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The Upstairs Room
Eleanor, Richard and their two young daughters recently stretched themselves to the limit to buy their dream home, a four-bedroom Victorian townhouse in East London. But the cracks are already starting to show. Eleanor is unnerved by the eerie atmosphere in the house and becomes convinced it is making her ill. Whilst Richard remains preoccupied with Zoe, their mercurial twenty-seven-year-old lodger, Eleanor becomes determined to unravel the mystery of the house’s previous owners—including Emily, whose name is written hundreds of times on the walls of the upstairs room.
368 pages, Hardcover
First published July 27, 2017
41 people are currently reading
3149 people want to read
About the author
Kate Murray-Browne
3 books37 followersKate Murray-Browne was born and lives in London. She studied English at Cambridge University and worked in publishing for ten years before becoming a freelance editor. She is also a visual artist and has exhibited work in a number of different galleries. House Clearance is her first novel.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 343 reviews
July 19, 2017
This is a creepy and eerie novel that I found to be an oppressive and atmospheric read revolving around a family who have financially stretched themselves to breaking point to acquire a Victorian house in the London Fields. They acquire a lodger, Zoe, who moves into their basement to contribute to their finances. Richard, Eleanor and their small children, Rosie and Isobel, and Zoe find their lives begin to spiral downward in the house. Eleanor had misgivings about the house but give in to Richard's wishes. There is a spooky and unsettling upstairs room with the name Emily written on the walls and a powerful force that does not like the presence of anyone in the room or as it becomes clear, in the house. The author gives us detailed character studies of the adults in the house, their personal histories, of their drab ordinariness, the normal struggles of trying to keep a marriage together and bringing up children, the compromises, of insecurities, and dreams lost.
Eleanor tries to do her best to clean and repaint parts of the house in the hope of eradicating the supernatural and malevolent entity of a child that is strong and pervasive. However, nothing works and in the meantime, Eleanor's health begins to deteriorate with constant heavy headaches and vomiting which eases when she is out of the house. She tries to talk to Richard about Emily but he doen't want to hear and rationalises it down to a consequence of her stress and her ill health. Richard is doing a Masters in his efforts to become an academic and a writer. He is working part time so that he can do this, but is failing. His energies become focused on Zoe as he obsessively tracks her doings and her life, routinely searching her room. Zoe feels the presence of Emily, has broken night sleeps, and, ominously, begins to sleepwalk. She tries to spend as much time away from the house as she can. She becomes involved with an artist in a relationship with another woman, knowing its not a good idea. Eleanor becomes more frightened as Rosie's behaviour changes, she bites, has tantrums, desperate night terrors and acquires an imaginary friend that is the spirit of Emily infesting the house. Isobel gets burnt and has to be taken to hospital. Driven by the need to protect her children, Eleanor is prepared to try anything even though it has to be without Richard's support.
This is a low key ghost story, a disturbed and disturbing child presence that slowly infects the lives of those in the house, building up slowly and inexorably to the ending. If you like doom laden, atmospherically creepy stories, without the heavy dramatics, then this is a book for you. It is a character driven suspense novel that kept me engaged and absorbed in the story anxious to see what would happen next. Many thanks to Pan Macmillan for an ARC.
Eleanor tries to do her best to clean and repaint parts of the house in the hope of eradicating the supernatural and malevolent entity of a child that is strong and pervasive. However, nothing works and in the meantime, Eleanor's health begins to deteriorate with constant heavy headaches and vomiting which eases when she is out of the house. She tries to talk to Richard about Emily but he doen't want to hear and rationalises it down to a consequence of her stress and her ill health. Richard is doing a Masters in his efforts to become an academic and a writer. He is working part time so that he can do this, but is failing. His energies become focused on Zoe as he obsessively tracks her doings and her life, routinely searching her room. Zoe feels the presence of Emily, has broken night sleeps, and, ominously, begins to sleepwalk. She tries to spend as much time away from the house as she can. She becomes involved with an artist in a relationship with another woman, knowing its not a good idea. Eleanor becomes more frightened as Rosie's behaviour changes, she bites, has tantrums, desperate night terrors and acquires an imaginary friend that is the spirit of Emily infesting the house. Isobel gets burnt and has to be taken to hospital. Driven by the need to protect her children, Eleanor is prepared to try anything even though it has to be without Richard's support.
This is a low key ghost story, a disturbed and disturbing child presence that slowly infects the lives of those in the house, building up slowly and inexorably to the ending. If you like doom laden, atmospherically creepy stories, without the heavy dramatics, then this is a book for you. It is a character driven suspense novel that kept me engaged and absorbed in the story anxious to see what would happen next. Many thanks to Pan Macmillan for an ARC.
July 30, 2017
I think my high expectation contributed a bit to my disappointment with this book. Also, I thought that this would be a modern ghost story, but it turned out to be a relationship drama with a hint of a ghost story. Now the book isn't badly written, but it was not what I was after. If I wanted to read about problems in a relationship or finding the right man to love would have chosen a book that dealt with that. I wanted a creepy ghost story. This book is neither creepy nor chilling.
Most of the books "haunting" are about Eleanor thinking the house making her sick. She tries to spend most of her time away from the house while trying to make Richard, her husband, believe her. But, he's busy sneaking down into the basement when their lodger Zoe isn't there. I kept on reading the book wanting for something to happen. But, it never did. There was a scene towards the end when I finally thought "this is it, now the story will get more intense," but it was just a false alarm.
The Upstairs Room is a ghost story for people that can't handle a book that really deals with ghosts. It showed promise in the beginning, but in the end, it was a letdown. I mean there was a moment in the book when Eleanor was thinking back to when Richard proposed to her in Venice and all I could think of is this all the book is about, recollections of the past?
I was not the right reader for this book. However, if this feels like a book for you go ahead, but don't expect to be frighted.
I want to thank the publisher for providing me with a free copy through NetGalley for an honest review!
Most of the books "haunting" are about Eleanor thinking the house making her sick. She tries to spend most of her time away from the house while trying to make Richard, her husband, believe her. But, he's busy sneaking down into the basement when their lodger Zoe isn't there. I kept on reading the book wanting for something to happen. But, it never did. There was a scene towards the end when I finally thought "this is it, now the story will get more intense," but it was just a false alarm.
The Upstairs Room is a ghost story for people that can't handle a book that really deals with ghosts. It showed promise in the beginning, but in the end, it was a letdown. I mean there was a moment in the book when Eleanor was thinking back to when Richard proposed to her in Venice and all I could think of is this all the book is about, recollections of the past?
I was not the right reader for this book. However, if this feels like a book for you go ahead, but don't expect to be frighted.
I want to thank the publisher for providing me with a free copy through NetGalley for an honest review!
October 11, 2018
“The Upstairs Room” is one of the creepiest books I’ve read recently, so if you want a newer one of those uncanny stories, I definitely recommend this story.
Eleanor and her husband have just moved into a big, old Victorian house in London together with their two daughters. However, this house comes with an upstairs room that feels and looks disturbing as hell! The room is so disturbing that it actually affects the people living in the house, and gradually things get out of hand.
While the eerie parts got to me, this book also comes with a fun mixture of parts that move away from the uncanniness and takes us to the characters’ past. These portions felt very ordinary and out of place, and I was honestly just eager to get back to the Victorian house and didn’t really care that much for the characters’ background.
That being said, the ending was a big bang that left things slightly unresolved, but I didn’t really mind. I was looking for an unearthly story about a haunted house, and I definitely got my share of that with “The Upstairs Room”.
Eleanor and her husband have just moved into a big, old Victorian house in London together with their two daughters. However, this house comes with an upstairs room that feels and looks disturbing as hell! The room is so disturbing that it actually affects the people living in the house, and gradually things get out of hand.
While the eerie parts got to me, this book also comes with a fun mixture of parts that move away from the uncanniness and takes us to the characters’ past. These portions felt very ordinary and out of place, and I was honestly just eager to get back to the Victorian house and didn’t really care that much for the characters’ background.
That being said, the ending was a big bang that left things slightly unresolved, but I didn’t really mind. I was looking for an unearthly story about a haunted house, and I definitely got my share of that with “The Upstairs Room”.
