Tag: mystery

2.5 star, adult

Review: The Family Upstairs by Lisa Jewell

Fives @ Down The Rabbit Hole
The Family Upstairs by Lisa Jewell

Soon after her twenty-fifth birthday, Libby Jones returns home from work to find the letter she’s been waiting for her entire life. She rips it open with one driving thought: I am finally going to know who I am.

She soon learns not only the identity of her birth parents, but also that she is the sole inheritor of their abandoned mansion on the banks of the Thames in London’s fashionable Chelsea neighborhood, worth millions. Everything in Libby’s life is about to change. But what she can’t possibly know is that others have been waiting for this day as well—and she is on a collision course to meet them.

Twenty-five years ago, police were called to 16 Cheyne Walk with reports of a baby crying. When they arrived, they found a healthy ten-month-old happily cooing in her crib in the bedroom. Downstairs in the kitchen lay three dead bodies, all dressed in black, next to a hastily scrawled note. And the four other children reported to live at Cheyne Walk were gone.

The can’t-look-away story of three entangled families living in a house with the darkest of secrets.

I must say that I was quite disappointed with this thriller. Not that it was particularly badly written or anything, but for my usual expectations for this kind of story, it just fell short for me, personally. Having said that though, perhaps this could be considered a lighter type of thriller, and is maybe more suitable for readers new to thrillers, since I didn’t find it neither particularly chilling nor scary – again, all personal opinions of course.

This story follows a couple of POVs, the main one being Libby Jones, who finds out she is a the sole inheritor of a large estate. This estate has a twisted history though, and was left abandoned for a reason. Simultaneous to the story line of Libby investigating her mysterious past, another voice begins narrating the “chilling” events of the past leading up to the house being left to Libby.

The past involves the downfall of Libby’s birth parents (from riches to rags, if you will), and the following families who come to live with them to share the cost of the large house. However, not all is as it seems with these families who arrive, as the family slowly discovers. The twisting and perversion of this household is the “scary” thing that happens in the book, though I did not personally find it to be that convincing. While I could understand perhaps how it may have come about, I wasn’t particularly enamoured with the way things transpired, and as such, did not find the book too enjoyable. Or perhaps this is a sign that I have read too many thrillers and have certain expectations set for the level of drama that I want to see happen. Either way, unfortunately, this book was just not for me.

Overall Recommendations:

If you are looking for truly haunting and chilling thrillers, I would recommend looking elsewhere. The Family Upstairs follows the unveiling of the secrets of the past, of what happened at Libby’s birth home to cause it to be abandoned until she was of age. If you are new to thrillers, and may not want huge scares or major anxiety-inducing plots, this may be the book for you! I would say that it has many elements of a classic thriller, but they are all fairly tame – so if that is what you are looking for, this may be right up your alley.

4.5 star, adult

Review: The Lying Game by Ruth Ware

Fives @ Down The Rabbit Hole
The Lying Game: Ware, Ruth: 9781982143411: Books - Amazon.ca

On a cool June morning, a woman is walking her dog in the idyllic coastal village of Salten along a tidal estuary known as the Reach. Before she can stop him, the dog charges into the water to retrieve what first appears to be a wayward stick, but to her horror, turns out to be something much more sinister…

The next morning, three women in and around London—Fatima, Thea, and Isabel—receive the text they had always hoped would NEVER come, from the fourth in their formerly inseparable clique, Kate, that says only, “I need you.”

The four girls were best friends at Salten, a second rate boarding school set near the cliffs of the English Channel. Each different in their own way, the four became inseparable and were notorious for playing the Lying Game, telling lies at every turn to both fellow boarders and faculty, with varying states of serious and flippant nature that were disturbing enough to ensure that everyone steered clear of them. The myriad and complicated rules of the game are strict: no lying to each other—ever. Bail on the lie when it becomes clear it is about to be found out. But their little game had consequences, and the girls were all expelled in their final year of school under mysterious circumstances surrounding the death of the school’s eccentric art teacher, Ambrose (who also happens to be Kate’s father).

Yes, another Ruth Ware! She has become an author I always look out for, and so far none of her books have disappointed me. Her thrillers are always incredibly chilling and I am always finding myself flipping through the book quickly trying to finish it in one sitting!

The Lying Game follows a group of four girls, who are now grown women with jobs. The story follows our main character, Isa as she is one day called back to Salten by her old friend who she hadn’t seen in years. A dark past lies between the four girls who were once best friends at school in Salten before they left their separate ways after a tragic incident, never to return. However, one ominous text from the girl who stayed calls them all back to face the ghosts of their past.

