Book Review: The Family Upstairs by Lisa Jewell

There are so many summaries of this newly released book, some of them are hella misleading.

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?

Two entangled families.
A house with the darkest of secrets.

This book follows Lisa Jewell's usual staple of the kids being the centre of what of the mystery but this time we have the kids as adults as well.

I'm not saying that all Lisa Jewell books are all the same, she definitely has a bag of tropes and themes that she goes back to. Incompetent adults are a common one and I guess this is similar to Then She Was Gone in some ways. Well, it shares the same trigger warnings.

Okay, one of the characters is gay. I can't actually remember Jewell having a Queer character before this book but I haven't read all of her works. It just raises the question can we have gay grey-characters when they are no other Queer characters in this book. Him being gay isn't a big deal and there are a lot of grey characters in this book. Except he is a POV character and he's the one we get the past events from through the book. He's probably messed up from the way he was raised, but a lot of his later actions don't have an excuse.

The mystery was okay. Things become obvious quickly and you know what's gonna happen as each piece is laid. It's not a bad thing. The cops do a very bad job of investigating, they missed some big evidence. I get the point was they didn't care but odd. They probably should have been more odd theories out on the internet about this case. At least a YouTube video.  Like things that were public knowledge were never connected.

Overall, I give this book 3.5 stars for Unsold Bags. I have read a lot of Lisa Jewell's books now and have reviewed them (to different acceptable levels). I enjoy her books but I guess they will just never be favourite of mine. The family nor the house was that interesting. There were a lot of interesting tangents but are not what the book is about.

Read: 18/5/2020 to 24/5/2020
Reviewed: 29/5/2020 - /05/2020
Medium: Audiobook
Narrator/s: Tamaryn Payne, Bea Holland, Dominic Thorburn
Published Date: 8th August 2019
Publisher: Random House Audiobooks
Source: Library
CW: Child Abuse; Grooming; pregnancy from abuse; sexual manipulation; Domestic Abuse; forced abortion; Miscarriage; stillbirth; animal abuse; murdered cat; cult; poisoning; violence; forced imprisonment;

Book Review: The Third Wife by Lisa Jewell

Should you throw out a whole family? Yes.

You think you have the perfect life.

You're successful. Attractive. Well liked.

And you've just got married for the third time. 

But that’s OK because everyone’s happy. Your children are happy. You're happy. And so is your new wife.

But one tragic accident smashes your perfect life to pieces. Because everyone has secrets, and secrets have consequences.

Some of which can be devastating.

This was definitely my least favourite of Jewell's work that I have read. I'm glad it wasn't the first of her work I read because I probably wouldn't have picked up more. It is typical of what she writes about. Family and kids. This one is not a murder mystery though. There is a death with questionable circumstances around them. Third Wife of this father with 5 kids between his two wires and whether she intentionally threw herself in front of a bus or was a drunk accident.

The mystery was weak, most of it was just wide goose chases until it suddenly wasn't. The mystery was filluate the character development. However, the characters are problem on their own.

They were unlikeable and uninteresting. It's a character study about this middle-class family, who all take after their terrible father. Even the youngest kids just seem like jerks. Even the five-year-old baby. Maybe they all deserve each other. I guess they are some character development but it took the death of someone for it to happen.

With some of the voice I work, I did wonder if I would have liked the book better if I had physically read it. Some just make characters even more unlikable than they already were

Also, this is set during the 2012 London Olympics, which just seems so random now. I imagine London public transplant being jammed packed now. I wonder if there will be books set during this time. Probably.

Overall, I give this 3/5 stars for Cat Fur. I just don't enjoy family mysteries without murder. This book was a lot like Liane Moriarty books which also books I don't really enjoy. There's nothing that wrongs with them but they just do nothing for me.

Read: 14/5/2020 to 15/5/2020
Reviewed: 15/5/2020 - 16/05/2020
Medium: Audiobook
Narrator: Emma Gregory
Published Date: 21/03/19 (Novel published originally 3 July 2014)
Publisher: Random House Audiobooks
Source: Library
CW: Suicide; Death; trying for a baby; infertile issues; Cyberbullying;

Book Review: Watching You by Lisa Jewell

I started writing this at Christmas.

YOU'RE NOT THE ONLY ONE WATCHING

You’re back home after four years working abroad, a new husband in tow. 

You’re keen to find a place of your own. But for now you’re crashing in your big brother's spare bedroom. 

That's when you meet the man next door.

He’s the head teacher of the local high school. Twice your age. Extraordinarily attractive. You find yourself watching him. 
All the time. 

But you never dreamed that your innocent crush might become a deadly obsession. 

Or that someone is watching you.