February 23, 2022
(Review originally published at Nudge, now NB magazine, June 2017; removed from their site when they switched domains)
The Upstairs Room is billed as 'a ghost story for the housing crisis', and it certainly delivers on that promise. This is a creepy gothic tale given a modern sheen, but it's also a sensitive and measured exploration of the lives of two characters.
Eleanor and Richard are a successful thirtysomething couple with two young daughters. Buying a Victorian terrace in London Fields stretches them to the financial limit, but it's their dream home, and updating the shabby decor left by the previous owners will add to its value. They try to ignore the disturbing spare room upstairs, with its walls covered in a child's scribbles and the name 'Emily' written over and over again.
Circumstances force Eleanor and Richard to take on a lodger: 27-year-old Zoe, stumbling through life from one bad decision (quitting a marketing career to work in an art shop) to another (getting involved with a guy who already has a girlfriend). She moves into the basement. As we observe Eleanor and Zoe's lives, running in parallel, we see what they conceal from each other: both women feel the house taking something from them, draining their energy, making them weak and confused. Eleanor is wracked by sickness and unbearable headaches; Zoe has night terrors, dreams of 'Emily' appearing in her room, and sleepwalks.
What is wrong with the house on Litchfield Road? The threat of a haunting is continually suggested, but it is also kept in check. Murray-Browne's clear and concise style of description seems at odds with anything so fanciful. Is there bad energy, an accumulation of sadness and uncertainty? Are the real horrors psychological? The Upstairs Room is about how we construct stories from the clues scattered around us throughout everyday life, and how the conclusions we draw from them might be distorted. It's about how the real ghosts might be those who live alongside us, brushing past but never properly connecting: our neighbours, our lodgers, even perhaps our own partners and children.
I was impressed by how subtle and measured this novel was, how carefully it balanced its two identities. Murray-Browne delves deep into the histories of her characters and really fleshes them out, rather than sticking to the easier route of jacking up the supernatural aspects. At the same time, a sense of ambiguity remains, so that we can never quite be sure there isn't a ghost, or that there is a rational explanation behind the tale of Emily. It's an intelligent and assured debut that leaves the reader with much to chew over.
I received an advance review copy of The Upstairs Room from Nudge. I wasn't paid for this review and I was under no obligation to be anything other than honest about what I thought of the book.
TinyLetter
The Upstairs Room is billed as 'a ghost story for the housing crisis', and it certainly delivers on that promise. This is a creepy gothic tale given a modern sheen, but it's also a sensitive and measured exploration of the lives of two characters.
Eleanor and Richard are a successful thirtysomething couple with two young daughters. Buying a Victorian terrace in London Fields stretches them to the financial limit, but it's their dream home, and updating the shabby decor left by the previous owners will add to its value. They try to ignore the disturbing spare room upstairs, with its walls covered in a child's scribbles and the name 'Emily' written over and over again.
Circumstances force Eleanor and Richard to take on a lodger: 27-year-old Zoe, stumbling through life from one bad decision (quitting a marketing career to work in an art shop) to another (getting involved with a guy who already has a girlfriend). She moves into the basement. As we observe Eleanor and Zoe's lives, running in parallel, we see what they conceal from each other: both women feel the house taking something from them, draining their energy, making them weak and confused. Eleanor is wracked by sickness and unbearable headaches; Zoe has night terrors, dreams of 'Emily' appearing in her room, and sleepwalks.
What is wrong with the house on Litchfield Road? The threat of a haunting is continually suggested, but it is also kept in check. Murray-Browne's clear and concise style of description seems at odds with anything so fanciful. Is there bad energy, an accumulation of sadness and uncertainty? Are the real horrors psychological? The Upstairs Room is about how we construct stories from the clues scattered around us throughout everyday life, and how the conclusions we draw from them might be distorted. It's about how the real ghosts might be those who live alongside us, brushing past but never properly connecting: our neighbours, our lodgers, even perhaps our own partners and children.
I was impressed by how subtle and measured this novel was, how carefully it balanced its two identities. Murray-Browne delves deep into the histories of her characters and really fleshes them out, rather than sticking to the easier route of jacking up the supernatural aspects. At the same time, a sense of ambiguity remains, so that we can never quite be sure there isn't a ghost, or that there is a rational explanation behind the tale of Emily. It's an intelligent and assured debut that leaves the reader with much to chew over.
I received an advance review copy of The Upstairs Room from Nudge. I wasn't paid for this review and I was under no obligation to be anything other than honest about what I thought of the book.
TinyLetter
August 29, 2022
I'm not sure about this one, I didn't really enjoy the ride - I wanted to find out what was going on but I also couldn't wait to finish it. This is my second book in as many weeks, with a gorgeous creepy house cover and a tantalising premise and both have failed to deliver 😕. The characters infuriated me, they were kind of dopey and directionless and made stupid decisions, messed up yet oddly bland, I couldn't get invested in them. There were some very good creepy moments, but ultimately I found the whole thing somewhat unresolved and unsatisfying.
May 27, 2017
I received a copy of this book from Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.
Eerie, unsettling - an intricate blend of the supernatural and the personal.
I absolutely devoured this book, as it was utterly gripping from start to finish.
The Upstairs Room is a story about Eleanor, her husband Richard, and their two children, Rosie and Isobel. They're a perfectly normal family before they move into the property on Litchfield Road - a dated,dreary house that they hope to one day turn into a family home. However, things don't pan out, and the frightening events end up altering their lives completely.
In a bid to support their house purchase, they get a lodger for the basement, a young woman called Zoe. From the start though, it becomes apparent that things aren't going to work out, due mainly to the eerie house itself.
For starters, there's the fact that Eleanor gets ill every time she's in it, to the point that she's vomiting every day, and suffering from terrible headaches. Zoe is plagued by nightmares, dreaming that a sinister girl is sitting near her, watching her sleep. And little Rosie, once a pleasant young child, starts biting her mother and waking in the night, screaming uncontrollably.
If that's not bad enough, there's an unused room at the top of the house - with walls covered from head to foot in the same scrawled name - Emily.
So far, so haunted - and as a ghost story, it works brilliantly. Think the off-balance spookiness of Shirley Jackson, or the subtly growing horror of a Susan Hill. Yes, we're talking great quality psychological stuff here.
However, where this story comes into its own is the artful blending of the characters' personal lives into the story. We soon discover that Eleanor and Richard's marriage isn't quite as strong as it initially seems. Zoe's personal life is nothing short of a car-wreck. All these details don't stand as separate entities from the main supernatural plot-line - rather, they are woven seamlessly into it, as though the characters' personal negativity actively feeds whatever is haunting the house.
I also loved the end, and applaud the writer for resisting the urge to end with something over-dramatic. It was a poised, thought-provoking conclusion, which left me feeling very satisfied.
A big thumbs up from me, I'll be looking out for more stuff from this author.
Eerie, unsettling - an intricate blend of the supernatural and the personal.
I absolutely devoured this book, as it was utterly gripping from start to finish.
The Upstairs Room is a story about Eleanor, her husband Richard, and their two children, Rosie and Isobel. They're a perfectly normal family before they move into the property on Litchfield Road - a dated,dreary house that they hope to one day turn into a family home. However, things don't pan out, and the frightening events end up altering their lives completely.
In a bid to support their house purchase, they get a lodger for the basement, a young woman called Zoe. From the start though, it becomes apparent that things aren't going to work out, due mainly to the eerie house itself.
For starters, there's the fact that Eleanor gets ill every time she's in it, to the point that she's vomiting every day, and suffering from terrible headaches. Zoe is plagued by nightmares, dreaming that a sinister girl is sitting near her, watching her sleep. And little Rosie, once a pleasant young child, starts biting her mother and waking in the night, screaming uncontrollably.
If that's not bad enough, there's an unused room at the top of the house - with walls covered from head to foot in the same scrawled name - Emily.
So far, so haunted - and as a ghost story, it works brilliantly. Think the off-balance spookiness of Shirley Jackson, or the subtly growing horror of a Susan Hill. Yes, we're talking great quality psychological stuff here.
