Great premise, well written and engaging, but I found it implausible with too many loose ends left unattended. I also didn’t find the ‘haunted house’ element I was looking forward to when I began this.

I will read more by this author but this one wasn’t for me.

I loved how colorful this book was. It brought in lots of elements of a great tale but fell flat with the ending for me. I loved the writing style and the first half of the book but I got a little lost in the plot towards the ending.

The cover of this book is absolutely beautiful, and it is what grabbed my attention. After reading the synopsis I knew I had to request this book and I was not disappointed. Lisa Matlin is a debut author, but you would never know that from this book. It is written so well!!! Once I started this book, there was no way I was putting it down until I was finished reading. It is a mix between haunted houses and psychological thrillers, and they are interwoven so well, it just works!! I will buy a copy in September as a birthday gift to myself and I would highly recommend this book to anyone who loves thrillers. Thanks, NetGalley for the digital ARC.

This book is more of a thriller with a lot of twists & turns! It got a little monotonous in the middle & I found it strange that the husband just disappeared at the beginning of the book. I would recommend it for someone who likes these kinds of books. For myself, I had a hard time staying with it & a lot didn’t make sense.

This reviewer has always had a soft spot for haunted house books and movies, so when I was offered an advance copy of debut novel The Stranger Upstairs, I gladly accepted. Author Lisa M Matlin has an amazing voice that allows readers to know and understand her protagonist Sarah Slade on the deepest levels. That strong voice kept me turning the pages and empathizing with Sarah as she slid into madness inside her "murder house." Over and over, I wanted to save her. Of course, as a reader, my role is to observe and follow the storyline. And Sarah is not easy to like, but impossible to ignore. She's one of the most unique characters I've ever read, and I rooted for her on every page. A highly recommended read.

Many thanks to Penguin Random House and NetGalley for offering an advance copy of the book. This review will appear on Bayside Book Reviews at https://baysidebookreviews.com and its Instagram page on release day. Follow us! *NetGalley Top Reviewer*

WOW! I can’t say enough good things about Lisa M Matlin’s debut novel! It has it all… a mystery within a mystery… horror …. Psychological thriller…. I haven’t read a book in 24 hours in a while until this book. Definitely recommend and can’t wait to see what else Lisa cooks up with future stories.

I am a sucker for books that feature a social media influencer as the main character. This book is full of secrets, twist, and turns. You will be questioning everything. The cover is so beautiful. I could not put this book down. It will definitely be perfect for spooky season.

Sarah, a social media influencer and her bartender husband buy a spooky murder house to renovate.

Sarah starts noticing strange things happening. She’s hearing footsteps up in the attic, someone is leaving her notes about things only she would know about. She quickly becomes a psychological disaster. As her pathological fears grow they bring out redundant flashbacks and secrets from her past.

The heart pounding sinister vibes had me spooked and curious to figure out the who, what, how’s going on. I do love some creepy gothic and sinister vibes that this amazing book provides.

Thank you so much Bantam via Netgalley for the ARC!

Sarah Slade is a pop-therapist and social media influencer who has been riding the massive success of her first book. But she finds her sponsors and money running thin, so she and her husband buy a dilapidated house where a murder-suicide occurred forty years ago. But then her therapy practice, marriage, and renovations begin to unravel, causing Sarah herself to begin fraying at the edges. Between the strange house noises and anonymous but threatening notes, Sarah begins to wonder if her life as she knows it might just be over.

This book was more psychological suspense than it was thriller or horror. It had good potential and the author had some interesting ideas that were incorporated into the read. But many of the aspects that would have added to the atmosphere or more horror-like aspects of the work weren’t incorporated particularly well. There are a few things that were mentioned multiple times throughout the work but never really explored or clarified, and they weren’t included in a way that made it possible to intuit their importance. This also detracted from the atmosphere of the work.

I really enjoy unlikeable protagonists that are written well. And while this protagonist was certainly impossible to like, she wasn’t written to be a compelling character. She had so many different negative aspects going on that there was nothing to become invested in or cheer for, though it did make her interesting to watch. Some of it felt over-the-top in a way that detracted from the character, making her feel more like a combination of characteristics rather than a real person. The secondary characters were okay but really felt like they only existed to support the protagonist rather than as real people.

Despite the issues above, this read was interesting overall. I was invested in wanting to know the protagonist’s secret and how it affected her relationship with her husband; I was intrigued by the house and its past; and despite being dissatisfied with the protagonist, I did enjoy watching her unravel. It was a quick and entertaining read, despite not being particularly memorable. My thanks to NetGalley Random House Publishing for allowing me to read this work, which will be published in September 2023. All thoughts and opinions expressed in this review are my own.

I received an ARC of this novel from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Sarah, a best selling author and influencer, buys a house that was the scene of a brutal murder many years before. She and her husband plan to relocate the house and sell it for a profit. The house has dark secrets, and Sarah and her husband do as well.

