Book Review - The Family Upstairs by Lisa Jewell

Title: The Family Upstairs
Series: The Family Upstairs # 1
Author: Lisa Jewell
 
Description: Soon after her twenty-fifth birthday, Libby Jones returns home from work to find the letter she’s been waiting for her entire life. She rips it open with one driving thought: I am finally going to know who I am.

She soon learns not only the identity of her birth parents, but also that she is the sole inheritor of their abandoned mansion on the banks of the Thames in London’s fashionable Chelsea neighborhood, worth millions. Everything in Libby’s life is about to change. But what she can’t possibly know is that others have been waiting for this day as well—and she is on a collision course to meet them.

Twenty-five years ago, police were called to 16 Cheyne Walk with reports of a baby crying. When they arrived, they found a healthy ten-month-old happily cooing in her crib in the bedroom. Downstairs in the kitchen lay three dead bodies, all dressed in black, next to a hastily scrawled note. And the four other children reported to live at Cheyne Walk were gone.
She soon learns not only the identity of her birth parents, but also that she is the sole inheritor of their abandoned mansion on the banks of the Thames in London’s fashionable Chelsea neighborhood, worth millions. Everything in Libby’s life is about to change. But what she can’t possibly know is that others have been waiting for this day as well—and she is on a collision course to meet them.
Twenty-five years ago, police were called to 16 Cheyne Walk with reports of a baby crying. When they arrived, they found a healthy ten-month-old happily cooing in her crib in the bedroom. Downstairs in the kitchen lay three dead bodies, all dressed in black, next to a hastily scrawled note. And the four other children reported to live at Cheyne Walk were gone.
 
Review: In a large house in London’s Chelsea, a baby lies awake in her crib. Fed and cared for, she waits happily for someone to pick her up. In the kitchen lie three bodies. They have been dead for several days. Who took care of the baby in the meantime? And where has this person gone?
 
Adopted Libby Jones receives a letter: she inherits a luxury mansion in Chelsea. It should have gone to her biological brother and sister, but they never claimed it. Libby, born Serenity Lamb, is the baby that was found 25 years ago. The mysterious deaths were claimed to be part of a suicide pact, but is that the whole truth? Libby wants to know what happened back then and with the help of an investigative journalist she is determined to uncover the truth.
 
The synopsis got me interested, it’s a popular book and author and I was curious if I would agree. And “The Family Upstairs” had many elements I like in a thriller: multiple timelines, different POV’s, a family mystery, someone looking into their past. Unfortunately, I can’t say that I enjoyed this book as much as most people did.
 
Don’t get me wrong: “The Family Upstairs” is a very creative thriller. You’re left in the dark for a very long time. But I wasn’t invested in the characters and found it dull at times. It is mysterious, but it’s not an exciting thriller. I felt no tension and I was not on the edge of my seat. And somehow, parts of the ending felt implausible and unrealistic.
 
I took me a while before I could truly say that I didn’t really enjoy this book, I always find this very difficult when it’s a book that a wide range of people love so much. And by no means is this a bad book, I just didn’t like it. There is a second book, which I’m not interested in. I do want to dive into more Lisa Jewell books, because I enjoyed her writing style.
 
I’m really sad about not liking this book, I really expected I would.
 
Rating: 2/ 5