In order to give The Family Upstairs a fair book review, I need to give you some background into my youth.  The Family Upstairs is a creepy thrill ride that made me think back to the bizarre book choices as a teen. Growing up, Agatha Christie & Stephen King were my favorite authors. A staple of that time period were the books by VC Andrews. This really has a Flowers in the Attic vibe – it’s cringe worthy and heartbreaking but not overly graphic, so you keep on reading because you really want to know what happens and can these people really be as messed up as you think they are?!?

At 25, Libby inherits a run down mansion in London’s famous Chelsea neighborhood. As she finds out more about the house, she discovers more missing details of her past.  She knows she is an orphan but now learns more about her parents and siblings.  She enlists the help of a local journalist who covered the original case all those years ago to track down the siblings and try to tie up the loose ends of her past.

But as the story unfolds, all the things presumed to be true turn out to be even more bizarre and awful than originally imaged. As she learns the truth of her history, she has to decide what to believe and how to move forward.

This has a truly delicious ending, so don’t give up on this one even if it makes you a bit squeamish.

Trigger Warnings:

Trigger Warnings: rape, incest, & child abuse but again – these are not overly graphic so you can easily choose to skim these short scenes and still get the full effect of the book.

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