This book filled me with such uneasiness. I was nervous and unsure of what was happening. I really enjoyed this thriller/horror book. The main character Sarah is an unreliable narrator and what has happened in her past is parceled out over the course of the book.

The Stranger Upstairs by Lisa M Maitlin is a thriller full of suspense and surprises. Sarah Slade purchased an old Victorian house with her husband. But Black Wood House comes with a murder in its history. Since the house was vacant for years after the murder, the price is right to renovate it and then sell for a profit. But Sarah and her husband Joe have a hidden past that they want to keep hidden. The neighbors are not friendly towards them and they have a hard time getting contractors to complete the renovations. Living in the house during renovations causes a lot of stress, especially when Sarah finds threatening notes and her marriage is failing. Clearly something is wrong. Lisa M. Maitlin is an expert at creating suspense and The Stranger Upstairs is an amazing debut novel. I highly recommend this book to readers who love a good mystery. Thank you to NetGalley for an advance digital copy of this book.

Thank you Netgalley for the advanced copy in exchange for a review.
I was so excited to be approved for this read, I dove right in and could not put it down! I absolutely loved this book and can’t wait to read more by this author!

One of the most absolutely entertaining books I have read in ages. I had no idea I would end up reading the whole thing in one go but once I started I could not put it down.

The plotting was perfect and the characterizations were simply excellent. I absolutely loved the ending.

I have my eye on you, Lisa M. Matlin!

Thank you to the publisher for gifting me a copy. It is my pleasure to write an honest review.

What happens when a haunted house meets a pathological mess? That's the question in THE STRANGER UPSTAIRS, where an externally glossy Instagram influencer with a failing marriage and an ugly past buys a house where a notorious double-murder took place. Intending to revive her husband's flagging interest and their flagging bank account by renovating the house and flipping it for a profit, Sarah becomes increasingly convinced something--the unfriendly neighbors, the stalker leaving her ominous notes, maybe the house itself--wants her dead.
I personally would be too creeped out to move into a murder house. I really enjoyed this book from start to end. It moved at a very quick pace.

A relentless page-turner, The Stranger Upstairs doesn't break new ground, but the packages as a whole offers countless deranged thriller fun, making it an excellent binge read material—just remember to leave your thinking hat out of this one.

The female protagonist of The Stranger Upstairs is a chaotic mess, author Lisa Matlin does an excellent job introducing this anti-heroine; the amount of red herrings revealed about her in the first couple chapters have me fully hooked—it is this character's nastiness that brings me majority of the reading dopamine—a train wreck one simply can't look away. If you're looking for twists, The Stranger Upstairs definitely packs them—certain sections give me The Last House on Needless Street vibe (but way less serious and more camp); even though my reaction to the ultimate reveal was an immediate 'WTF' and felt like it was a complete cop-out, the sinister epilogue did salvage the situation quite a bit. I also don't think many of its narrative choices would hold up under scrutiny, so it is definitely one of those 'just live in the moment' type of storytelling.

The absence of expectation plays a critical role in elevating my experience with The Stranger Upstairs, I was pleasantly surprised by the emotionally-raw writing, and the onslaught of visceral moments in this debut novel (the author's notes proves it further—I can see how this was quite a cathartic project for her). The tropes and scenarios are by no means original, and I wouldn't label this as a story with depth, but the thrill is delivered with such a punch, that it remains a great time nevertheless.

The Stranger Upstairs by Lisa M. Matlin. #TheStrangerUpstairs #NetGalley
I received this #arc via NetGalley for an honest review. Thank you to Lisa Matlin and Random House for the read!

Black Wood House has its grip on all those who dare enter and the Strange Upstairs had me hooked from the beginning. The writing is pure genius and the switch from "news and media" to first person narrative, made me feel like Sara, or is it Lizzy...or Amanda?!?

Chapters 7/8 were the ones that gripped me and kept me coming back for more. As an author Lisa M. Matlin understands how to dangle a carrot and keep chasing. There is no 100% sure way to solve this puzzle until the end! I was convinced right along with Sara, about who was "haunting/harming" her and in her head.

Great spook and thriller. Highly recommend to anyone who loves a good thriller. This is definitely Amityville meets Gone Girl! Lots of great twists and layers to unfold!

This was ok but it really didn’t do much for me, it wasn’t really the style of writing I usually read and just wasn’t for me.

~This was given to me by Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

I really liked this book up until the ending. It almost felt rushed towards the end, but I still think it is a book everyone should read. It’s a great thriller and you really start to feel for the main character as her story unfolds.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.
So the summary of this book sounded really interesting and like a good thriller.
The book itself, is quite different. It is bizarre and confusing and a bit of a strange ride. I don’t know how else to describe it.
The main characters, Sara and her husband Joe are not at all likable. I don’t think I cared for any character in the entire book.
A couple times I considered not finishing it but forced myself through it.
This is just a weird one. Others may enjoy it but I just did not.
Too many things going on and a bit too much confusion and lack of explanation to what is going on.