The Lying Game is a game that was invented by these girls while they were at school, and it involves (as you may have guessed) lying to peers and authority alike, in order to score arbitrary points for best lies told. There are a main set of rules to the game, and the book outlines each step of the game as sections in the book (e.g. Part 1: Tell a Lie). I found that this was an exceptionally effective way to frame each section of the book, and really set the tone for the suspense. As we go through the rules of the game, it parallels the set up of the lies that come back to haunt all the girls. It truly was a magnificent build up of suspense that I thoroughly enjoyed. The cohesion that this set-up provided was also gripping.

So why not 5 Drink Me Potions? I think one thing that I can knock it for was the predictability of the plot. While it wasn’t particularly obvious or anything, the big reveal for me personally wasn’t particularly shocking – although that’s not necessarily present in every thriller novel anyway. However, for those of you who love to be held in suspense, carrot dangling in front of you for the big reveal, this might just fall short for you. For me, I didn’t mind, since the reveal is really just a part of the denouement, and I enjoyed how everything stepwise came to a climax and resolved itself.

I really enjoyed that this book was a thriller (of course), but also simultaneously a moral story for all fabricating lies can truly come back to bite you, harming yourself and others along the way. It is also a tale of friendship, where a simple text could bring together four friends across cities, dropping their lives for the sake of each other when needed. This is a kind of friendship that isn’t always easy to find, and it was nice to see it reflected here in this story. Last little tidbit from me is that I also really enjoyed the ending and how everything was solved and how the story ended for our imagination. I thought it was a great ending to The Lying Game. Read it for yourself and see what I mean!

Overall Recommendations

The Lying Game follows our protagonist, Isa, as she is pulled back to the scene of her past along with her 3 (ex-)best friends when they receive a text from their friend requesting they come to her aid. These four have a long history together back at school when they used to play the Lying Game, making up fanciful tales and spinning stories about the people around them. Quickly we find out how lies can truly come back to bite you, even spanning years after the lie has been told. What happened in the past to make these girls separate paths, and what was the real truth of that night? Find out in this exciting thriller by Ruth Ware!

3.5 star, adult

Review: In a Dark, Dark Wood by Ruth Ware

Fives @ Down The Rabbit Hole
In a Dark, Dark Wood: Amazon.ca: Ware, Ruth: Books

In a dark, dark wood

Nora hasn’t seen Clare for ten years. Not since Nora walked out of school one day and never went back.

There was a dark, dark house

Until, out of the blue, an invitation to Clare’s hen do arrives. Is this a chance for Nora to finally put her past behind her?

And in the dark, dark house there was a dark, dark room

But something goes wrong. Very wrong.

And in the dark, dark room….

Some things can’t stay secret for ever.

Yet another Ruth Ware, albeit one of her oldest ones. I just couldn’t resist, there’s something about her work that draws me in, and need I have any other reason to pick up the novel and read it? Although this may not have be my most highly rated one from her, I was certainly captured by the spookiness of the setting of this thriller – I had very real goosebumps from the beginning all the way until the end.

This story is set in an eerie forest inside an almost entirely glass house, clear from all sides, in supposedly what is a summer getaway spot. The story follows the main character Leonora, who is called to a bachelorette (or hen) party by a friend she left behind long ago to this very house. Immediately as we get to the glass house, something feels off, or at least very creepy. The house is completely surrounded by the dark woods, giving the impression of eyes looking into the house from all sides at all times. Even the bathroom hardly has any privacy. I found that this was a great setting for all the suspenseful action to take place.

For me, the plot felt fairly average, nothing too special about it – there were the usual red herrings, the feeling that any or all of the parties involved could be guilty, and it’s a classic case of the main character suffering from amnesia trying to remember desperately the details of the night before. However, I thoroughly enjoyed the way this thriller was written from its first person perspective. Ruth Ware masterfully crafts all the elements of a thriller – I was genuinely nervous from the first sentence of the book. It made me feel like I was also searching through hazy memories for the truth of that night, which for me marks the feel of a true thriller!

Overall Recommendations:

In a dark, dark wood is a story of our main character, Leonora, struggling to remember what happened on a tragic night in a creepy glass house during a failed bachelorette party. What secrets from the past surface to haunt her at this party, and why can’t she remember what happened? A truly thrilling experience from beginning to end, if you are the type of reader who enjoys the experience of reading through the novel for the way the suspense and tension pulls you along, you will definitely enjoy this book. Despite its relatively normal plot, I was completely spellbound along with Leonora in search of the truth.