The Family Upstairs: The #1 bestseller. ‘I read it all in one sitting’ – Colleen Hoover (The Family Upstairs, 1)

Product Information

Jewell divides The Family Upstairs into a prologue plus four parts: Part I (Chapter 1 through Chapter 33), Part II (Chapter 34 through Chapter 48), Part II (Chapter 49 through Chapter 65), and Part IV (Chapter 66 through Chapter 69). While the chapters set in the third-person perspectives of Libby Jones and Lucy Lamb are in the present tense, the majority of those narrated in first-person by Henry Lamb, Jr., are set in the past tense as he recounts events that happened between 1988 and 1994. Each of the four parts contains their own rising climax and big reveal, leading up to the convergence of these three characters in the end of the book. This reading group guide for The Family Upstairs includes an introduction, discussion questions, and ideas for enhancing your book club. The suggested questions are intended to help your reading group find new and interesting angles and topics for your discussion. We hope that these ideas will enrich your conversation and increase your enjoyment of the book.

The ending of the book was nice touch made me give extra 0.25 stars but I still expected more from this writer and as soon as I saw this book on my dashboard and screamed ( not for seeing my morning self in the mirror, for finding out NetGalley provided me the book, it was one of the happy and joyous screams) and the beginning excited me but the pacing got slower in the middle. I’m reluctant to say I don’t like them, per se, because I’ve enjoyed the odd one here and there; but they’re just not a genre I generally find myself drawn to.It’s been a few years since I read the first book, so I skimmed it to help refresh my memory. But, it turns out that was unnecessary because the author seamlessly summarizes it in the first few chapters.

The Family Upstairs by Lisa Jewell (Author), Tamaryn Payne (Narrator), Bea Holland (Narrator), Dominic Thorburn (Narrator)

Section-by-Section Summary

So I wished we only read about the house’s past, rising of cult, Henry’s searching about paganism and his slow but expected move to the dark side. We already have David and Birdie to be shaken to the core. As she reaches her 25th-birthday, Libby gets to open a letter that has been held in trust for her since she was a baby. I definitely recommend giving this a read if you’ve read The Family Upstairs. You might get a better feel for the characters that way. Then, Henry recounts how Martina became pregnant by David. Henry was livid with David and ashamed of his mother, but Martina thought of it as a happy occasion. Henry realized that Martina was being used to produce an heir to the Lamb fortune so that David could legally gain access to their estate. Henry devised a plan to grow the right herbs and use them to cause his mother to miscarry the baby. The baby died and was buried, but David's attention then turned to Lucy. Martina never quite recovered from the loss of the baby and withdrew from everyone in the house. When he was punished by David, Henry decided that he was going to get rid of David for good. After Henry was released from his room, David announced that Lucy was pregnant with his child. That was when Henry realized that David did not just want the Lambs' money, he wanted the house too. Henry broke into David and Birdie's bedroom, found his father's will, and also took some money and his old pencil case that he used to carry to school. I’m just so disappointed because I wanted to love this book because Lisa Jewell is my thriller queen, but this book just didn’t do it at all for me.

Libby was found abandoned as a baby in this home. Having been adopted, Libby has since blossomed into a 25 year old, well-adjusted, content young lady. Anxious to keep her life moving along on the timetable she’s set for herself. The thing I didn’t like and found confusing is way of 3 POV-ed story telling. I got the writer’s motive to put a bridge between past and future and connect three main characters’ stories, mash them in harmony. But the parts are too detailed and you started to feel like you’re drifting apart the main story, the creepy, disturbing guest part and dive into too many details about the other characters’ lives. There are so much enough materials on this book to write two other ones.

Book Excerpt

Lucy and Clemency experienced unspeakable abuse as children, but, miraculously, they managed to break the cycle and become good mothers to their children. What are their relationships like with their children? What makes them good moms? I previously read The She Was Gone and was on the fence about Jewell, but after reading The Family Upstairs, I feel pretty sure I’ll be reading more These three narratives combine as Libby, with the help of a reporter, tries to come to terms with her tragic history, and figure out what happened the night her parents died. She truly can't fathom that she's inherited such a large house, and she also could have sworn that someone was in the house one night when she was looking around. But who could it be?

In 1988, Birdie Dunlop-Evers, a semi-famous fiddler, shows up at the Lamb’s mansion after Martina invites her to shoot a music video there. Birdie asks to stay for just a few days but soon moves her partner Justin and cat Suki in too. Meanwhile, by September 1988, the Lamb family is having financial difficulties. Birdie’s friends, the Thomsen family ( David and Sally and their two kids Clemency and Phineas/”Phin”), arrive to stay too. David is to be Henry’s (Sr.) physiotherapist. Sally will help with home-schooling since the Lambs can no longer afford private school.Upon opening the letter, she learns startling news. In addition to further information about her birth parents, she also learns she is set to inherit their old home. Confusing, disturbing, creepy, and I didn't want to look away. Twenty five year old Libby Jones, adopted as a baby, finds out her real identity and that she has inherited a mansion worth millions. She also finds out that she was found with three bodies, in the almost empty mansion. With the help of an investigative reporter, Libby attempts to find out what happened to her parents and the other people who had been rumored to be living in the house, at the time of their deaths.