A review by maggers94
The Stranger Upstairs by Lisa M. Matlin

dark mysterious tense 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? It's complicated

3.5

I liked the way it was written, and it definitely feels like a spiral, but I think the twist was somewhat underwhelming, and I just found Sarah pretty unlikeable, so I had a hard time feeling all that bad for her. Plus Joe and her’s back story felt kind of like it needed to be fleshed out a little more, and some other things felt unexplained.

The DVD, the rat? Did she do those herself? The DVD was early on, so seems far fetched she mailed it to herself, but how would the neighbor have known about it? What about Kay Potts lying to her about seeing Amanda last? That felt like a thread that was never followed. There were just a few of those things that just really didn’t seem to come together well that detract from the story for me.

Enjoyable overall though.