However, where this story comes into its own is the artful blending of the characters' personal lives into the story. We soon discover that Eleanor and Richard's marriage isn't quite as strong as it initially seems. Zoe's personal life is nothing short of a car-wreck. All these details don't stand as separate entities from the main supernatural plot-line - rather, they are woven seamlessly into it, as though the characters' personal negativity actively feeds whatever is haunting the house.
I also loved the end, and applaud the writer for resisting the urge to end with something over-dramatic. It was a poised, thought-provoking conclusion, which left me feeling very satisfied.
A big thumbs up from me, I'll be looking out for more stuff from this author.
June 21, 2017
first of all, the good: i thought it started off really well, it managed to be pretty engaging throughout, and the characters were also well-developed and interesting.
but.
it seemed to me like a psychological drama with a vague backdrop of the supernatural/horror, whereas i was expecting the opposite. the supernatural element seemed to take backstage in favour of various tangential storylines that seemed to be unnecessary. the story gradually lost momentum as it progressed, screeching to a halt with that supremely unsatisfactory, anticlimactic ending, making me feel like literally nothing had happened. i mean, i wasn't exactly expecting a ghost to come out and go on a crazy chainsaw massacre, but at the same time i wasn't expecting the horror element to fizzle and die either.
but.
it seemed to me like a psychological drama with a vague backdrop of the supernatural/horror, whereas i was expecting the opposite. the supernatural element seemed to take backstage in favour of various tangential storylines that seemed to be unnecessary. the story gradually lost momentum as it progressed, screeching to a halt with that supremely unsatisfactory, anticlimactic ending, making me feel like literally nothing had happened. i mean, i wasn't exactly expecting a ghost to come out and go on a crazy chainsaw massacre, but at the same time i wasn't expecting the horror element to fizzle and die either.
August 19, 2018
I have extremely mixed feelings about this book. It has an excellent premise and is written very well, but I found myself bogged down by extraneous story lines and, well, too much writing.
I feel like the biggest upset (other than the ending) is that there isn't enough of the eerie. We get plenty of Eleanor's headaches and vomiting as well as Rosie's bad behavior, the mystery surrounding the top room and the previous residents, and Zoe's dreams/sleepwalking, but the mystery isn't actually delved into. I got the impression that the problem didn't originate with Emily but was there before, yet there's really nothing about that. I wanted to know if the house had been built on a graveyard or if someone had died and their ghost was haunting the place. SOMETHING. ANYTHING!
The second biggest issue is how... detached I felt all the characters were. I didn't like any of them and I wanted someone to get his or her act together. I hated how transient Zoe was-- how she was sort of floating through life, whether it be friendships, relationships, or job. Her head space was totally evident in the condition of her apartment (which honestly grossed me out. Are people really that disgusting? Not to mention Richard being a total creeper and nosing around her personal space--which, let's be fair here, she did her fair share of snooping. Note to self: Never have or be a lodger.) I admit to being intrigued in the beginning about what's going on with her and Laura and her and Rob, but that got old quick due to Murray-Browne's annoying habit of sending the reader into the past for unending paragraphs. Those Back to the Future moments may not have been so bad if they weren't sort of rambling. I felt like the characters' instability in the present was equalled in the past and eventually I started skimming until I got to parts dealing with the house's haunting.
Let's look at Eleanor and Richard now.
1) Why are they still together? Their relationship is an enigma. They didn't even like (or make an impression in Richard's case) each other in the beginning, and, honestly, I'm still confused as to how they even grew on each other enough to start a relationship. Add to that the fact that Richard tired of Eleanor not long into their relationship, I just don't get it. There is no love there, people, which irks me to no end.
2) Once again, we have two characters with no real purpose in life. Richard, admittedly, has no idea what he wants to do and is wasting his time, our time, and their money on an MA he never finishes-- ultimately ending up a bum (or part time stay-at-home dad, whichever you prefer) who's like a child who doesn't know what he wants to be when he grows up. He does, however, have a strange obsession with fixing up a haunted house he can barely afford in the first place. And Eleanor? I thought she had a job at a publishing house. Apparently it's as fictional as this novel, because she basically stops working ⅓ of the way through the novel. Her musings into the past are about as interesting as watching paint dry because they are essentially her bemoaning her lackluster life.
My head just hurts after reading this book for any amount of time; I'm so bogged down with extraneous details concerning these character's backstories. I think Murray-Browne's money maker was in the paranormal, but she spent way to much time on the characters' personal lives to achieve success.
I feel like the biggest upset (other than the ending) is that there isn't enough of the eerie. We get plenty of Eleanor's headaches and vomiting as well as Rosie's bad behavior, the mystery surrounding the top room and the previous residents, and Zoe's dreams/sleepwalking, but the mystery isn't actually delved into. I got the impression that the problem didn't originate with Emily but was there before, yet there's really nothing about that. I wanted to know if the house had been built on a graveyard or if someone had died and their ghost was haunting the place. SOMETHING. ANYTHING!
The second biggest issue is how... detached I felt all the characters were. I didn't like any of them and I wanted someone to get his or her act together. I hated how transient Zoe was-- how she was sort of floating through life, whether it be friendships, relationships, or job. Her head space was totally evident in the condition of her apartment (which honestly grossed me out. Are people really that disgusting? Not to mention Richard being a total creeper and nosing around her personal space--which, let's be fair here, she did her fair share of snooping. Note to self: Never have or be a lodger.) I admit to being intrigued in the beginning about what's going on with her and Laura and her and Rob, but that got old quick due to Murray-Browne's annoying habit of sending the reader into the past for unending paragraphs. Those Back to the Future moments may not have been so bad if they weren't sort of rambling. I felt like the characters' instability in the present was equalled in the past and eventually I started skimming until I got to parts dealing with the house's haunting.
Let's look at Eleanor and Richard now.
1) Why are they still together? Their relationship is an enigma. They didn't even like (or make an impression in Richard's case) each other in the beginning, and, honestly, I'm still confused as to how they even grew on each other enough to start a relationship. Add to that the fact that Richard tired of Eleanor not long into their relationship, I just don't get it. There is no love there, people, which irks me to no end.
2) Once again, we have two characters with no real purpose in life. Richard, admittedly, has no idea what he wants to do and is wasting his time, our time, and their money on an MA he never finishes-- ultimately ending up a bum (or part time stay-at-home dad, whichever you prefer) who's like a child who doesn't know what he wants to be when he grows up. He does, however, have a strange obsession with fixing up a haunted house he can barely afford in the first place. And Eleanor? I thought she had a job at a publishing house. Apparently it's as fictional as this novel, because she basically stops working ⅓ of the way through the novel. Her musings into the past are about as interesting as watching paint dry because they are essentially her bemoaning her lackluster life.
My head just hurts after reading this book for any amount of time; I'm so bogged down with extraneous details concerning these character's backstories. I think Murray-Browne's money maker was in the paranormal, but she spent way to much time on the characters' personal lives to achieve success.
August 22, 2017
The Upstairs Room is a beautifully crafted, eerie novel which really wriggles its way into your mind, slowly developing into much more than your average thriller/mystery.
One successful element to the story is the characters, and how well developed they are. Though many aspects of their personalities got on my nerves, I did feel for them - especially Eleanor - as
when things started getting weird!
The story feels like it’s more about the characters themselves, and the house which is almost a character in itself, than the occurrences – they act as a catalyst for developments and incidences between characters and the story focuses more on Eleanor, Richard and Zoe and the way they interact with each other and deal with the increasing feelings of unease – or disbelief – among themselves. The story is actually fairly slow paced but has plenty of really strange, unsettling moments that created a truly spooky atmosphere. Some parts definitely reminded me of films I’d seen, but executed really well without feeling cheesy or over-dramatic. The feeling of unease slowly creeps through the book and you’re never sure if you believe that there is anything supernatural about the house or not.
The Upstairs Room is a slow burner but one which really drew me in and focuses on character development as much as any thrills or creepiness. A great read!
Many thanks to Pan Macmillan for providing a copy of this novel on which I chose to write and honest and unbiased review.
More book reviews on www.snazzybooks.com
One successful element to the story is the characters, and how well developed they are. Though many aspects of their personalities got on my nerves, I did feel for them - especially Eleanor - as
when things started getting weird!
