liked wrapped up a bit more, but overall, this book kept me HOOKED and I cannot wait to read more from this author.

I think fans of "Home Before Dark" by Riley Sager will love this book, too!

First a big thank you too NetGalley and Author Lisa M. Matlin for providing me with an ARC of this book. I'm giving The Stranger Upstairs a 3.5 Stars. It had a great premise, and i am a sucker for a spooky haunted house type story. From the very beginning you could tell that Sarah's inner monologue was not quite the truth, and that she could be the classic unreliable narrator. I thought it was interesting that the author didnt choose to focus the mystery so much on the original death of the family in the home but kept it up too date. For a stronger retuning i would think the author could add more POV from a different charcter so the reader could better orient themselves in the story. But that's why i read and they write! thanks again for the ARC!

The Black Wood House was the site of a grisly murder-suicide years ago. So why on earth would anyone want to purchase the run-down house with a notorious history?

Social media, why else? Sarah Slade knows that the home purchase and renovations would make excellent content for her lifestyle blog and social media presence—all while masking the actual state of her marriage.

But what about that unsettling feeling Sarah gets while in the house? What actually happened there? And why do none of her neighbors seem to want to answer her questions?

This is a book that is meant to be savored, as much as it can since the reader cannot help but keep turning the page. Matlin creates an atmosphere where the reader feels like the answers they seek are just at the edge of their fingertips. And when I finally finished the book, I had a satisfied smirk on my face at that denouement and the journey I just went on.

What happens when a murder house and a social media star have a meet cute?

“If there’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s that we have no clue what horror is coming for us.”

The Stranger Upstairs is a chilling and fast-paced atmospheric debut with moments full of tension, anxiety, and fear. Leave all the lights on and put a bell on every household member. Lisa Matlin is deft in constructing suspense and twists that subvert the readers' expectations until the last page.

Special Thanks to Netgalley for this arc in exchange for an honest review

Wow! What a fabulous debut novel! Lisa Matlin is one to watch for sure. This was deliciously dark and twisted and I loved it. Amazing characters that just were alive throughout the book. this one hooked me right away and didn’t let go until the last page. Fantastic psychological thriller.
Thank you to Lisa M Matlin, NetGalley and Kathleen at Random House Publishing Group for the opportunity to read and review this book

The Stranger Upstairs is the debut thriller novel by Lisa M. Matlin that follows Sarah, an influencer and therapist who has recently bought a house that has been empty for forty years after a grisly murder took place inside it. With the intent of documenting fixing the house up and slipping it, Sarah soon learns that the house itself may be a danger to her.

The basic premise of the thriller sounds pretty standard and I have been burned by picking up debut thrillers in the past so I went into this book with sort of “meh” expectations and this book really surprised me! The characterization of Sarah was kind of a twist of what I’m used to seeing from a woman in a thriller and it made her all the more interesting to follow. The house feels like a presence as well because you don’t truly know what is going on. Is it cursed? Is it haunted? Is it just a house with a creepy history?

The last quarter or so of this book kind of felt like a little too much to me. It started to reach a point where it passed creepy and went into the silly territory as it piled more and more stuff up without really explaining why.

I can’t give this a full five star because of my issues with the ending but this was a strong four star thriller for me which doesn’t happen a lot. I will definitely be following this author to see what she comes out with next because I think her subtle character work is a talent that I don’t see often in thriller books. I can see this being a book a lot of people love!

This thriller was decent, but not a standout. I thought the premise was intriguing – influencer buys a house where a murder occurred, in order to document renovations etc. online – but the execution fell a little flat in places.

The best parts were the sections told in "found documents" (newspaper articles, blog posts, etc), but the characters were mostly unsympathetic, and the twists were relatively easy to see coming. (I actually think if this had been completely comprised of found documents, it would have made for a more engaging and interesting story!) I wanted to be a little more surprised, and a little more creeped out ... but not a bad read overall, and I certainly didn't want to put it down while I was reading! If you like the horror of "house that hates you" and don't mind unsympathetic characters, I'd say it's worth a read.

Thanks so much to Bantam and Netgalley for the ARC!

This is a twisty, toxic thriller. The main character isn't likeable, but she is compelling. And her interactions with social media are very realistic. The other character (the murder house) is definitely not likeable, but I was SO curious to see what was happening.

Lisa Matlin did a great job in her debut novel, and I'll be looking for more.