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3.38 AVERAGE
3.38 AVERAGE
I am attempting to work my way through my book of the month backlog and started with The Stranger Upstairs.
An influencer and fake (!) therapist buys a house that was the site of a grisly murder to renovate for content and to hopefully save her crumbling marriage. The neighbors don't want them there and it seems like the house doesn't either.
I really liked the structure of this book. The chapters are interspersed with social media posts and flash forwards to news stories stating two bodies have been found in the house. But I found all the characters so unlikeable that I felt like I was rushing to get to the conclusion.
An influencer and fake (!) therapist buys a house that was the site of a grisly murder to renovate for content and to hopefully save her crumbling marriage. The neighbors don't want them there and it seems like the house doesn't either.
I really liked the structure of this book. The chapters are interspersed with social media posts and flash forwards to news stories stating two bodies have been found in the house. But I found all the characters so unlikeable that I felt like I was rushing to get to the conclusion.
Wow! This is a debut novel by the author, and it was an incredible ride. If you want a thrilling, compulsive read that makes you guess your own thinking abilities, this is the book for you. I would NEVER have predicted the ending, but it was perfect.
I absolutely loved Sarah. She was a great character, and her cat side kick, Reaper, was a great addition to the story. You may not like Sarah & you may question EVERYTHING about her & her thoughts, but she was a perfect character creation for this storyline.
Incredible debut book, I cannot wait to see what other tales this author may spin!
I absolutely loved Sarah. She was a great character, and her cat side kick, Reaper, was a great addition to the story. You may not like Sarah & you may question EVERYTHING about her & her thoughts, but she was a perfect character creation for this storyline.
Incredible debut book, I cannot wait to see what other tales this author may spin!
3.75/5. Ooooh, I want to like this so bad. The "twist" at the end felt so hollow after all the tension that the narrative had built though, and don't even get me started on the epilogue. Still, a weirdly compelling yet meandering path of a novel.
Thank you to NetGalley and RandomHouse for this ARC. Wow! What a trip this one was. First, such an awesome concept for a book. It hooked me right from the start. I felt the book built nicely and you could feel the main charts yet slowly unraveling and I just had to know what happened next. I loved the way the timeline was presented and felt it continues to hook the reader. I recommend this one for anyone looking for an engaging thriller that keeps you guessing what’s really going on!
dark
tense
medium-paced
dark
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
4.5 ⭐️
This was absolutely unhinged in the best way possible
This was absolutely unhinged in the best way possible
This book got me out of my reading slump!! Just spooky enough to be the perfect October read
The Stranger Upstairs is the debut thriller novel by Lisa M. Matlin that follows Sarah, an influencer and therapist who has recently bought a house that has been empty for forty years after a grisly murder took place inside it. With the intent of documenting fixing the house up and slipping it, Sarah soon learns that the house itself may be a danger to her.
The basic premise of the thriller sounds pretty standard and I have been burned by picking up debut thrillers in the past so I went into this book with sort of “meh” expectations and this book really surprised me! The characterization of Sarah was kind of a twist of what I’m used to seeing from a woman in a thriller and it made her all the more interesting to follow. The house feels like a presence as well because you don’t truly know what is going on. Is it cursed? Is it haunted? Is it just a house with a creepy history?
The last quarter or so of this book kind of felt like a little too much to me. It started to reach a point where it passed creepy and went into the silly territory as it piled more and more stuff up without really explaining why.
I can’t give this a full five star because of my issues with the ending but this was a strong four star thriller for me which doesn’t happen a lot. I will definitely be following this author to see what she comes out with next because I think her subtle character work is a talent that I don’t see often in thriller books. I can see this being a book a lot of people love!
Huge thank you to the publisher for sending me an arc of this to read and review ahead of its release. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
The basic premise of the thriller sounds pretty standard and I have been burned by picking up debut thrillers in the past so I went into this book with sort of “meh” expectations and this book really surprised me! The characterization of Sarah was kind of a twist of what I’m used to seeing from a woman in a thriller and it made her all the more interesting to follow. The house feels like a presence as well because you don’t truly know what is going on. Is it cursed? Is it haunted? Is it just a house with a creepy history?
The last quarter or so of this book kind of felt like a little too much to me. It started to reach a point where it passed creepy and went into the silly territory as it piled more and more stuff up without really explaining why.
I can’t give this a full five star because of my issues with the ending but this was a strong four star thriller for me which doesn’t happen a lot. I will definitely be following this author to see what she comes out with next because I think her subtle character work is a talent that I don’t see often in thriller books. I can see this being a book a lot of people love!
Huge thank you to the publisher for sending me an arc of this to read and review ahead of its release. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
Audio was not my favorite - I want to try paperback or digital