This was a fun ride that held my attention and kept me turning pages as fast as I could. I really liked that the chapters were so short because then I was much more inclined to say “I’ll just read more more chapter” and then an hour or two zipped by. This was the first book I’ve read by Lisa Jewell and won’t be my last.
The story is told from three perspectives - Libby (present day), Lucy (present day) and Henry (past). The story is a bit creepy and sinister but yet believable enough. Libby has just turned 25 and is informed that she has inherited a mansion from her birth parents. But what she doesn’t yet know was that when she was a baby, her real parents died in a suicide pact with another man and her two teen siblings disappeared. To help her investigate what happened to her parents and siblings, Libby befriends a newspaper reporter who originally worked on the story and is willing to help her.
The Family Upstairs is a dark and twisty family drama that you’ll be hard pressed to put down. The interweaving of the past and present through the different narratives is well done. There are several reveals that took me completely by surprise. While the characters are well-developed, they are not all likable. In fact, there is a sinister and evil man David who charms himself into the household with his family. He is a manipulative person, most likely a psychopath, who gains control and won’t let go. It is a story that shows how fragile and vulnerable a family can be to outside influences... that actually come inside.
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