Oh my goodness! Someone in the Attic was such a good whodunit. Julia was the star of the book and she had three friends: Eleanor, Anya, and Donna. Julia had lived in San Diego, but moved to Dublin along with her ex-husband, Gabe, because of an altercation between her daughter, Isla, and a friend of hers. They live in a gated community with neighbors Shirin and Tony, and Drew. Another alleged neighbor was Alastair. The whole problem is that Isla keeps seeing Tik Tok videos of their home. Anya has been killed and there's a Tic Tok video of her home as well. The feeling is that there's someone in their attic who has been taking the videos. Julia has taken it upon herself to figure out who's responsible.

Present day, it was alleged that Anya drowned in her bathtub on her own. But she was actually killed. Many years ago, when the friends were in university, they went to a party. Of the four, Donna was very shy and didn't like to party. But she had a crush on Gabe and when she found out he was going to be attending the party she agreed to go along. She drank too much and went upstairs to the bathroom to vomit. The other three decided they wanted to leave and when they couldn't find her, Anya told Julia that she had seen Donna leave in a taxi, which, of course, wasn't true. Later on Anya recanted and said that she never said Donna left in a taxi, which was a lie. L
Actually, when Donna left the bathroom she went downstairs looking for her friends and couldn't find them. So she called her brother Andrew and asked him to pick her up. Andrew told her there was a bad connection on the phone, that he couldn't hear her. So Donna went to the roof to get better reception. But her brother had hung up. Gabe had given her his number and she took it out of her pocket to phone him for a ride. But when she took it out the wind blew it away and when she reached out to try to grab it she fell off the roof. Julia and Eleanor always believed it was their fault that she fell. As it turned out, her brother feigned an inability to hear her because he didn't want to leave the house to pick her up.

Anyway, back to the attic. Julia didn't believe anyone was in the attic and she went up there to check it out. She found no one. All she found was an earbud. Her son, Luca, swore there was someone in the attic. He said that he could see eyes looking at him through the grate near the ceiling. He also said that in the middle of the night he can feel someone in his room and he could also feel that person breathing on him. Unfortunately, Julia and Gabe didn't believe him. But they did know that someone had been in their home videotaping them. Because he knew so much about her, Julia believes that person was Alastair. And then she thinks it's Donna's brother Andrew. She thinks it's him because she thinks he held friend's Donna's friends responsible for her death. They have a neighbor named Drew and at first she thinks this particular person is Donna's brother, but learns later that wasn't the case.

Because he has professed to be a tech specialist, she had Alastair track Andrew down. And he finds him. At this point, Julia has Eleanor, Drew, and Alastair working on the video issue. So the four of them pay Andrew a visit. It doesn't take long for them to realize it wasn't him making the videos because his leg had been in a cast for over a month.

So on and on it went. I thought the author did a splendid job weaving this tale. At first it seemed apparent who the culprit was, but then it wasn't apparent. At one point Julia thought it might have been Shirin's husband Tony because he had put a camera in their house to spy on his wife's cheating on him with Hugo, the man who had lived in the house before Julia. But then Shirin kicked him out of the house for cheating on her, and Tony disappeared and the videos continued to appear.

The characters were very believable and well defined, and the storyline was well crafted. All in all, this was a book that I very much enjoyed. I could read it again and enjoy it every bit as much. I gave it five stars.

I enjoyed this and the writing style, and the story was compelling. I am very interested in reading this author’s future work and this was a very solid thriller. Would definitely recommend to others.

This one was a bummer for me. It started off so strong and creepy with the whole person in the attic and the tik tok videos showing a view of inside your house. But then it went a bit off the rails for me - I didn't love any of the characters and I figured out the "who dunnit" pretty early on so it started strong but then fell flat for me.

First off let me just say this is a great book, I enjoy a good mystery and this one was a page turner. Every time I thought I had figured something out another twist would come. If you are into mystery and thrills give this book a read.. this was my first book from this author and her name is now on my must read list of authors.

I would like to thank NetGalley and Penguin Group Viking for allowing me to read an ARC of this book.

This is the first book I've read from this author, and was intrigued by the premise of the book. I don't like being home alone, and I really hate attics; they're always creepy. This book certainly did not help my unease and dislike of them.

Someone in the Attic introduces us to Julia and her family -- ex-husband Gabe , who have just moved back from Ireland from San Diego. Julia's friend Anya is found dead. Then Julie sees videos online that were taken inside her home. Is someone targeting her? Julia is beginning to find out that no one is who they seem to be, everyone has secrets, danger can lurk around every corner (or in your own attic). The past always seems to have a way of creeping back to haunt you.

