Amazon.com: Customer reviews: The Family Upstairs: A Novel

Top positive review

YOU NEVER REALLY KNOW YOUR FRIENDS OR NEIGHBORS

Reviewed in the United States on August 25, 2019

This is a twisted and warped story, all coming together at the end. People who have opinions and thoughts of other people, all wrong, all disguised. There’s a few wolves in sheep’s clothing. A fabulous read. I think that Lisa Jewel has a great way to put onto paper how warped people are, and how good others are, deep into their pschie. It’s a read at one shot book. You won’t want to put it down.

96 people found this helpful

Top critical review

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David Sale

Convoluted, plodding rubbish

Reviewed in the United States on March 18, 2020

Having trudged through this boring saga of dispossessed people and children, I cannot believe it reached best-seller status. None of the characters, adults nor children, had any real depth or appeal. The plot dragged mercillessly. I only kept reading hoping it would get better. It didn't. I really wonder how disasters like this get into print.

23 people found this helpful

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From the United States

jedanna

YOU NEVER REALLY KNOW YOUR FRIENDS OR NEIGHBORS

Reviewed in the United States on August 25, 2019

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96 people found this helpful

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If you are a fan of Lisa Jewell I highly recommend this book

Reviewed in the United States on November 11, 2019

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4 - 4 1/2 stars.

I have been waiting for this book to come out since it was first announced. Was so excited that it was coming out near my birthday in August only to find out that was the UK release and the US release was not until November.
I can say though this book was worth the wait. It was great I loved it.

The book was told from the POV of 3 characters.

Libby: Who just turned 25 and when she arrives home from work has a letter she has been waiting for. She was adopted as an infant and will now learn who her real parents are. Not only does she find out who they are, but she also finds out that she is now very wealthy, as she has inherited her family's abandoned mansion. Libby also learns some news about her parents death, so she teams up with a reporter to uncover what really happened in that house all those years ago.

Lucy: Is a single mother living in Paris but they are homeless. She gets an alert on her phone saying "The baby is 25" and is now determined to do anything to get back to London.

Henry: His POV is told from him remembering the past and he was a little odd. But who can blame him, since He, his sister and parents were at one time very happy and wealthy, and then they let a stranger into their home and lost it all.

I loved all these characters. and even the secondary characters. Everything just jumped off the page and I didn't want to stop reading. I just had to know how these 3 tied together. And I so did not figure things out until it was spelled out for me LOL

If you are a fan of Lisa Jewell I highly recommend this book. And if you have never read her books, I highly recommend you start.

59 people found this helpful

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Amazon Customer

Surpassed my expectations!!!

Reviewed in the United States on August 30, 2019

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Although I thought this is a crime suspense book, it has more to it with drama. It sinks you deep and read this quickly to find out what happens. She is a very good author who is capable to deliver a right length of a story.

69 people found this helpful

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Amazon Customer

This is a good thriller

Reviewed in the United States on August 13, 2019

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It has made me sit two nights straight to finish it, I loved it and I do love the twisted ending

Keep guessing

48 people found this helpful

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Alli2sons

Love this family

Reviewed in the United States on November 6, 2019

Verified Purchase

Great story of family dynamics written with insight, understanding, and humor. I found this book in the ship library on a cruise, and became a fan and follower of Lisa Jewell. She a go-to author for me for a read that I know I'll enjoy and be sorry to finish!

14 people found this helpful

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Robin Landry

Wonderful!

Reviewed in the United States on November 23, 2019

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I can't remember when I read a more memorable--fascinating--more compelling characters--than this book. Talk about reading-through-the-night, this book gave me everythign I look for in a suspense novel. A beginning that hooked me and an ending that made sense, and of course a middle that made me unable to stop reading.
I hoping that Lisa Jewell has a backlist of other novels to read, because she just became one of my favorites. I will recommend this book to all of my reading friends.
The novel is about a man who does nothing with his life as he waits to inherit from his father. When he finally comes into his inheritance, he marries a beautiful younger woman and has two children. The family lives in a mansion in Chelsea, England(I looked up pictures of the area and it's full of old brick mansions, including one where Oscar Wilde lived), and they are going along just fine, when a pair of musicians befriend the wife and ask to use the house for a video shoot.
From there, another couple with their two children move in and suddenly, the charasmatic man from the second couple(a narcissist for sure), subtlety takes over the all three families until it becomes a sort of cult.
I won't ruin the twisted plot, but I will say that the story jumps back, and forth between the past, and the present in a delightful, and informative way. Skillfully done, the author manages to never lose me as she weaves her story into the lives of the main characters, giving understanding as to why they acted as they did.
The ending played out beautifully, making me hope for a second book to finish things off completely. Hope Ms. Jewell is listening.

One person found this helpful

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Taylor Pruitt

Highly Recommend - Great Mystery/Thriller!

Reviewed in the United States on August 11, 2020

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Adopted Libby turns 25 and receives a letter stating that she has inherited her birth parents' estate. After investigating the strange vacant home, she begins to dig deeper into the history of the house and what went on within its walls. Her parents were believed to have died in a cult suicide pact. The case went cold over time because the other members/children of the cult were unable to be tracked down. The story gets weirder and weirder as you're thrown back in time to the past of the home and the person living in the cult home as a child.

Each chapter flips between current day characters Libby and Lucy, and also a character of the past, Henry. Lucy is a struggling, single, homeless mother trying to make ends meet for her two children and Jack Russell. She desperately wants to leave France to go back to her hometown. Henry is a child of one of the cult members in the home that Libby has inherited. As the stories line up and progress forward all the loose ends start coming together. There is also a huge plot twist or two near the end, which is ALWAYS a great thing!

I loved The Family Upstairs and thought it was a great mystery/thriller! I would also say that it may be a little psychological, too. I can't wait to read more books by Lisa Jewell and I am so glad she has so many great sounding mysteries/thrillers!

Helpful

Kindle Customer

My first Lisa Jewell book

Reviewed in the United States on January 12, 2020

Verified Purchase

But not my last!!! I chose to read this book as a book club offering and was not disappointed at all. The story was a bit dark which made getting to know the characters more challenging. Each of them had their own tragic story with a lot of history. In the beginning I had a problem keeping all the details straight in my mind but as I moved on with the book it eventually came together. Have to admit I went through the book a second time so as not to miss anything. The "baby" had the good fortune to grow up without knowledge or weirdness of the family.....and is a happy person appearing to be well adjusted. Young Henry seemed normal at times showing a lot of strength, but he was really a mixed up kid with what I thought to be a sad life with strange non loving parents. Not a lot of love was shown to anyone actually except Henry's feelings for a member of the household. Not for one second did I lose interest in this
book and had trouble putting it down when my eyes kept closing. I highly recommend this book.

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Sarah

Couldn’t put it down.

Reviewed in the United States on August 9, 2021

Verified Purchase

This book was deliciously creepy. There are so many twists to the plot keeping the story moving. I am still wondering about the characters a month after reading this book. Honestly, I just couldn’t get into the next book I was trying to read, and I blame it on this novel. There was no comparison…the book was just too predictable. You will enjoy, but be warned…it will haunt you.

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Aapciudas

Fresh and surprising

Reviewed in the United States on June 14, 2022

Verified Purchase

I was still guessing what would come next when i reached the last page. All the twists were so carefully plotted, and the use of flashbacks and alternating perspectives was artfully done.

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The Family Upstairs: A Novel

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