Take a photo of a barcode or cover
rubeusbeaky 's review for:
The Family Upstairs
by Lisa Jewell
I was sucked into the first half of this book, I couldn't put it down, I needed to unravel the mystery... And then, a bit before the halfway mark, the book got political in a dumb way XD. Evil liberals? That's what this book is about? Evil hippies, who proselytize to boomer socialites about global warming, homeopathic remedies, veganism, and the dangers of Big Pharma? EVIL LIBERALS, who guilted and schemed the innocent rich people into donating ALL of their hard-won valuables to charity? And as a secondary antagonist, an EVIL, gay psycho, a predator, who turns to drugs and witchcraft?! The "good" people are all 25-40, single and hard-working, pulled themselves up by their bootstraps kind of folks?
I see Lisa Jewell has been having tea with J.K. Rowling. *Dramatic eye roll*.
I only gave 2 stars instead of 1 because there IS a story in here about surviving abuse, the cycle of abuse, and even the insanely long timeframe it can sometimes take for either outsiders or victims to become aware of the abuse. But the story wasn't really about how these survivors confronted their abuser, took their power back, and learned to survive. It was more about how they enabled or capitulated to their abuser in the hopes of lessening the pain, got out one night on a daring fluke (or because of the intercession of above-mentioned gay psycho), then sat around FOR 25 YEARS waiting for their inheritance to kick in. The cliffhanger chapters with leading phrases similar to, "That's why what happened next was so horrifying..." trick you into turning pages, but in the end, once the puzzle pieces are all aligned, you realize the author misled you into believing a darker story was on its way, and the sugary Happily Ever After does not fit. So, there's a story here... but it's not the deep story you're expecting. More of a tawdry thrill. Like rubbernecking: You want to feel like you're a part of a grim tale, but you also feel bad afterwards for stopping and looking at something traumatic for somebody else, and - ironically - you also feel annoyed and stupid when there's nothing to see and you've wasted your time.
*Shame bell*
I see Lisa Jewell has been having tea with J.K. Rowling. *Dramatic eye roll*.
I only gave 2 stars instead of 1 because there IS a story in here about surviving abuse, the cycle of abuse, and even the insanely long timeframe it can sometimes take for either outsiders or victims to become aware of the abuse. But the story wasn't really about how these survivors confronted their abuser, took their power back, and learned to survive. It was more about how they enabled or capitulated to their abuser in the hopes of lessening the pain, got out one night on a daring fluke (or because of the intercession of above-mentioned gay psycho), then sat around FOR 25 YEARS waiting for their inheritance to kick in. The cliffhanger chapters with leading phrases similar to, "That's why what happened next was so horrifying..." trick you into turning pages, but in the end, once the puzzle pieces are all aligned, you realize the author misled you into believing a darker story was on its way, and the sugary Happily Ever After does not fit. So, there's a story here... but it's not the deep story you're expecting. More of a tawdry thrill. Like rubbernecking: You want to feel like you're a part of a grim tale, but you also feel bad afterwards for stopping and looking at something traumatic for somebody else, and - ironically - you also feel annoyed and stupid when there's nothing to see and you've wasted your time.
*Shame bell*