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3.38 AVERAGE
3.38 AVERAGE
dark
emotional
mysterious
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This book was a great way to start the thriller season!
Sarah Slade just bought a murder house. She is hoping to document the renovations/updates on her social media and make a nice profit off the house, while also saving her marriage. The project however, is not going as well as Sarah hopes. Between neighbors that don't want Sarah there, noises heard in the night, threatening notes being left, and a husband that grows more distant. Sarah becomes convinced that something is going on.
The narrative flows quickly. There several twists and turns in this novel. This book transitions amazingly from a 'murder house thriller' into psychological thriller territory, and back again with an extra little bonus at the end. There are some truly dark and twisted parts of the book that just make it that much better.
Sarah Slade just bought a murder house. She is hoping to document the renovations/updates on her social media and make a nice profit off the house, while also saving her marriage. The project however, is not going as well as Sarah hopes. Between neighbors that don't want Sarah there, noises heard in the night, threatening notes being left, and a husband that grows more distant. Sarah becomes convinced that something is going on.
The narrative flows quickly. There several twists and turns in this novel. This book transitions amazingly from a 'murder house thriller' into psychological thriller territory, and back again with an extra little bonus at the end. There are some truly dark and twisted parts of the book that just make it that much better.
Hate the main character and just don’t care.
The Unreliable Female Narrator in a Thriller trope does not have a specific name, even though it has been parodied by works like The Woman in the House Across the Street from the Girl in the Window. I suspect that it would get called "Gone Girling," even if that reflects only one branch of the trope and that it has precedents leading back at least as far as Austin. But the essence of the trope is that the protagonist, usually in a first person style, withholds information from the reader. This can be malicious (the aforementioned Gone Girl), innocent (The September House), or even negligent (The Woman in the Window). This is usually not the twist of the novel, but a preliminary twist to set up the twist.
Easily, then, what I love about The Stranger Upstairs is that trope being wholly upended. The protagonist starts with how much she is lying to everyone. She is positioned as unredeemable as of chapter one, and I am wholly there for it in a way that probably see a therapist about. Down to her stupid violent cat. It only gets worse the more the reader learns and it is positively thrilling to see a character that starts that perched upon the precipice. Where do things go from here!?!
Weeeellll, that's sorta the problem.
Like the book plays with the expectations of the reader about the protagonist, it does the same with genre. While ordinarily a fan of keeping things in the mundane, I will admit a bit of disappointment at not getting the Dracula vs. Frankenstein of, but as with the set up, it works because it leaves the reader pleasantly disoriented about what is going on.
There is also a lot here that I would put up to first novel legs, primarily the clumsy and unnecessary late introduction of multiple points of view, but most significantly with the novel's factual grounding. The reveal of the antagonist at the ending is fraught with error, but I would choose to focus on the influencer status of the protagonist. It starts off fine, but ends up somewhere between where the author forgot about it, or did not know enough about the job to represent it in a way that feels accurate, as opposed to setup for a payoff that does not come.
And this is the problem. The ending is at a 6 where the book starts at an 11. If the book had been more conventional, it would feel a satisfying wicked thrill at the end. A greater than necessary density of red herrings perhaps, or at least questions with overly vague answers, but such is a staple of the genre.
Instead, the book starts unconventional, offering no security in anything that is going on. I do not know who to be afraid of. I do not know who to be afraid for. And instead of that getting still worse, getting more tense, and offering a protagonist who is like a car wreck, complete with the gapers' block, around the halfway point the book makes for a safe landing, slowly deflating with an unnecessary twist on a twist (relative to the protagonist's sister) that felt more like indecision than shock.
I hope to get more from the author, and I totally expected this to be a 5-star at first with the utter glee that I felt in the initial part of my reading, but this is one where I am left feeling like I want someone to write the book that this book seemed to be, any of the books that this book seemed to be at first.
Easily, then, what I love about The Stranger Upstairs is that trope being wholly upended. The protagonist starts with how much she is lying to everyone. She is positioned as unredeemable as of chapter one, and I am wholly there for it in a way that probably see a therapist about. Down to her stupid violent cat. It only gets worse the more the reader learns and it is positively thrilling to see a character that starts that perched upon the precipice. Where do things go from here!?!
Weeeellll, that's sorta the problem.
Like the book plays with the expectations of the reader about the protagonist, it does the same with genre. While ordinarily a fan of keeping things in the mundane, I will admit a bit of disappointment at not getting the Dracula vs. Frankenstein of
Spoiler
sociopath in a haunted houseThere is also a lot here that I would put up to first novel legs, primarily the clumsy and unnecessary late introduction of multiple points of view, but most significantly with the novel's factual grounding. The reveal of the antagonist at the ending is fraught with error, but I would choose to focus on the influencer status of the protagonist. It starts off fine, but ends up somewhere between where the author forgot about it, or did not know enough about the job to represent it in a way that feels accurate, as opposed to setup for a payoff that does not come.
And this is the problem. The ending is at a 6 where the book starts at an 11. If the book had been more conventional, it would feel a satisfying wicked thrill at the end. A greater than necessary density of red herrings perhaps, or at least questions with overly vague answers, but such is a staple of the genre.
Instead, the book starts unconventional, offering no security in anything that is going on. I do not know who to be afraid of. I do not know who to be afraid for. And instead of that getting still worse, getting more tense, and offering a protagonist who is like a car wreck, complete with the gapers' block, around the halfway point the book makes for a safe landing, slowly deflating with an unnecessary twist on a twist (relative to the protagonist's sister) that felt more like indecision than shock.
I hope to get more from the author, and I totally expected this to be a 5-star at first with the utter glee that I felt in the initial part of my reading, but this is one where I am left feeling like I want someone to write the book that this book seemed to be, any of the books that this book seemed to be at first.
This was a fast paced read, and I couldn’t put the book down. There were also some funny moments in the beginning of the book. I enjoyed the book, but I took a star off because I feel like there were some unanswered questions. I noticed some reviews felt the character cussed too much, but I actually found it relatable because that’s how I talk
This book was awful. Bounced around, pacing was strange, ending was stupid. The author couldn't decide what the plot should be.
The set up for this is one of my favourite tropes and without spoiling I think the direction the haunted house aspect of the story went was pretty well executed.
Unfortunately the narrator was just hard to read from. She is immensely unlikeable from the beginning, which isn't horrible but in this context it didn't work. I just didn't care what happened to her. And the more reveals that come with her character, the less I cared.
I think overall it would have been more enjoyable if we were gradually brought into the truth of Sarah Slade. The biggest secret is that she's a fraud but we get to know that in the first chapter. So every secret she drops after that feels kind of anticlimactic.
Unfortunately the narrator was just hard to read from. She is immensely unlikeable from the beginning, which isn't horrible but in this context it didn't work. I just didn't care what happened to her. And the more reveals that come with her character, the less I cared.
I think overall it would have been more enjoyable if we were gradually brought into the truth of Sarah Slade. The biggest secret is that she's a fraud but we get to know that in the first chapter. So every secret she drops after that feels kind of anticlimactic.
Added another star because I enjoyed the ending but overall it wasn't for me & I found it hard to pay attention to the first 95%. The authors note, however, was powerful and in my opinion the best part of the book