The Upstairs Room

The Upstairs Room

2017 • 320 pages

Ratings2

Average rating2.5

15

'An incredible read. Clever, chilling, I couldn't put it down' Joanna Cannon, author of The Trouble with Goats and Sheep In Kate Murray-Browne's debut, Eleanor and Richard have stretched themselves to the limit to buy the perfect home. But the cracks are already starting to show. Eleanor is unnerved by the eerie atmosphere in the house and she is convinced it is making her ill. Their two young daughters are restless and unsettled. Richard, on the other hand, is more preoccupied with Zoe, their alluring young lodger, who is also struggling to feel at home. As Eleanor's symptoms intensify, she becomes determined to unravel the mystery of the family who lived in the house before them. Who were the Ashworths, and why is the name Emily written hundreds of times on the walls of the upstairs room? Beautifully written and impossibly to put down, The Upstairs Room is a startling contemporary ghost story and a novel about memory, loneliness, desire and love - the things that haunt us all.

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This is not your average ghost story. In fact, its not much of a ghost story at all. It is more a fascinating character study into the lives of people put under immense stress by outside sinister forces. I enjoyed it for the most part, but felt let down by the ending.

February 26, 2020

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