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Audiobook Review

The Family Upstairs

By
Lisa Jewell
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LENGTH

9 hrs and 37 mins

READ BY

Tamaryn Payne, Bea Holland, Dominic Thorburn

average rating is 5 out of 5
Performance
average rating is 5 out of 5
Overall
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Excellent, Unforgettable, Best of the nest

Very good, thoroughly enjoyed, 

Good, Solid, Enjoyed many aspects

STAR RATINGS GUIDE

Story? Good. Narration? Good. Result? Fantastic.

THE BIRDICT

🧡 I’m here to say all the good things about this audiobook. I think it is one of Jewell’s best and I’d bet even her grocery list is gripping so that’s saying something.

💚 This has everything you’d want in a creepy, clever thriller. There’s a murder-suicide, a toxic commune, multiple missing people and layer upon layer of mysteries. And it all starts with an ordinary woman inheriting a massive derelict house in one of London’s most expensive areas.

💜 What makes this so smart is that it is not a mystery/thriller for the sake of a whodunnit. Yes, it keeps you guessing, but it’s a thinky one. It explores what it takes for people to join an extreme community and the effects on the minds of the children within.

SQUAWKING THE TALK

🎧 Three narrators, all of them absolutely brilliant, not just great voices, but well cast for their roles. Libby’s voice was particularly good as she sounded like a relatable person not, as is so often the case, a haunted woman before anything’s even happened to her. The female voices are just about different enough to allow the listener to differentiate and it’s always nice to have multiple narrators.

🎧 The chapter listings need to be revisited to reflect the numbering correctly. This is mostly down to starting them as “chapter 1” instead of “credits” and “part 1”.

BIRDS OF A FEATHER: SIMILAR AUDIOBOOKS

No spoilers for this one. Maybe next time!
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Click For Spoilers

The Family Upstairs

THE BLURB

In a large house in London’s fashionable Chelsea, a baby is awake in her cot. Well-fed and cared for, she is happily waiting for someone to pick her up.

In the kitchen lie three decomposing corpses. Close to them is a hastily scrawled note.

They’ve been dead for several days.

Who has been looking after the baby?

And where did they go?

Two entangled families.

A house with the darkest of secrets.
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