superwendy 's review for:

The Stranger Upstairs by Lisa M. Matlin

2.0

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It's well written and a good creepy house book. Here's the problem: the protagonist is a deeply unlikeable person. The only redeemable quality I can attach to her is that she's...tenacious I guess? It's hard for me to root for her even on an anti-hero level when she literally destroys lives prior to and during the book. Also let me tell you how annoyed I am that the one decent character in this entire book ends up dead in the end - and there's some serious wreckage left behind because of that death that the author never remotely acknowledges or touches on.

So yes, the two stars here boils down to how the book made me "feel." I get enough ugliness in real life and this wasn't a suspense novel about a protagonist overcoming and triumphing so much as being allowed to continue being a terrible person sucking up victims in her wake.