This was creepy and smart and kept me hooked, wondering if the characters were who they said they were.
Libby Jones was adopted as an infant and she has long wondered at the true story of her parents. She's twenty-five and working in an art gallery when she is given an envelope she hopes will contain answers. Instead, she realizes she has inherited a giant, decrepit mansion. The letter inspires varied and complicated questions about the possibly disturbing events that transpired around the time of her birth, leaves her wondering whether her parents were part of a cult, and forces her to try to discover who the people are, exactly, who are determined to control her access to the truth.
In The Family Upstairs, Jewell provides sinister goings-on, incredible cruelties, desperate self-preservation, mysteries revealed, and an unlikely love forged.
There's a satisfying wrap-up and a series of denouements and moments of redemption—yet Jewell also leaves you wondering if a main character’s accidental role in various tragedies were so unintentional after all.
In the final lines (where the idea of travel and of unraveling the final threads of the story are introduced), potential darkness seems to loom on the horizon. Eeeee!
I listened to this as an audiobook, and it was read wonderfully by Tamaryn Payne.
What did you think?
This was creepy and smart and kept me hooked, wondering if the characters were who they said they were.
Jewell has published numerous other books; have you read them? Are they as good as this one?