#BookReview: THE FAMILY UPSTAIRS by Lisa Jewell @lisajewelluk @laurabrooke59

Publication: 8th August 2019 – Century

In a large house in London’s fashionable Chelsea, a baby is awake in her cot. Well-fed and cared for, she is happily waiting for someone to pick her up.

In the kitchen lie three decomposing corpses. Close to them is a hastily scrawled note. 

They’ve been dead for several days.

Who has been looking after the baby? 

And where did they go?

Two entangled families.
A house with the darkest of secrets.
A compulsive new thriller from Lisa Jewell.

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I loved the new novel by Lisa Jewell. It’s so dark, suspenseful, and haunting that, despite the unsettling feeling it gave me, I couldn’t put it down.

The story is told from three different perspectives. Libby is a young woman living in St. Albans who has her whole life planned out. However, on her twenty-fifth birthday, she finds out that she has inherited a big house so, with the help of a journalist, she sets forth to find out more about her past and her family. Lucy is a homeless woman in her forties living on the streets of Nice with her two children and her dog. The day she’s been waiting for has finally arrived, but first she has to find a way to go back to England. Henry remembers a childhood that turned upside down when David and his family moved in in his house. What do these three people have in common? A big house in the heart of Chelsea where, twenty-four years earlier, three bodies were discovered in what it appeared to be a suicide pact, while upstairs a baby was found unharmed and well taken care of.

The author clear writing style made me fly through the pages while a few psychopathic and evil characters, traumatised children, disturbing relationships make a for a very chilling read. You can’t trust the characters because they don’t tell the whole truth, so there are twists and surprises when you less expect it (there is a big twist on the very last page!), while the tension builds up. THE FAMILY UPSTAIRS is a compelling and claustrophobic story of control, manipulation, abuse, and toxic relationships, a fantastic and gripping new addition to my Lisa Jewell’s collection!

A huge thank you to Laura Brooke and Cornerstone for providing me with a copy of the novel.