The story feels like it’s more about the characters themselves, and the house which is almost a character in itself, than the occurrences – they act as a catalyst for developments and incidences between characters and the story focuses more on Eleanor, Richard and Zoe and the way they interact with each other and deal with the increasing feelings of unease – or disbelief – among themselves. The story is actually fairly slow paced but has plenty of really strange, unsettling moments that created a truly spooky atmosphere. Some parts definitely reminded me of films I’d seen, but executed really well without feeling cheesy or over-dramatic. The feeling of unease slowly creeps through the book and you’re never sure if you believe that there is anything supernatural about the house or not.
The Upstairs Room is a slow burner but one which really drew me in and focuses on character development as much as any thrills or creepiness. A great read!
Many thanks to Pan Macmillan for providing a copy of this novel on which I chose to write and honest and unbiased review.
More book reviews on www.snazzybooks.com
July 17, 2017
The Upstairs Room felt like rather a good book to read when I felt unwell, pulling me in as it did from the beginning. It was not as dark as I had anticipated, but is undoubtedly well structured. The character studies which Murray-Browne writes are subtle at first, and then deepen and become more complex as the novel progresses. The Upstairs Room was not quite the book which I was expecting, but it is a compelling page turner nonetheless.
May 9, 2018
It should be said from the start that this book suffers from something of a misleading blurb.
The writing is engaging and tangible, and there were some moments that had this lover of ghost stories pulling the covers a little higher at night.
The rest of this review can be found HERE!
The writing is engaging and tangible, and there were some moments that had this lover of ghost stories pulling the covers a little higher at night.
Rosie was sitting upright in bed, shaking and crying uncontrollably. Eleanor reached out to her and Rosie recoiled. She didn’t seem to recognize her. She had an unfathomable expression of pure terror; she looked straight past Eleanor, staring at something which seemed to horrify her. Eleanor looked round instinctively but the wall behind her was blank.But for the most part, it felt as though the ghostly elements made up a grand total of about 20% of this book and a large majority of the questions readers might have about these ghostly elements are left without any real hint at an answer.
Zoe woke up to find she had a creature sitting on her chest. It was some kind of large bird, but it had human arms where its legs should have been, splayed-out palms instead of feet. The palms were pressing, increasingly hard, on her chest. She tried to scream and throw it off, but it was no good, she was trapped. She could see the girl sitting in the corner of the room, watching. The pressure intensified. She wondered if this time she wouldn’t survive and then suddenly she was crying out and her arms were thrashing and there was no bird-creature and no girl.The rest of the book is about relationships and dreams, with recurring themes of unbalanced love, settling, and restrictions with regards to relationships, and with artistic folk popping up left, right, and center.
The rest of this review can be found HERE!
December 13, 2018
I picked this up hoping for a good haunted house story, and I kept reading for what turned out to be an tense and nuanced domestic drama. Not what I was expecting in the slightest, but all the better for it. Imagine a ghost story, if the "ghosts" are modern day anxieties as a twenty-or-thirty something: the housing crisis, the expense of living in London, providing for a family, making a house "yours", settling with someone or somewhere, finding yourself or your purpose...
Eleanor and Richard are a thity-something married couple with two young daughters. They buy a Victorian terrace in London, falling apart and in need of some TLC, which they hope to transform into their dream home, all the while adding to its value. The purchase, however, stretches their finances to the limit, leading to them taking a lodger, twenty-something Zoe.
Strange happenings and unfortunate events mean that none of the residents feel immediately comfortable in their new home. Both Eleanor and Zoe begin to suffer from strange symptoms, and we see, although they never discuss their suspicions with each other, that both begin to believe the suspect the house of being behind it all; the house seemingly drains their energy, causes Eleanor's weakness and intolerable headaches, and Zoe is terrified by her night terrors. I found the course of Eleanor's unexplained illness particularly chilling. I myself have an invisible illness and I found Murray-Browne's descriptions of Eleanor's desperate attempts to keep pushing forward, despite how awful she was feeling, very true to life. Not that I've ever believed my illness to be caused by an unfriendly ghost or a building's "bad energy", but other than that I could see many parallels between Eleanor's and my own past experiences, and that certainly heightened this part of the novel's emotional impact for me.
In terms of the paranormal element, I loved how subtle the execution was. I am coming to realise that these are my favourite kind of "ghost" stories, where the author carefully treads the line between the supernatural and the utterly ordinary, the real and the possibly unreal. It's what I loved so much about The Little Stranger, another measured and impeccably ambiguous ghost story I read earlier in the year, although of course set in an entirely different time and place to this one. I can certainly see the similarities to Murray-Browne's work though, especially in how she leaves the reader guessing, never quite sure if there is a rational explanation, that the ghost is a mere figure of the imagination and of the anxieties wrecking the minds of the house's inhabitants...
I can see how this ambiguity could frustrate some fans of the horror/paranormal genre, but to me it was just another bonus. This book's ideal reader would also need to be interested in domestic family and romantic dramas, as that is the focus of the majority of the plot. All three of the main characters are fairly unlikable and make one questionable decision after the next, but I loved how fleshed out and deep their backstories were. This is more a book for those who enjoy character studies, than those who are after a plot-driven and twisty paranormal mystery. Personally, I loved it, and it was probably one of my favourite surprises of the year.
Eleanor and Richard are a thity-something married couple with two young daughters. They buy a Victorian terrace in London, falling apart and in need of some TLC, which they hope to transform into their dream home, all the while adding to its value. The purchase, however, stretches their finances to the limit, leading to them taking a lodger, twenty-something Zoe.
Strange happenings and unfortunate events mean that none of the residents feel immediately comfortable in their new home. Both Eleanor and Zoe begin to suffer from strange symptoms, and we see, although they never discuss their suspicions with each other, that both begin to believe the suspect the house of being behind it all; the house seemingly drains their energy, causes Eleanor's weakness and intolerable headaches, and Zoe is terrified by her night terrors. I found the course of Eleanor's unexplained illness particularly chilling. I myself have an invisible illness and I found Murray-Browne's descriptions of Eleanor's desperate attempts to keep pushing forward, despite how awful she was feeling, very true to life. Not that I've ever believed my illness to be caused by an unfriendly ghost or a building's "bad energy", but other than that I could see many parallels between Eleanor's and my own past experiences, and that certainly heightened this part of the novel's emotional impact for me.
In terms of the paranormal element, I loved how subtle the execution was. I am coming to realise that these are my favourite kind of "ghost" stories, where the author carefully treads the line between the supernatural and the utterly ordinary, the real and the possibly unreal. It's what I loved so much about The Little Stranger, another measured and impeccably ambiguous ghost story I read earlier in the year, although of course set in an entirely different time and place to this one. I can certainly see the similarities to Murray-Browne's work though, especially in how she leaves the reader guessing, never quite sure if there is a rational explanation, that the ghost is a mere figure of the imagination and of the anxieties wrecking the minds of the house's inhabitants...
I can see how this ambiguity could frustrate some fans of the horror/paranormal genre, but to me it was just another bonus. This book's ideal reader would also need to be interested in domestic family and romantic dramas, as that is the focus of the majority of the plot. All three of the main characters are fairly unlikable and make one questionable decision after the next, but I loved how fleshed out and deep their backstories were. This is more a book for those who enjoy character studies, than those who are after a plot-driven and twisty paranormal mystery. Personally, I loved it, and it was probably one of my favourite surprises of the year.
June 10, 2017
UPDATED
Ok so i did just about manage to finish the novel. I seriously cant seem to DNF a book, regardless of how bad it is. OCD, hey ho.
The problem with this book is that nothing happens at all. It starts with a family moving into a house and renting out the basement room to a lodger. You get the familiar horror tropes: the kids playing up acting posessed, the house making the mother feel ill, things being moved about etc etc. This all happens in the first 15% and then the rest of the novel is that just repeated over and over whilst adding in the odd backstory to characters that you dont give a damn about. In the end it never explains at all why the house is haunted, what is causing these things. The ending is so anti-climatic that it made me angry and had i been reading a hard copy i would have launched it across the room. Like i say nothing happens. You have a lot of build up that leads to sweet fuck all.