This book gets off to a bang, with the death of Anya, then simmers through the middle until the end. The writing is very edgy and fast-paced. well-developed and relatable while being troubled and secretive. And the plot is unnerving and suspenseful, playing off of fears and suspicions, obsessions, dependence on technology, vengeance, indiscretion, and murder. It is a moody and atmospheric thriller with plenty of twists and turns. You won't be able to put it down!

Anyone who loves a good thriller/whodunnit will enjoy this book, and I definitely recommend it as a read. Just maybe not if you live alone. Or at night. I can usually figure out the ending, but this one got me! So Good!

Oh boy.

I just spent a whole lot of time screaming internally at the main character, but it was all in good fun.

Someone in the Attic is a thriller with a lot of things going for it. It has an intriguing premise: a family starts seeing videos pop up online of a masked figure descending from their attic at night and prowling through their home while they sleep under the hashtag #TheLoft. The hashtag is for a TV show, but are these videos fake?

I enjoyed the twists and turns, and the increasing layers of complexity to the story as it progressed. I would say the story has medium pacing, but keeps tension and suspense up pretty well throughout. The tone is creepy, but honestly I overall just had a lot of fun reading this. I wouldn’t ever say it crossed over into a gory or horrifying kind of tone. It never got too dark.

Now, this is not necessarily a critique of the story, because I don’t need my characters to be likable, but I just have to say: the main character drove me nuts. Her actions and inactions rarely made sense to me. Thus the aforementioned screaming. But she was consistent, and she certainly drove the plot along.

My only critiques of the story itself were that at times I felt like the author was guiding the reader a little heavy-handedly to what she wanted you to be thinking at the time, where I maybe would have preferred her to let everything breathe on its own a bit more. I also think the ending was tied up very neatly, but I can kind of live with that. Honestly, neither of those were deal breakers or that noticeable.

Overall, I had a blast reading this, and I was even giving my husband a play by play with my theories as I was going along. I would definitely recommend it to anyone looking for a quick, creepy read heading into October!

*Thank you to NetGalley and Pamela Dorman Books for the eARC for the purpose of an honest review!*

This was such a disappointment. I had high hopes because it sounded terrifying and sinister and it has some incredibly high praise from other authors that I love. I didn't realize that the plot would be centered around a TikTok trend, and that just really turned me off from the story. I did not like the characters at all. Instead of feeling creepy and ominous, it really just felt silly and ridiculous to me.

The character's lacked dimension. They didn't behave like real people and were pretty boring. I got 10% of the way through the book and decided it wasn't for me.

Very scary thriller. As a woman I have a lot of inherent fears I wasn't even sure that I had until I read this book.
Nobody would be interested in hanging out in my unfinished attic but I still listened to every crack and creak at night expectantly.

A woman in her bathtub enjoying a glass of wine doesn't seem nefarious. Until she has another and gets a bit drowsy. Then someone comes out of her attic and murders her.
Julia, a friend of this woman, is returning to Ireland after an incident with her daughter. Is she next on the list? Does it have to do with their shared childhood? When strange TikTok videos depicting her house show up in her daughters stream, everyone gets worried. Because one thing is for sure, there is someone in the attic.

Loved it.

Yeah, OK, this creeped me out. The calls—I mean the videos—are coming from inside the house. (If your kid says there’s someone in the attic, maybe listen to him.)

Ya know .... I didn't love this. The premise is good - there's someone in your Attic that you can't catch... but there's videos of inside your house being uploaded on tiktok. Mmkay, I'd cry.

But this book was so repetitive. And maybe it's just my adhd, but damn if there weren't too many names to remember.

Also, who just up and moves to another country when something goes wrong?

Whatever, this wasn't what it could be. But it wasn't the worst.

This book immediately drew me in and I binged it in one sitting because I had to know what was going on! Thankfully, I listened to it during the day because this one would have definitely had me checking locks multiple times throughout the night. Books focused on events that could actually happen tend to freak me out more than anything and this is one of them! The narrator did a superb job with setting the tone and kept me invested in who could be behind the creepy occurrences!

There are so many twists and I had my eyes on a few people as the culprit but, of course, I was wrong the whole time! There are quite a few characters to keep track of but the author did a great job making it easy to understand their relationships to one another.

While in the bathtub, Anya hears a noise in the ceiling. Moments later, a masked figure drops from her attic door and Anya winds up dead. Across town, Anya’s friend Julia comes across a video online of a masked man dropping from an attic hatch. She soon realizes this video was made in her own house. Who is the masked figure and what do they want with Julia?

