But she goes out of her way to soften the blow of forty-year-old man having sex with a fourteen-year-old girl who he keeps locked up while simultaneously and joyfully playing directly into the depraved homosexual trope. Obviously I don’t know Lisa Jewell personally. Judging purely from The Family Upstairs, I have to assume that Lisa Jewell is anti-millennial, anti-LGBTQ+, and pro-pedophilia. Dread light, maybe-because there are some very gross, damaging themes in The Family Upstairs and as I read I kept thinking, “Oh, no, is she going to…? Oh, okay. Also, the farther I got into the book, the more I had this uncomfortable feeling-not quite dread, but definitely something akin to it. I wanted to know the answers to all the questions, but I got bored in the actual process of reading. The discussion questions, as always, spoil everything. I usually try to keep my reviews spoiler-free, but there was no way for me to express about what I wanted to express about this book without spoiling some (but not all) major plot points.

My discussion questions are neutral, though, so you can skip to them if you would like to bypass the negativity. I had major issues with it, and this is not a complimentary review.

Finally in possession of some of the facts of her early life, Libby gets in contact Miller, a journalist who covered the story when it broke, in the hopes that together they will find out exactly what happened in that house.ĭisclaimer: I did not like this book. Her parents and a third, unidentified man were found dead Libby was upstairs, perfectly happy and the other children in the house disappeared. When Libby was a baby, she was found in a house at the scene of what was apparently a ritualistic suicide, and now the house is hers. When Libby turns twenty-five, she inherits a house that was in a trust for her. Despite some decent writing, The Family Upstairs is ultimately a poorly constructed mystery that falls apart the closer you look and which expresses some deeply unsettling ideas (and not the good, thriller-y kind). I was willing to go into The Family Upstairs by Lisa Jewell expecting the best, but unfortunately I did not get the best. Thrillers aren’t my thing, but I have read some exceptional ones ( Gone Girl comes to mind). I have my favorite genres, but I always hope that when I read something else I’ll love it so much that I’ll be converted. I try to keep an open mind when I read outside my comfort zone.

The family upstairs book