As for isobel the lodger. A completely pointless character. She brings absolutely nothing to the story at all apart from her being in a confused relationship and unsure of what she wants in life.
Grrrr im angry. What a waste of my time.
Ok so i did just about manage to finish the novel. I seriously cant seem to DNF a book, regardless of how bad it is. OCD, hey ho.
The problem with this book is that nothing happens at all. It starts with a family moving into a house and renting out the basement room to a lodger. You get the familiar horror tropes: the kids playing up acting posessed, the house making the mother feel ill, things being moved about etc etc. This all happens in the first 15% and then the rest of the novel is that just repeated over and over whilst adding in the odd backstory to characters that you dont give a damn about. In the end it never explains at all why the house is haunted, what is causing these things. The ending is so anti-climatic that it made me angry and had i been reading a hard copy i would have launched it across the room. Like i say nothing happens. You have a lot of build up that leads to sweet fuck all.
As for isobel the lodger. A completely pointless character. She brings absolutely nothing to the story at all apart from her being in a confused relationship and unsure of what she wants in life.
Grrrr im angry. What a waste of my time.
June 22, 2017
For people of a nervous disposition or like me who read this the very weekend when you go to see a friend who's renovating a house....well just be warned. I used to write on the walls as a child, there was even some scribbles of the house I went to visit recently. So you can imagine my horror at reading this book! I was suitably chilled and thrilled and freaked out.
The entire novel is set up like a normal house move, a lodger, and a house that seems to dislike the new people. Eleanor is the one to get to the truth of the matter - her good for nothing husband is too busy wanting to get busy with the lodger. Never mind his poor wife going out of her mind.
This worked really well for me as the set up was brilliant but the characters didn't quite fit if that makes sense. Eleanor didn't seem with it and was a bit too keen to have sex when she thought something from the afterlife might be watching! The house was the main character for me and that chilled me to the core. It reminded me a bit of the movie The Skeleton Key as the set up with that room...
Jeepers creepers.
The entire novel is set up like a normal house move, a lodger, and a house that seems to dislike the new people. Eleanor is the one to get to the truth of the matter - her good for nothing husband is too busy wanting to get busy with the lodger. Never mind his poor wife going out of her mind.
This worked really well for me as the set up was brilliant but the characters didn't quite fit if that makes sense. Eleanor didn't seem with it and was a bit too keen to have sex when she thought something from the afterlife might be watching! The house was the main character for me and that chilled me to the core. It reminded me a bit of the movie The Skeleton Key as the set up with that room...
Jeepers creepers.
January 13, 2023
First things first: if you're coming to this book looking for a haunted house paranormal horror story (like I did, because, y'know, that's what the blurb promises), turn around and leave right now. Don't waste your time. This book has about 1% haunted house paranormal horror story elements, which are incredibly vague and can easily be read as a metaphor; the other 99% is bad chick-lit relationship drama that (unsuccesfully) tries to pose as a sorta domestic thriller. Basically, this book is trying to be everything, and it ends up being nothing instead.
You've read this story a million times before. The wannabe haunted house part is the people moving with kids in a new house and everything going wrong while they (especially the husband) keeps insisting that they are just "making too big a deal out of it" and they should "just ignore it" because "this is our fresh start!" The domestic thriller bit is the wife thinking about having missed out on something great in her life when she settled by getting married and having kids, and that maybe she doesn't even love her husband after all (yawn) The bad chick-lit relationship drama is a rather young adult not knowing what to do with her life, fucking a guy who's in a relationship, and her defining herself by how fuckable she is.
There is nothing fresh to see here. I kept expecting something more throughout the entire book, especially something paranormal since, again, it's the entire blurb, but it never came. The book is marketed as "Oooohhhh, new house, spooky writing on the walls, what could it be??" and is instead "But does he LOVE me?" And I could not care less about it. Even if I try to appreciate it for what it was instead of what I wanted it to be, it falls short.
You've read this story a million times before. The wannabe haunted house part is the people moving with kids in a new house and everything going wrong while they (especially the husband) keeps insisting that they are just "making too big a deal out of it" and they should "just ignore it" because "this is our fresh start!" The domestic thriller bit is the wife thinking about having missed out on something great in her life when she settled by getting married and having kids, and that maybe she doesn't even love her husband after all (yawn) The bad chick-lit relationship drama is a rather young adult not knowing what to do with her life, fucking a guy who's in a relationship, and her defining herself by how fuckable she is.
There is nothing fresh to see here. I kept expecting something more throughout the entire book, especially something paranormal since, again, it's the entire blurb, but it never came. The book is marketed as "Oooohhhh, new house, spooky writing on the walls, what could it be??" and is instead "But does he LOVE me?" And I could not care less about it. Even if I try to appreciate it for what it was instead of what I wanted it to be, it falls short.
June 13, 2017
I have to confess that I'm rubbish at scary books (and films) as I scare easily! It's taken me 5 days to read this not because it's dull but because a couple of scenes freaked me out to the extent that I've only been reading this on the bus or when I haven't been alone at home. Horror aficionados may well laugh...
What I liked about this is the slow build-up of eerie feelings, and the ambiguity that Murray-Browne keeps going right to the end. Anyone wanting gore, or explicit horrors may well find this disappointing - it's more akin to James' The Turn of the Screw (without the literary style) than Stephen King... more disturbing shadows just out of sight than monsters under the bed.
What isn't quite so successful are the unnecessarily-extended back stories - we just don't need to know everything about our married couple from when they were students at Oxford.
All the same, M-B keeps her narrative bubbling over nicely with deranged writings on the walls, misplaced objects and that perennial of the genre, sinister children. Creepy!
Thanks to the publisher for an ARC via NetGalley
What I liked about this is the slow build-up of eerie feelings, and the ambiguity that Murray-Browne keeps going right to the end. Anyone wanting gore, or explicit horrors may well find this disappointing - it's more akin to James' The Turn of the Screw (without the literary style) than Stephen King... more disturbing shadows just out of sight than monsters under the bed.
What isn't quite so successful are the unnecessarily-extended back stories - we just don't need to know everything about our married couple from when they were students at Oxford.
All the same, M-B keeps her narrative bubbling over nicely with deranged writings on the walls, misplaced objects and that perennial of the genre, sinister children. Creepy!
Thanks to the publisher for an ARC via NetGalley
July 29, 2017
2.5* --> 3*
Richard and Eleanor sink all their savings into their dream home. But there are strange things afoot. Eleanor thinks the house is making her ill. And her daughter has gone from a little angel to a temper tantrum throwing little devil. While Richard seems to be more occupied with their lodger, Zoë, Eleanor investigates the mystery of the previous owners and why the name “Emily” is found written pretty much all over the house.
I must say, I have some serious mixed feelings about The Upstairs Room but the overwhelming one would probably be slight disappointment. While the chapters about the house were great, there were flashback chapters about life for the inhabitants before they moved into this house and they completely ruined the flow of the story. In an odd sort of way, it almost felt as if they were written by someone else entirely.
I also didn’t really feel like they added anything, other than knowing everyone was miserable and none of the characters could apparently figure out what they wanted in life. There was way too much focus on past and present relationships. At about the halfway mark, I pretty much stopped caring about them altogether. What kept me reading was the mystery surrounding the upstairs room but there were no answers or explanations as to the why, how, or what and none of it was in any way creepy enough. Just when I thought things might finally get interesting and pick up, things fell flat.
Maybe my expectations were too high but all in all, I’m feeling quite underwhelmed by the whole thing. Even the ending didn’t satisfy me one bit but I’m very picky about endings so that’s probably just me. I was obviously expecting something entirely different from this story than what I got and this book was just not for me. But don’t let that put you off.
Richard and Eleanor sink all their savings into their dream home. But there are strange things afoot. Eleanor thinks the house is making her ill. And her daughter has gone from a little angel to a temper tantrum throwing little devil. While Richard seems to be more occupied with their lodger, Zoë, Eleanor investigates the mystery of the previous owners and why the name “Emily” is found written pretty much all over the house.
I must say, I have some serious mixed feelings about The Upstairs Room but the overwhelming one would probably be slight disappointment. While the chapters about the house were great, there were flashback chapters about life for the inhabitants before they moved into this house and they completely ruined the flow of the story. In an odd sort of way, it almost felt as if they were written by someone else entirely.