I absolutely devoured this book! From the first chapter, I was hooked—the story starts with a BANG, and my jaw was on the floor within minutes. It was creepy, disconcerting, and full of suspense that kept me on the edge of my seat. The premise is unique and downright chilling. The idea of a masked figure sneaking into someone’s home through the attic while filming it for the world to see is enough to send shivers down anyone’s spine. But the twist? The footage that Julia stumbles upon is from her own house.

This was a gripping and thrilling read that kept me guessing the whole way through. The opening scene was absolutely wild and completely unexpected, setting the perfect tone for what was to come. It’s a calculated revenge story that leaves you constantly questioning who the “someone” could be right up until the very end. The plot feels unsettlingly real, making you believe this type of online trend could actually happen.

The characters are complex, and many will have you second-guessing their true motives, adding to the tension and mystery. I especially loved Julia, whose fear and confusion are palpable as she unravels the mystery. However, the chapters from Julia’s son’s perspective felt like filler and slowed down the pacing a bit. My only real gripe is the ending—it was pretty anticlimactic. After all the tension and build-up, the final resolution felt a little anticlimactic. I was hoping for something with a bit more impact, especially given how intense the rest of the story was.

This is a fantastic read for anyone who loves suspense and psychological thrillers. The focus is more on characters and the slow unraveling of secrets rather than gore, which I appreciated.

For the first 30% of the book I was bored, not gonna lie. The story gets right into the action from the jump, but hits the brakes just as quickly. Seriously, super interesting idea but there were way too many side stories that were obvious red herrings, but not really in a good way. I was more annoyed with them all than intrigued. I’ll give it to the author, though for bamboozling me on the whodunit. Thought I had it, but she got me!

Thank you to Viking and PRH Audio for the review copies! I’ve always enjoyed a good creepy house theme, and Mara's Someone in the Attic is a solid addition to that trope. The audiobook, with its excellent production and strong voice acting, made this story especially engaging—I found myself truly immersed in the audio experience.

The book opens with a genuinely unsettling scene that sets the tone for a suspenseful story filled with well-timed reveals. Mara’s clever use of TikTok videos adds a modern twist, amplifying the "unsettled" vibe that runs throughout the narrative. The main character’s sense of distrust and suspicion enhances the atmosphere, building a suspenseful tension that lingers long after you finish reading.

While I did feel the ending was a bit rushed—a common feeling I have with suspense novels—the quick succession of reveals worked well in keeping both the reader and the character on their toes. Overall, Someone in the Attic is a haunting, atmospheric read that fans of the genre will appreciate.

This one was okay, I did a combo of print/audio. I was pretty engrossed in this, but ultimately I felt the "whodunit"/culprit of it all was weak. Maybe I'm twisted but I wanted it to be more sinister. I definitely was kept in the dark the whole time, and didn't figure out the ending. A solid 3.5 overall.

The beginning of this book freaked me out. The idea of someone hiding in your attic is absolutely horrifying. I really enjoyed the creep factor of this book. I will say the fact she wasn’t believing her son the entire time was extremely frustrating to read. I also knew who the intruder was pretty early on. I still really enjoyed the characters and the pace of this one. If you love a binge able thriller I would highly recommend Someone in the Attic.
3/5 Stars

Thank you so much to Netgalley and the publisher for an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

This book was chilling. Very similar in style to other thrillers but felt set apart based on the fear factor involved. The author did a nice job of keeping the reader hooked every chapter, the premise alone was enough to get me to read the book and it was hard to put down.

Very creepy premise for a story! Quick and very bingeable, you will find yourself listening and looking if you are home alone!

Well, that was creepy!

Of course, with that title I expected it to be and Andrea Mara definitely understood the assignment! From the creaking overhead, to the black-clothed stranger lowering themselves to the hallway, this brought back all the childhood flashbacks you ever had (and maybe some adult ones too! I have way more fear of things in the attic than is healthy!)

"But it's a gated community", you say, "no one can get in." Wrong! Too many people have the gate code and keys to Julia and Gabe's house. Plus their daughter posts videos showcasing their house on social media. So when the videos that look like they're made from inside the house start to appear online, Julia thinks they're photoshopped from her daughter's videos...until she starts investigating the death of her friend Anya and finds too many coincidences.

Mara maintains the suspense throughout, introducing additional suspects, clues, and red herrings. This was a quick and interesting read and I need to read more books by Andrea Mara!

Thanks to NetGalley and Penguin Group Viking for an advance reader's copy.