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whippycleric 's review for:
The Family Upstairs
by Lisa Jewell
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
A brilliantly done mystery novel. I am personally a big fan of this type of structure, that being chapters written from different perspectives. These also jump between past and present which I have found sometimes can be an issue where parts are repeated or spoiled but in this case it was managed well, but still with a couple of times it didn't work perfectly. The plot itself is gripping and I always looked forward to picking this one back up. There's a broad range of characters and each is well written, though the dichotomy of Henry's character I think could have used exploring more. I suspect this has been done to be able to expand more into it in the sequel. That being said, for me, it's not a good enough reason to hunt down the 2nd in the series and it felt like the story ended in a good way for a standalone book, making it feel a bit like a movie franchise where they weren't confident in the popularity of the first and so had to make it work as a standalone or the first in a series and as a result it doesn't quite fit either case. Those are my only negatives though and I will probably read the subsequent books when I come across them. Well worth reading.