I also didn’t really feel like they added anything, other than knowing everyone was miserable and none of the characters could apparently figure out what they wanted in life. There was way too much focus on past and present relationships. At about the halfway mark, I pretty much stopped caring about them altogether. What kept me reading was the mystery surrounding the upstairs room but there were no answers or explanations as to the why, how, or what and none of it was in any way creepy enough. Just when I thought things might finally get interesting and pick up, things fell flat.
Maybe my expectations were too high but all in all, I’m feeling quite underwhelmed by the whole thing. Even the ending didn’t satisfy me one bit but I’m very picky about endings so that’s probably just me. I was obviously expecting something entirely different from this story than what I got and this book was just not for me. But don’t let that put you off.
May 21, 2017
A Victorian townhouse, a lovely couple with two wonderful children and a young lodger are the ingredients for one of the most unnerving and disturbing novels I have read this year.
Eleanor and Richard are a nice couple who decide to buy a house in one of the most exclusive areas of London; in order to help with the expenses they rent the basement to Zoe, a young and lively girl.
What makes the plot stand out is the combination of modern day life events and the disturbing presence of something or someone in the upstairs room of the house. This townhouse slowly starts to affect the lives of all the characters in different and frightening ways: illness, strange accidents, erratic behaviour...
Kate Murray-Browne has written a psychological terror novel that will appeal to many adult readers and fans of the genre and will certainly make you think twice before buying an old house without checking who (or what) lived there before.
Thanks to NetGalley for providing me with a copy in exchange for an honest review.
www.theleisurediaries.blogspot.com
Eleanor and Richard are a nice couple who decide to buy a house in one of the most exclusive areas of London; in order to help with the expenses they rent the basement to Zoe, a young and lively girl.
What makes the plot stand out is the combination of modern day life events and the disturbing presence of something or someone in the upstairs room of the house. This townhouse slowly starts to affect the lives of all the characters in different and frightening ways: illness, strange accidents, erratic behaviour...
Kate Murray-Browne has written a psychological terror novel that will appeal to many adult readers and fans of the genre and will certainly make you think twice before buying an old house without checking who (or what) lived there before.
Thanks to NetGalley for providing me with a copy in exchange for an honest review.
www.theleisurediaries.blogspot.com
September 10, 2019
I only got 26% in the book and couldn't find myself wanting to read more. I thought the book would be more about a haunted home with a presence in it, as that's what the synopsis basically reads, but it doesn't seem like that's actually going anywhere? And the lodger in the story doesn't seem to have any proper link to the story besides living in the basement, having relationship issues and avoiding the people upstairs.
July 17, 2017
This is a darkly claustrophobic and atmospheric modern chiller that made me feel very uncomfortable whilst reading it. I wasn’t quite sure which way the storyline was going to go so that made me quite apprehensive about what was about to transpire and I kept waiting for a rational explanation of the unusual incidents that were occurring!
The state of the housing market is at the heart of this gothic style ghost story. It’s so difficult to get on the housing ladder nowadays that more people are renting, either on their own or in house shares. Here, Zoe moves into Eleanor and Richards basement as it helps them to afford the mortgage and renovation of their new home whilst providing her with affordable accommodation. Now I have done this in the past so understand how difficult it is to have a good relationship with the homeowners whilst still maintaining some privacy. I especially found the scenes where Zoe just eats a snack in her room rather than venture into the shared kitchen very realistic. I’ve also experienced the opposite though, when I had a lodger for a couple of years! It’s not easy for either party but sometimes there isn’t any alternative so it’s just a case of everyone having to adapt. But in The Upstairs Room, right from the start we realise that something very disturbing has happened in the house and therefore these relationships are even more strained. After moving in, Eleanor finds that the name Emily has been scribbled all over the room at the top of the house and she becomes obsessed with finding out about the previous owners and why they moved out. Has something dreadful caused an evil to be left behind or is it the house itself behind the unexplained illnesses and strange behaviours?
There is a nightmarish feel to this slow burner, with the tension gradually creeping up on you with every chilling incident that occurs. The sleepwalking and the night terrors added extra depth to that intensity. The scenes where Zoe had sleep paralysis really struck a chord with me as I have had this happen to me in the past (only once but that was more than enough for me!!) And it was the most terrifying that has ever happened to me. I was convinced there was an evil spirit sitting on my chest and even the sound of my own breathing seemed menacing – I can honestly say I have never been so scared in my entire life. So I think I looked at this book with a different viewpoint to others, understanding that sometimes your brain interprets things in a way you can’t physically control or even easily explain. Maybe my scientific brain is always looking for the rational explanation and others will be less sceptical than I am!
Nevertheless, I found it difficult to put this spine chiller down until I knew exactly where it was going to end and I wasn’t disappointed although as in real life, not every thread is finished off. The ethereal quality to the narrative means this book has remained with me for longer than I had expected so although I didn’t love it as much as I’d hoped, I did find it an intriguing and unnerving read.
The state of the housing market is at the heart of this gothic style ghost story. It’s so difficult to get on the housing ladder nowadays that more people are renting, either on their own or in house shares. Here, Zoe moves into Eleanor and Richards basement as it helps them to afford the mortgage and renovation of their new home whilst providing her with affordable accommodation. Now I have done this in the past so understand how difficult it is to have a good relationship with the homeowners whilst still maintaining some privacy. I especially found the scenes where Zoe just eats a snack in her room rather than venture into the shared kitchen very realistic. I’ve also experienced the opposite though, when I had a lodger for a couple of years! It’s not easy for either party but sometimes there isn’t any alternative so it’s just a case of everyone having to adapt. But in The Upstairs Room, right from the start we realise that something very disturbing has happened in the house and therefore these relationships are even more strained. After moving in, Eleanor finds that the name Emily has been scribbled all over the room at the top of the house and she becomes obsessed with finding out about the previous owners and why they moved out. Has something dreadful caused an evil to be left behind or is it the house itself behind the unexplained illnesses and strange behaviours?
There is a nightmarish feel to this slow burner, with the tension gradually creeping up on you with every chilling incident that occurs. The sleepwalking and the night terrors added extra depth to that intensity. The scenes where Zoe had sleep paralysis really struck a chord with me as I have had this happen to me in the past (only once but that was more than enough for me!!) And it was the most terrifying that has ever happened to me. I was convinced there was an evil spirit sitting on my chest and even the sound of my own breathing seemed menacing – I can honestly say I have never been so scared in my entire life. So I think I looked at this book with a different viewpoint to others, understanding that sometimes your brain interprets things in a way you can’t physically control or even easily explain. Maybe my scientific brain is always looking for the rational explanation and others will be less sceptical than I am!
Nevertheless, I found it difficult to put this spine chiller down until I knew exactly where it was going to end and I wasn’t disappointed although as in real life, not every thread is finished off. The ethereal quality to the narrative means this book has remained with me for longer than I had expected so although I didn’t love it as much as I’d hoped, I did find it an intriguing and unnerving read.
May 10, 2017
**4.5 stars**
The Upstairs Room was so compelling and utterly creepy. A beautifully drawn character drama with added ghostly elements, I was entirely caught up in the lives of the characters from the first moment.
I had a couple of restless nights the author creates such a sense of creeping menace, I'm fairly sure I'll still be feeling that for a while.
Full review in July nearer publication
The Upstairs Room was so compelling and utterly creepy. A beautifully drawn character drama with added ghostly elements, I was entirely caught up in the lives of the characters from the first moment.
I had a couple of restless nights the author creates such a sense of creeping menace, I'm fairly sure I'll still be feeling that for a while.
Full review in July nearer publication
May 4, 2017
I could not put this book down. Really clever and very disturbing. I was actually fearful for parts of this book and that's hard to do. Low ratings baffle me unless you don't "get" this novel. Full review to follow.
June 1, 2017
I received a copy of this book via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. This book is about a couple called Richard and Eleanor. They move into a Victorian house along with their two young children. Strapped for cash to do up their new home they take in a lodger called Zoe who used to work at the same firm as Richard. In the upstairs room Eleanor finds scrawls on the walls of the name Emily. Eleanor starts to feel very uncomfortable in the house. She also sees that the eldest of her two daughters is starting to be effected.
