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Monday, October 14, 2019

The Family Upstairs by Lisa Jewell

I read Jewell's I Found You in 2017, and The Family Upstairs , and I liked this one, too.

from description:  You thought they were just staying for the weekend. They looked harmless enough – with only two suitcases and a cat in a wicker box.

But soon things turn very, very dark. It happens slowly, yet so extraordinarily quickly.

Now you and your sister must find a way to survive…

"The baby is back."  Twenty-five years ago, the deaths of three adults in a mansion worth millions looked like the suicides of cult members.  The only survivor-- a well-cared for baby in a crib.  But where are the other four children? 

Now, on her 25th birthday, Libby learns she has inherited the mansion in Chelsea and discovers that what she thought she knew about her birth parents is all wrong.  

But Libby isn't the only one who has been waiting for this day.

The short opening prologue introduces a mysterious narrator.  Chapter I introduces Libby.  Chapter 2 introduces Lucy and her children in France.   In Chapter III, the mysterious narrator reveals himself as Henry, one of the four missing children. Back and forth from character to character and from present to past and back again, the novel begins to unravel, slowly and skillfully, developing the characters and revealing the sinister events that led to the deaths and the disappearance.

The writing and characters set this book apart from the crowd of similar books.

Read in June.  Blog review scheduled for Oct. 14.  

NetGalley/Atria Books
Psychological Suspense/Mystery.  Oct. 29, 2019.  Print length:  464 pages.

16 comments:

  1. I'm glad to hear you enjoyed reading this book. I've the library copy so I'm looking forward to reading it soon. :)

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    1. Reviews have been mixed on this one, but I liked it. Eager to hear what you think, Melody!

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  2. Sounds like a good one...even with the alternating POVS. ;D

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    1. I liked it. The different sections about the lives of the different characters all came together in an interesting way. :)

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  3. Sounds ideal for nights when television is rubbish (I'm reading A LOT lately!!)

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    1. Or when you can't find a Netflix show to binge on! :)

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  4. I like alternating narratives a lot. It helps with the slow build of information. This title sounds creepy but good!

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    1. It was a little creepy, but not supernatural. :)

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  5. Procedural question for you: Do you hold your reviews of NetGalley books until 3-4 weeks before publication date? I used to go ahead and post the reviews of those as soon as I'm done but I'm starting to stack them up now for later posting. It just seems weird to hold some of them so long that I'm not completely clear on what I read by the time the review posts.

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    1. I usually try to write the review and schedule it for closer to publication. There are dry spells when NetGalley doesn't offer much of interest to me, then there are spells when they offer almost too many books I want. Since books are often available 6 months (or more) before publication, it is easy to forget details if I don't write the reviews and schedule them for later.

      Giving access to the books three months prior to publication would be better for me. I sometimes have 17-20 reviews scheduled for as much as 6 months in advance.

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    2. I agree with you. I think that they sometimes make the books available way too early. I would much prefer a shorter window because I don't like to write reviews and hold them forever. It's hard enough to keep blog content fresh without having to spend hours on something that can't be posted for several more months. I'm stacking up books right now from them that won't be published until well into the first quarter of 2020 - but the ones that are scheduled for late October and the rest of 2019 seem harder to get access to. On the one hand, NetGalley gives extremely early access; on the other, they cut off access a lot earlier than makes sense to me. (Of course, that varies from publisher to publisher, but that's the general trend I see.)

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  6. I wish I coud have liked this more. It just was not for me.

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  7. I am looking forward to reading this one.I am glad the writing and characters set it apart--definitely promising!

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    1. Verushka didn't care for it and reviews are divided, but I enjoyed it. :o

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  8. I wanted to start this one last month but it didn't happen; soon I hope. Several of your recent reads are ones I'd like to try as well.

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