This was weird and eerie and thrilling. I loved the storytelling and was immediately captivated. This was a great debut novel.

Mystery thriller or horror story? Lisa Matlin’s incredibly pulse-pounding terrific debut novel keeps us guessing.

As the true former owner of a supposedly haunted Victorian in old Salt Lake City (polygamist house,built in 1878, wife number 3 supposedly lost all her hair in a fire and appeared bedside to the guy we bought it from), my real life advice would be: don’t advertise any of that nonsense to buyers. Yet, we have a social influencer who hasn’t read the latest Grady Hendrix book, and is buying a murder house in Australia just *because* of the notoriety (apparently worth some clicks), purportedly at a great discount, and an opportunity to make a great profit after the flip. This is either going to be a semi-normal thriller or a supernatural horror story. And therein lies the suspense.

Sarah Slade, the purchaser of Black Wood House, is a self-help author (“Clear, Calm, and In Control'', but her website is ominously named SarahSlays.com). She’s well aware that 40+ years ago Bill Campbell successfully bludgeoned his wife and tried to do the same to the teenage daughter with a hammer. He then took the coward’s way out and overdosed on tranquilizers. Sarah’s husband Jack, very social media shy, does give a rare public comment that the place gives him “the creeps”. The couple is actually estranged, but that’s unknown to the Insta-audience. They stay together because, well… shared secrets. Contractors are no-shows and neighbors claim “there’s something in the attic” and their cat agrees. The quaint town of Beacon seems filled with people who hate the house and have unreasonably transferred their hatred to the new owners. Sarah and Joe are flawed characters, but they don’t deserve to suffer more at the hands of unexplained occurrences in an old creaky house or a nasty group of NextDoor app type crazies.

I loved the tension that the author built up. She even made kangaroos seem like menacing beasts of the night. This was one of those one-sitting reads (not sure if I could have slept after 60%). Congratulations to Ms. Matlin! 5 stars! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Thank you to Random House Publishing/ Ballantine Bantam and NetGalley for a free advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review!

Literary Pet Peeve Checklist:
Green Eyes (only 2% of the real world, yet it seems like 90% of all fictional females): YES The sister has eyes the color of olives and the guy with the mullet and Southern Cross tattoo, Darren, also has green eyes.
Horticultural Faux Pas (plants out of season or growing zones, like daffodils in autumn or bougainvillea in Alaska): NO The house is called Black Wood House and seems to be surrounded by Australian blackwood trees (Acacia melanoxylon), which the cover artist didn’t realize they don’t have magenta blooms (they’re pale yellow), but that’s still a terrific cover. Otherwise, the author really knows her local trees.

Thank you, thank you to @penguinrandomhouse and @netgalley for this early copy of The Stranger Upstairs by Lisa M. Matlin. It will be out September 26, 2023.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
This was one I devoured in a day! My husband laughed at me, knowing I wouldn't sleep until I finished it.

This psychological thriller will keep you on your toes. I had to see how it ended.

Sarah Slade is a social media star with a successful blog. She is also a therapist. She decides to buy a house and fix it up, all while posting the improvements on social media. The house that she buys with her husband, Joe has been vacant for 40 years. No one has lived there since local husband Bill Campbell murdered his wife, tried to kill his daughter and killed himself, all in the house. Some say it's haunted, and neighbors want it bulldozed down.
Sarah sees this all as a challenge, she fixes things. It's what she does! When notes start appearing that are threatening in tone, her construction crew behaves strangely, her cat acts super upset and she sees footsteps in the dust of the attic, she is sure someone is trying to kill her. It seems the more that she tries to change things in the house, the crazier it gets.
I LOVED the ending and it had some doozy twists.
I highly recommend it. Grab it in September!
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This was a captivating read! I was immediately pulled into the tense storyline and couldn't put the book down until I read it cover to cover.

The author does an excellent jobs of keeping you on the edge of your seat. I loved the dark, gritty, mysterious vibe that the Infamous Blackwood House gave off.

This was easily one of my top Psychological Thriller reads of 2023 so far. I can't wait to buy a physical copy when it's released!!

Thank you Lisa Matlin, Netgalley and RHPG Ballantine, Bantam for providing me with an ARC of this book!