THE FAMILY UPSTAIRS by LISA JEWELL.
In a large house in London’s fashionable Chelsea, a baby is awake in her cot. Well-fed and cared for, she is happily waiting for someone to pick her up.
In the kitchen lie three decomposing corpses. Close to them is a hastily scrawled note.
They’ve been dead for several days.
Who has been looking after the baby?
And where did they go?
Narrated by three of the book's characters both in the past and present, Libby who aged 25 inherits a large house, a mansion, with a gruesome history in London's fashionable Chelsea and past inhabitants, Lucy who has received a letter saying the baby found in the said house all those years ago has turned 25 and Henry who, also having grown up in the house, shares the riches to rag story of its former residents.
A complex, at times, chaotic read {the author, in trying to cover too much ground, perhaps having bitten off more than they could chew}, the protagonists, hmm, whilst I found the majority of them disturbing; Henry and cult like leader David delightfully creepy, I can't say I found any of them particularly riveting and as for the ending, well, the ending was a bit meh. And yet by no means was this a bad read, in fact far from it, there was something, something that I can't quite put my finger on, that was oddly compelling.
He angles his camera towards the door of the first room on the left. 'Look,' he says.
She and Dido both look. There is a lock attached to the outside of the room. They follow him to the next door. Another lock. And another and another.
'All four rooms, lockable from the outside. This is where the police think children slept. This is where they found some traces of blood and the marks on the walls. Look,' he says, 'even the toilet had a lock on the outside. Shall we?
He has his hand on the handle of one of the rooms.
Libby nods.
- Pg 153
Maybe in part due to the menacing undercurrents, maybe in part due to the constantly unfolding revelations, maybe in part due to how understatedly creepy I found the house and its adult residents, as I said there was just something about the book that I found oddly compelling.
Part one in what is currently a two book series, I'm definitely wanting to read the second instalment, The Family Remains.
4 comments:
I will wait until you read/review the second part before adding this to my wishlist. It sounds like a great premise, but I'm still hesitant.
Thanks for this
Felicity,
Although I understand that this is
a complex book. I am not certain if
I would appreciate it.
But thank you for your excellent review.
Raven
This sounds like something I might enjoy. I didn't know this and The Family Remains were connected. That's good to know! Thank you for sharing your thoughts on The Family Upstairs, Felicity!
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