I was honestly excited to read this book and expected to get a real scare. I knew that the scare would be more psychological than anything else. But for someone who gets scared easily I didn't get scared at all. The book read more like chicklit than psychological horror. There was a lot of focus on the relationships between Richard & Eleanor and also Zoe's relationships. The ending of this book was not very satisfying. It was an okay book with some well written true to life characters but just not what I was expecting.
I was honestly excited to read this book and expected to get a real scare. I knew that the scare would be more psychological than anything else. But for someone who gets scared easily I didn't get scared at all. The book read more like chicklit than psychological horror. There was a lot of focus on the relationships between Richard & Eleanor and also Zoe's relationships. The ending of this book was not very satisfying. It was an okay book with some well written true to life characters but just not what I was expecting.
June 28, 2018
1.5/5
I was completely let down and underwhelmed. The start of this novel was totally promising and opened a seriously mysterious circumstance. The story centered around the perspectives of three people: a couple Eleanor and Richard, and their lodger Zoe, they all lived in the new house that Eleanor and Richard had recently moved in with their two children, Rosie and Isobel. And then, the mystery slowly turned up as readers were revealed with every event that led up to the anomalies happening in the house. Sound intriguing, right? Well, it was the execution of the story that troubled me the most.
What I noticed first was the digestible writing. It was the kind of writing that easily imprinted itself into my mind, which increased my interest with the book. The words were carefully phrased and had a very slow tempo to it that I felt really appropriate with the atmosphere created for this novel. The suspense was built up gradually in accordance with the wording, which, in my opinion, always kept me on edge all the time... until I realized that the story was actually... nothing.
The feeling was like some one gave me a really heavy punch in the stomach, and in the chest, and in the head, I supposed. It was like the somber reality hit me so hard when I expected it the most. Let me clarify. The plot boosted my curiosity as Eleanor was aware of strange writings in the house, and her bizarre illness whenever she was in the house (her illness was gone when she got out of the house), and the horrible sensation emanated from the upstairs room, and Rosie's weird behaviors. These events all created a very frightening atmosphere that added up to the real mystery of the house: Emily. Eleanor discovered that Emily was the child of the previous family that used to live here, and she presented a series of strange scary activities. The neighbors noticed all kinds of weird things happening in the house as well. All of that, really interesting to read, right? I thought that too. Besides, Zoe's and Richard's narratives also intensified that feeling I got when reading this novel.
However, I was extremely frustrated. It turned out that the narratives of Zoe and Richard were not, in all cases, relevant to the main story. No one cared about the strangeness of the house. I thought this would be solved at the end of the book, but NO. I didn't know why the author let Zoe tell her boring story about her boring job, her unhappiness with her new seeming boyfriend Adam, her slight obsession with Adam and his present girlfriend Kathryn. Zoe also told about her unsuccessful relationship with her previous boyfriend Rob that was utterly irrelevant and tedious to read. This applied to Richard too. Richard kept thinking about his academic failures, his incompetence in his job, and his uselessness when he worked at home (he was immensely useless - doing nothing useful). I was under the impression that he was such a despicable man and was not deserving of his wife Eleanor. As I said, Zoe and Richard did absolutely nothing that could help Eleanor explain the mystery of the house. They didn't even notice anything strange. Yes, they did notice, but very little and then they pretended to be ignorant of it. It was such a stupid behavior! So Eleanor was the only protagonist in this book. However, the story didn't resolve thoroughly this mystery. Until the end, I still didn't get to the bottom of the history of the house, what really happened to Emily, to Rosie, why Eleanor was always sick in the house, the writings made by Emily, why the house was supposedly haunted. The final solution was very simple and gave me the impression that the author failed to solve the mystery herself, so she found the only way to escape the story that was totally dull and insipid.
It occurred to me that it was likely that this book was not intended to be a psychological thriller. Indeed, the story was not focused on the mystery as much as I like, rather than Zoe's life story and Richard's incompetence in work and relationship. Perhaps the author wanted to concentrate on telling the relationship of three main characters of this novel, and how the weirdness of the house impacted on it. Well, in that case, I must say the attempt to make it work was highly unsuccessful. I failed to see the connection in any of those things aforementioned that might combine together to make a good story. There was no starting point, the execution was poorly done, and the ending was not solved intensively.
I was completely let down and underwhelmed. The start of this novel was totally promising and opened a seriously mysterious circumstance. The story centered around the perspectives of three people: a couple Eleanor and Richard, and their lodger Zoe, they all lived in the new house that Eleanor and Richard had recently moved in with their two children, Rosie and Isobel. And then, the mystery slowly turned up as readers were revealed with every event that led up to the anomalies happening in the house. Sound intriguing, right? Well, it was the execution of the story that troubled me the most.
What I noticed first was the digestible writing. It was the kind of writing that easily imprinted itself into my mind, which increased my interest with the book. The words were carefully phrased and had a very slow tempo to it that I felt really appropriate with the atmosphere created for this novel. The suspense was built up gradually in accordance with the wording, which, in my opinion, always kept me on edge all the time... until I realized that the story was actually... nothing.
The feeling was like some one gave me a really heavy punch in the stomach, and in the chest, and in the head, I supposed. It was like the somber reality hit me so hard when I expected it the most. Let me clarify. The plot boosted my curiosity as Eleanor was aware of strange writings in the house, and her bizarre illness whenever she was in the house (her illness was gone when she got out of the house), and the horrible sensation emanated from the upstairs room, and Rosie's weird behaviors. These events all created a very frightening atmosphere that added up to the real mystery of the house: Emily. Eleanor discovered that Emily was the child of the previous family that used to live here, and she presented a series of strange scary activities. The neighbors noticed all kinds of weird things happening in the house as well. All of that, really interesting to read, right? I thought that too. Besides, Zoe's and Richard's narratives also intensified that feeling I got when reading this novel.
However, I was extremely frustrated. It turned out that the narratives of Zoe and Richard were not, in all cases, relevant to the main story. No one cared about the strangeness of the house. I thought this would be solved at the end of the book, but NO. I didn't know why the author let Zoe tell her boring story about her boring job, her unhappiness with her new seeming boyfriend Adam, her slight obsession with Adam and his present girlfriend Kathryn. Zoe also told about her unsuccessful relationship with her previous boyfriend Rob that was utterly irrelevant and tedious to read. This applied to Richard too. Richard kept thinking about his academic failures, his incompetence in his job, and his uselessness when he worked at home (he was immensely useless - doing nothing useful). I was under the impression that he was such a despicable man and was not deserving of his wife Eleanor. As I said, Zoe and Richard did absolutely nothing that could help Eleanor explain the mystery of the house. They didn't even notice anything strange. Yes, they did notice, but very little and then they pretended to be ignorant of it. It was such a stupid behavior! So Eleanor was the only protagonist in this book. However, the story didn't resolve thoroughly this mystery. Until the end, I still didn't get to the bottom of the history of the house, what really happened to Emily, to Rosie, why Eleanor was always sick in the house, the writings made by Emily, why the house was supposedly haunted. The final solution was very simple and gave me the impression that the author failed to solve the mystery herself, so she found the only way to escape the story that was totally dull and insipid.
It occurred to me that it was likely that this book was not intended to be a psychological thriller. Indeed, the story was not focused on the mystery as much as I like, rather than Zoe's life story and Richard's incompetence in work and relationship. Perhaps the author wanted to concentrate on telling the relationship of three main characters of this novel, and how the weirdness of the house impacted on it. Well, in that case, I must say the attempt to make it work was highly unsuccessful. I failed to see the connection in any of those things aforementioned that might combine together to make a good story. There was no starting point, the execution was poorly done, and the ending was not solved intensively.
July 13, 2017
Eleanor and Richard and their two young daughters have just moved into a Victorian house in London, which needs a lot of renovation. In order to cover their costs, they take in a lodger called Zoe, who lives in the basement.
The house was abandoned by the previous owners, leaving some of their possessions, and also an attic room, where the name Emily has been repeatedly written in the wall, along with other images.
