Review: Lisa Jewell's "The Family Upstairs" (Spoiler Alert)

    After I finished Lisa Jewell's "Then She Was Gone", I proceed to read her other book called "The Family Upstairs". Published in 2019, by Atria Books, this book is one of the most captivating books I have ever read. When I first read the synopsis, I was thinking "Oh, this is just about a missing child, receiving her inheritance from her unknown birth family blabla". But of course, Lisa Jewell never disappoints. As the plot unravels, it reveals something more scandalous, eerier, and unsettling. 

    At first, the plot may seem confusing with multiple mysterious narrators. The first is Libby, that narrated some events that happened when she received her inheritance, a big dusty house in Chelsea. The second narrator is a boy named Henry, a mysterious boy who lived in that house 20 years ago that narrates some events that happened at that time. And a woman named Lucy, who struggles financially with her two children in France. The story flows back and forth between these narrators, and as the story goes, we can see the relationship between them. 

    Everything goes downhill as Henry tells us what happened in his family that caused the house to fell into such a condition. And it started with the arrival of a woman named Birdie, her boyfriend Justin, and David with his family. When I said everything goes downhill from here, it really is. Birdie somehow made her way into the house through Henry's mom who is easy to persuade. David being the hypocritical parasite of an  A-hole he is (I hate his character so much), continues to leech off of Henry's parents' fortune and seduced Henry's mom while having a relationship with Birdie at the same time. Anyways I dislike all the adults in this book, especially Henry's mom for being so easily persuaded by Birdie and David. All the child neglect issues, religion-based hypocrisy, and adultery in this book, just... disgusting.

    Overall, the book ends happily with a bit of vagueness at the end. The ending leaves us, the readers, wondering what will happen to some characters. I must say, the plot reveal was so well-written, and satisfying in my opinion. Once again, this book deserved its title of being a best-seller from Lisa Jewell.