This is the third novel by Lisa Jewell I have read and reviewed, Since She Been Gone is still pretty much my favourite but now I can see patterns in her works. Like Teenagers and Adults being on the same level, with kids tending to know more than adult characters. That's probably true of life as well.

There are a lot of unlikeable characters at play and people doing morally wrong things.

The setting of this book involves a group of rich people, living in fancy houses and lot of strained relationships.

There is Autism Rep in this book and makes me go okay. It's not terrible, maybe bad aspects to start
with, I wasn't sure where she was going with this character at the start. We do have a character that's probably socially stunted, perhaps more from the way he's being raised than being on the spectrum.  Jewell goes on that labels are a good thing so I can get behind it and the characters are involved with the plot. It's definitely on the better side of Autistic rep, and there's more than one character with it. It's more on the exampling side but makes sense with the plot.

Overall, I give this book 4/5 stars for Gate Locks. It's a decent thriller in a world with bloated failed shockers.

Read: 20/12/2019 to 22/12/2019
Reviewed: 26/12/2019 - 18/03/2020
Narrator/s: Gabrielle Glaister
Medium: Audiobook
Published Date: 12th July 2018
Publisher: Cornerstone Digital
Source: Library
Content Warning for Book: I'm not sure, but memory says: Death, Suicide,

Book Review: The Girls in the Garden by Lisa Jewell

Wet suites are so in.

Imagine that you live on a picturesque communal garden square, an oasis in urban London where your children run free, in and out of other people's houses. You've known your neighbors for years and you trust them. Implicitly. You think your children are safe. But are they really? On a midsummer night, as a festive neighborhood party is taking place, preteen Pip discovers her thirteen-year-old sister Grace lying unconscious and bloody in a hidden corner of a lush rose garden. What really happened to her? And who is responsible?

This book is also known as just 'The Girls', that is a bit generic so probably why they changed between countries.  This is the second book I've read and reviewed by Lisa Jewell.

There was a lot of characters to keep up with; there being a gang of kids and their respective parents. The POV changes focus staying in third person with letters from Pip to her father mixed in.

The setting is a bit interesting as it takes place in a private park, which we rarely leave, that connect the flats to each other. Also a strong sense of community as lot of the characters have know each other for decades and from childhood. With strain of new comers adding a flare.

In the start it was a bit confusing when "the sisters" were being discussed as there are two lots of sisters. I don't know if this because I listened to the audiobook and I wasn't listening at the right speed for me. Another audiobooks note is that there's is reference to pictures, that do appear in the novel, which I acquired the ebook of to check these. The Map is the only one that usefully but you don't need them for the story so the audiobook is a fine way to consume this story.

There's was two mysteries under running this story and we only get underwhelming solutions. Lots of red herrings and suspects. Some of it was weird and like hur? It works through and was okay. I wasn't that invested in some of the characters but I did feel for Pip's mother coming into this environment. 

Overall, I give this book 3/5 stars for plastic bags. This was alright thriller and enjoyed listening to it.  I think I prefer Then She Was Gone better. But if you like Lisa Jewell's other works you should like this at least.

Book Review: Then She Was Gone by Lisa Jewell

What a cheery way to spend Christmas Eve.

A MISSING GIRL. A BURIED SECRET.

She was fifteen, her mother's golden girl.
She had her whole life ahead of her.
And then, in the blink of an eye, Ellie was gone.

Ten years on, Laurel has never given up hope of finding Ellie. And then she meets a charming and charismatic stranger who sweeps her off her feet.

But what really takes her breath away is when she meets his nine-year-old daughter.

Because his daughter is the image of Ellie.

Now all those unanswered questions that have haunted Laurel come flooding back.

What really happened to Ellie? And who still has secrets to hide?

I don't actually have the summary that's convinced me to read this book because it was a paperback that I decided not to buy because the library had on ebook, meaning I read it shortly after discovering it, instead of the months/years it probably would have spent on my TBR if I had brought it.

Fun fact: This book ends on Christmas Eve and I finished reading it on Christmas Eve by pure coincident.

This book is told in a few point of views, but mainly from a third person narrator focus on Laurel in the present, with first person sprints. This works well for the most of the part.

The characters and the family dynamics are probably the best part of the novel. I felt for Laurel, despite her faults and wanted better for Ellie so that was job well done. It also explores the destruction of family from tragedy.

In terms of the plot, once of all the main players have been introduced, it pretty obvious what went down. There is an attempt to have a twist at the end, which is set up well, but I saw it coming across well. It pretty straight through mystery, when layout in paper with facts anyway.

Overall, I give this book 4/5 stars for unwanted Hamsters. This was an okay book to spend two days reads on the run up to Christmas. It could have took me one sitting but I had things to be doing surprisingly as an adult with two days of Christmas. It what I would consider a light read and would recommend to others that like murdery crime light reads.