Take a photo of a barcode or cover
A review by kahuggs
The Stranger Upstairs by Lisa M. Matlin
2.0
In The Stranger Upstairs, therapist/self-help writer/aspiring lifestyle influencer Sarah Slade buys the infamous Black Wood House to flip and renovate it, hoping that the content she creates will help launch the next stage of her career and put her life back on track. However, that proves hard, as the home was the site of a murder several decades prior, and the neighbors are skeptical about having the house occupied again. Quickly, things start to go wrong at the house: Sarah finds threatening notes, hears footsteps in the attic in the dead of night, and grows suspicious of her standoffish neighbors. The longer Sarah is in the house, the more dire the situation becomes.
This book is definitely spooky and grisly, if a bit unbelievably so (there's still a bloodstain from the aforementioned murder in the master bedroom, after nearly 40 years later??). I also think the book would've benefitted from more extensive use of the second POV, particularly as Sarah's deteriorating mental state makes her an increasingly unreliable narrator. I usually love an unreliable narrator, but this one simply didn't make sense to me. There were still remaining pieces that confused me, which seems at odds with how quickly/tidily the story was wrapped up. More grounding outside of Sarah's POV might have helped. An atmospheric, if unsatisfying, read.
This book is definitely spooky and grisly, if a bit unbelievably so (there's still a bloodstain from the aforementioned murder in the master bedroom, after nearly 40 years later??). I also think the book would've benefitted from more extensive use of the second POV, particularly as Sarah's deteriorating mental state makes her an increasingly unreliable narrator. I usually love an unreliable narrator, but this one simply didn't make sense to me. There were still remaining pieces that confused me, which seems at odds with how quickly/tidily the story was wrapped up. More grounding outside of Sarah's POV might have helped. An atmospheric, if unsatisfying, read.