The scene has been set for a creepy/ghostly story, as Eleanor investigates the house and the effect it has on the residents, especially her young daughter.
Instead we get reams of back story of how Eleanor and Richard met, Richard’s thwarted ambitions, Eleanor’s mother, Zoe’s past, her new boyfriend, why she split from her old boyfriend…… and a small amount about how the house may be making Eleanor ill.
I was really interested in what was wrong with the house, and became increasing frustrated by these unlikeable characters.
There was a sort of explanation at the end, but the whole book was over-long, and in the end, unsatisfying.
Thanks to Netgalley and Pan Macmillan for the opportunity to read this book.
The house was abandoned by the previous owners, leaving some of their possessions, and also an attic room, where the name Emily has been repeatedly written in the wall, along with other images.
The scene has been set for a creepy/ghostly story, as Eleanor investigates the house and the effect it has on the residents, especially her young daughter.
Instead we get reams of back story of how Eleanor and Richard met, Richard’s thwarted ambitions, Eleanor’s mother, Zoe’s past, her new boyfriend, why she split from her old boyfriend…… and a small amount about how the house may be making Eleanor ill.
I was really interested in what was wrong with the house, and became increasing frustrated by these unlikeable characters.
There was a sort of explanation at the end, but the whole book was over-long, and in the end, unsatisfying.
Thanks to Netgalley and Pan Macmillan for the opportunity to read this book.
August 6, 2021
In fairness to the author, i do not think this book is badly written. The author clearly has talent. But that is the only nice thing i can say about this book.
Publishing is a strange industry: great writers are passed over for any number of reasons, whilst dross continues to be printed. This work is sadly the latter. It might not be badly written, but it is one of the most muddled, boring and frustrating books i ve ever read. I ve seen it described as 'chick lit trying to a ghost novel' and i have to say i agree. I kept waiting for the action to start but the book only kicks into gear when there are about 10 pages to go, and tbh that not really worth slogging through 250+ pages of essentially descriptions of morning sickness and people making poor relationship choices. The characters are annoying and useless, the premise is never fully explained, i just wasnt sure what the author was trying to DO. A real mess of a book.
Publishing is a strange industry: great writers are passed over for any number of reasons, whilst dross continues to be printed. This work is sadly the latter. It might not be badly written, but it is one of the most muddled, boring and frustrating books i ve ever read. I ve seen it described as 'chick lit trying to a ghost novel' and i have to say i agree. I kept waiting for the action to start but the book only kicks into gear when there are about 10 pages to go, and tbh that not really worth slogging through 250+ pages of essentially descriptions of morning sickness and people making poor relationship choices. The characters are annoying and useless, the premise is never fully explained, i just wasnt sure what the author was trying to DO. A real mess of a book.
November 28, 2018
This does come into the domestic thriller genre (yes I know I just said I was sick of this genre ha!) but it was really well done.
There's a touch of the supernatural alongside real life family dramas.
I like the mix of characters and the story is super creepy and compelling.
As with all thrillers I don't want to go into the plot but I can tell you I really liked this one and the audio version is very good.
It's more for people who like character/relationship based stories than action based stories (no action here!).
There's a touch of the supernatural alongside real life family dramas.
I like the mix of characters and the story is super creepy and compelling.
As with all thrillers I don't want to go into the plot but I can tell you I really liked this one and the audio version is very good.
It's more for people who like character/relationship based stories than action based stories (no action here!).
November 20, 2017
*more a 2.5 Star
November 18, 2021
what if the real ghosts were the twin spectres of heterosexual malaise and gentrification all along?
August 4, 2018
Eleanor, Richard, their toddler daughter Rosie and baby Isobel move into a four-bedroomed Victorian townhouse in London Fields. The purchase has been quick and smooth - too quick for Eleanor. Whilst Richard is enthusiastic about this once-in-a-lifetime investment, she immediately feels uneasy about what should be their new home. She is particularly disturbed by an "upstairs room" whose walls are covered in the obsessive scribblings left by the enigmatic "Emily", the girl who used to live there. Soon the unease turns into actual physical malaise. Eleanor succumbs to a strange illness which seems to cast a shadow not only on the young family, but also on Zoe, the lodger who takes up residence in the house's basement. Will they escape the house's evil influence before it's too late?
Kate Murray-Browne's debut novel is, first and foremost, a "haunted house" tale which exploits many tropes of the genre. There are night-time terrors, doors with a character of their own, strange writings appearing on walls and mundane objects which take on a sinister significance when they turn up in the unlikeliest of places. Little children play a central role - their vulnerability heightens the sense of danger but, as most of the novel's readers would surely know, their very sensitiveness also makes them an ideal channel for evil presences. Or so would many horror films want us to believe.
As far as ghost stories go, The Upstairs Room is not particularly original or remarkable - though it is certainly well-written and I must say the scares are carefully orchestrated. Some scenes (such as Zoe's attempt to babysit Rosie) definitely creeped me out. I also enjoyed the book's deliberate ambiguity about the nature of the "hauntings" - a feature shared with the best "psychological" ghost stories from Oliver Onion's The Beckoning Fair One to Shirley Jackson's The Haunting of Hill House via James's The Turn of the Screw. The novel allows for a spectrum of readings - one may shrug off the weird events by giving them a rational, pscyhological explanation, treat them a straightforward "haunting" or seek an interpretation which combines the two.
Within the walls of this haunted house tale, however, resides a very different book - indeed, The Upstairs Room is also a hyper-realist novel which presents us with a slice of contemporary British life. It is inhabited by college and university graduates struggling to make the transition into the working world; young couples with empty bank accounts hunting for living spaces whilst undecided about "settling down"; men and women approaching middle-age who, as in Gabriele Muccino's early movies, keep rueing a youth which has just passed them by. The ghostly house becomes the unlikely symbol of the housing (and other) problems of the young and not-so-young and there are long passages (especially in the novel's third part) where the reader actually forgets that this is a supernatural yarn.
In this respect, The Upstairs Room "sister-novel" could well be Sarah Waters' The Little Stranger In that book, Waters used the "haunted house" tale as a pretext for a social novel set in the austerity of the post-war years. Murray-Browne's debut novel brings us closer to home. This is what makes it worth reading.
Kate Murray-Browne's debut novel is, first and foremost, a "haunted house" tale which exploits many tropes of the genre. There are night-time terrors, doors with a character of their own, strange writings appearing on walls and mundane objects which take on a sinister significance when they turn up in the unlikeliest of places. Little children play a central role - their vulnerability heightens the sense of danger but, as most of the novel's readers would surely know, their very sensitiveness also makes them an ideal channel for evil presences. Or so would many horror films want us to believe.
As far as ghost stories go, The Upstairs Room is not particularly original or remarkable - though it is certainly well-written and I must say the scares are carefully orchestrated. Some scenes (such as Zoe's attempt to babysit Rosie) definitely creeped me out. I also enjoyed the book's deliberate ambiguity about the nature of the "hauntings" - a feature shared with the best "psychological" ghost stories from Oliver Onion's The Beckoning Fair One to Shirley Jackson's The Haunting of Hill House via James's The Turn of the Screw. The novel allows for a spectrum of readings - one may shrug off the weird events by giving them a rational, pscyhological explanation, treat them a straightforward "haunting" or seek an interpretation which combines the two.
Within the walls of this haunted house tale, however, resides a very different book - indeed, The Upstairs Room is also a hyper-realist novel which presents us with a slice of contemporary British life. It is inhabited by college and university graduates struggling to make the transition into the working world; young couples with empty bank accounts hunting for living spaces whilst undecided about "settling down"; men and women approaching middle-age who, as in Gabriele Muccino's early movies, keep rueing a youth which has just passed them by. The ghostly house becomes the unlikely symbol of the housing (and other) problems of the young and not-so-young and there are long passages (especially in the novel's third part) where the reader actually forgets that this is a supernatural yarn.
In this respect, The Upstairs Room "sister-novel" could well be Sarah Waters' The Little Stranger In that book, Waters used the "haunted house" tale as a pretext for a social novel set in the austerity of the post-war years. Murray-Browne's debut novel brings us closer to home. This is what makes it worth reading.
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