The Stranger Upstairs will give you the creepy crawlies! Its dark story filled with all types of terror and mystery will take the reader down a rabbit hole of fear, suspense, madness and horror. It was delicious!
Sarah Slack a best-selling author and psychologist and her bartender husband Joe decide to buy, renovate and flip a beautiful house in an affluent community. But unfortunately, there is a history to Black Wood House. You see the previous owners were killed. The husband killed his wife then himself as their daughter ran for help. Although the neighbors feel the house should be demolished, Sarah and Joe were able to get the house and its history for a steal.
As Sarah has a plan to blog about the renovations while working as a psychologist, Joe is not so sure about buying this house. He was very set against it. But Sarah feels she and Joe need this. Their marriage is falling apart, and Joe does not want to even try anymore. But both know because of their history, they are stuck with each other. And they are running out of money as they’ve spent most of her book money and even though her second book is due soon; she hasn’t even started writing.
But as they begin the renovations, they both feel the eeriness of the house. Especially Sarah who opts to sleep in the murder bedroom while Joe sleeps on the couch. Sarah starts of hear noises and footsteps. She tries to introduce herself to the neighbors who don’t want anything to do with them. She’s even chastised for buying the house.
Then, she realizes someone has been inside the house, leaving her notes about things no one should know. She begins a descent down a delusion of paranoia even accusing a neighbor of breaking into her house and poisoning her cat. She knows the house wants her there, she can feel it. But as she digresses, she loses her job and begins to relive her past which she has tried to keep hidden from herself.
But nothing could prepare Sarah for what happens next when she discovers a dead body up in the attic. She knows whose it is and what makes matters worse Joe has left her and now she is alone in the house fighting for her sanity.
Could the house be doing this to her? Or is it the ghost of the husband who killed his wife? Do they know she has a lot in common with them? Or is it a neighbor who wants them out. She begins to not make sense, even to herself. She loses sense of time and can’t understand what’s happening around her.
As all the insanity and paranoia comes to a head and with-it Sarah’s secrets which have been hidden for years are exposed. And the body count will rise. Just as it seems it always does at Black Wood House.
The Stranger Upstairs is an intense deep dive into mania and lunacy with a terrifying ending which is so good it will continuously keep you thinking who was the real killer, a person or something else?
Thank you #NetGalley #Bantam #The StrangerUpstairs #LisaM.Matlin for the advanced copy.
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