Review: The Family Upstairs

The Family Upstairs by Lisa Jewell
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

"Be careful who you let in." (Exactly.)

Time for the unpopular opinion streak..*gunshots fired*

Once again, I'm against a book which everyone else loved..Wowza.

Either I lack good taste, or other people lack good taste, or the author just doesn't know how to write.

I don't know anymore.

But I'll write this review to explain anyway.

The cover - It's so dark and is not so straightforward as you'd first imagine it to be. It still hides a lot in the dark, which leaves you intrigued, about its' secrets. Especially that one light in the window of the apartments, something is clearly afoot and we, as the readers, can only figure out when we read it. So definitely it deserves all the points.

The summary -It talks about three families, but it mentions mostly Libby with her recent inheritance of a house a family used to once own, but she has no idea that everyone else is also waiting for the house, and that day. It's about to be one rocky meeting for all three of them.

Intriguing enough. And all for that one house too. Strange. But still piqued my interest enough for me to pick it up.

But then you know, Fate, the main bastard behind the ruination of every book I drop.

The three different timelines - Different time periods, the author fails to mention them. It's hard to catch up on which timeline is running.

Three POVS and no direct mention - I'm aware there are three families, but can't the author highlight the speaker of each family, rather than leaving all of us readers guessing every time?

It's too slow -Simply the writing is not fast paced. It put me into sleep within the first 92 pages, I'm ashamed to say. And also zoning out every 20 pages...

Point is - It never gets to the mystery. The characters just drone on and on and on, and fucking on about their miserable, pathetic lives, blah blah blah. Gosh.

Move THE FUCK on. Thanks.

Imagine how bad this novel must be, that I'm zoning out every time, and criticising so bad. Wowzers.

Anyway, not a recommend.

Until the next read,

TMR

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