Quite honestly, I had no idea what I was getting into with this book. I thought it was just another run of the mill thriller, but in all actuality, it is so much more sinister. This book is about a family consisting of a mom, dad, daughter, and son. The parents live a lavish lifestyle in a giant house, they end up overspending and they eventually run out of money. That’s when they start using their house to make money and they invite a band make a music video there. That then leads to allowing two band members to live with them. Soon after the dad has a stroke, and a doctor, his wife, and two kids are invited to move in also and that’s when everything just goes straight downhill. So, this book jumps around from different characters and starts off with Libby receiving this mansion for her birthday because it is somehow connected to her birth parents and worth a fortune. All Libby knows about the house is she was found as a baby in her crib while three dead bodies laid in the kitchen downstairs in an apparent murder suicide. The other two people we jump to is a woman named Lucy with her two kids, and a boy named Henry who is set in the 1980s. If you are not used to time or character jumps this may be hard to get into, but once you get it down it really becomes a book you cannot get enough of. Lucy and her two kids are homeless and living on the streets in France during present day. Henry’s journey takes you through what happened in the mansion so many years before and what he had to experience. You have no idea how these three characters are related, except for the mansion, and why they matter until it all comes flooding in. This book seems like it could be predictable at one point and then it lays new information down and you’re like never mind. The end leaves you with a chill running down your spine. This book is definitely not for the faint of heart, it is pretty twisted and sad but for thrill seekers this book just keeps giving. I will definitely be reading more Lisa Jewell. Click The Family Upstairs to purchase!
Favorite quote – “All men are weak,’ said Phin.
‘That’s the whole bloody trouble with the world. Too weak to love properly. Too weak to be wrong.’
My breath caught at the power of this statement. I immediately knew it to be the truest thing I’d ever heard. The weakness of men lay at the root of every bad thing that had ever happened.”
Books Upon my Nightstand 