Scan barcode
A review by emiliedeeann
The Family Upstairs by Lisa Jewell
4.0
Wow! What a book. A little unnerved by the ending there (well, and some middle bits). I like Lisa Jewell’s style because it has a sweet touch to it that makes you feel like you can trust her. I HATE it when authors build up characters for you to grow attached to, just to destroy everything in the end. Lisa Jewell tugs at your heartstrings, VS rip your heart out.
My one qualm with this story is that I went back and forth with caring about it. I mean, don’t get me wrong, I basically read the whole thing in one day LOL but there were several bits where I thought “I don’t care. Why should I care? I’m just reading to get through.” Like Libby, for instance, was a bland character until almost page 300. I cared for Lucy, but also there was a slow pacing with Lucy I didn’t like. Henry was creepy, but his bits were the most interesting. You feel me?
Overall, now that I’ve read two of Lisa Jewell’s books, I am overall impressed by her writing and I trust her as an author. I trust her to take care of the story and her characters. She does an absolutely fabulous job of adding just enough description to not exactly paint a picture, but put flashes of a picture to your mind and evoke enough feeling. She writes very real characters.
I definitely recommend this one for fiction lovers who need a bit of an interesting edge! Oh, also, trigger warnings galore. Lots of sexual assault and abuse.
My one qualm with this story is that I went back and forth with caring about it. I mean, don’t get me wrong, I basically read the whole thing in one day LOL but there were several bits where I thought “I don’t care. Why should I care? I’m just reading to get through.” Like Libby, for instance, was a bland character until almost page 300. I cared for Lucy, but also there was a slow pacing with Lucy I didn’t like. Henry was creepy, but his bits were the most interesting. You feel me?
Overall, now that I’ve read two of Lisa Jewell’s books, I am overall impressed by her writing and I trust her as an author. I trust her to take care of the story and her characters. She does an absolutely fabulous job of adding just enough description to not exactly paint a picture, but put flashes of a picture to your mind and evoke enough feeling. She writes very real characters.
I definitely recommend this one for fiction lovers who need a bit of an interesting edge! Oh, also, trigger warnings galore. Lots of sexual assault and abuse.