This was a slow burner but actually gripping and surprising - I really enjoyed it. I enjoyed the two storylines running together and building to the conclusion. I pictured Suzie as an old woman as I read it but obviously she wasn’t and she was just worn down by grief - very interesting and recommended.

Wow, what a book! This is the first book I’ve read by this author and it certainly won’t be my last. I found the plot a little bit slow to get going but then it suddenly picked up and I could not put this book down. It kept me guessing and on the edge of my seat till the very end. I highly recommend everyone to read this!

This book started very slowly. The girl upstairs was noisy and inconsiderate of her neighbour, playing loud music , generally disturbing the peace. Then she goes quiet, too quiet. She had gone. No one can find her, to be honest no one is even looking that hard. Except for her erstwhile neighbour who was very concerned and refuses to stop looking. The book gathers pace until you can't put it down. An excellent whodunit.

This is a psychological thriller that much is true
And this is my very honest review
Of a complementary copy of the book
Which I've read and taken a look.....

Told from the first person point of view
I wondered just what 'I' was going through.
'I' keep complaining about Emily who
Makes lots of noise and 'I' complain to.

There are hints and clues but nothing clear
Except no one seems to find Emily dear
When she seems to disappear
No one else seems worried, that is clear.

'I' turns out to be Suzie Arlington and she
Seems grief stricken, isolated and sad as can be.
However, she's also concerned about Emily so
Decides to alert others to not knowing where she'd go.

Get ready for surprises after a steady start
There's lots of moaning and groaning in that part
It picks up and gets much better
After Suzie tries delivering a parcel or letter.

This isn't a favourite read for me
But could be for you if you decide to see
It is strange, but eventually sorts out
And then you discover what its all about.

By the title was I very interested in this one. I found it to be a quick read, but it was a bit slow at certain points. However, it still kept me hooked and turning the pages to see what would happen next. I did enjoy a few twists tossed in there.

I really enjoyed this book and was gripped from the beginning. It did not turn out how I expected at all! I felt really sorry for Suzie who is obviously traumatised after the loss of her husband and becomes obsessed with finding out what has happened to Emily her upstairs neighbour who has disappeared without trace. A heart breaking read at times and a glimpse into how easily some one can go missing and yet not be missed.

Whilst it was a slow burn, it was a book that I had to keep reading. It was desperately sad at times but I also felt uplifted by Suzie's determination. Perhaps the ending could have explained a bit more but I won't put a spoiler in here.
Thanks to NetGalley, HarperCollins and One More Chapter for this ARC in return for an honest review.

Suzie can hear every little thing that goes on up in Emily's apartment, everything. Then one day all goes quiet. What happened to Emily? Wow! this book started off a bit slow and even a bit cliched, but once it got going it just really took off! Lots of twists, turns and a bunch of fun!

We meet our protagonist, Suzie, a young woman who is living in a downstairs flat in a busy part of London. She has lost her husband when he died a couple of years before now and she has never fully healed. She has withdrawn from most aspects of life and seems anxious about interacting with outsiders, or even leaving her flat. She does hold down a job and has maintained her limited lifestyle in the flat the the couple purchased. She is stuck between needing to go home to Hove and her reluctance to leave the home that she and her deceased husband had together.
Then, a new neighbor, Emily, moves into the upstairs flat. Suzie does not interact with her directly but due to the construction, she is aware of all of the comings and goings of her upstairs neighbor. One night, on Emily's birthday, Emily has her work friends over to the flat for a party and Suzie gets drunk listening to the girls. Shortly following this event, Emily goes missing and Suzie, despite being an unreliable witness who barely knew Emily, is the only one who seems concerned for her whereabouts.
I found this story to be an interesting and twisting book with characters that were flawed but intriguing. The story is page-turning and keeps you paying attention right until the last page.
I found the back and forth between Emily and Suzie to be an interesting style choice. The only issue I had was that I found the ending somewhat difficult to follow. This may have been deliberate, or it may have been due to this being an eARC and therefore there were some issues with the text attributable to that. I look forward to seeing it in print to better judge this.
Overall, a great read for thriller lovers.
#TheGirlUpstairs #NetGalley #HarperCollinsUK #OneMoreChapter

A very intriguing debut from Georgina Lees.
The characters are well written and I found the plot believable, which added to my enjoyment of the book. It is a slow paced, steady read but once you get into it, you just have to find out what had happened to Emily and why was Suzie so withdrawn?

It’s not an ‘edge of your seat’ psychological thriller but it’s still a book I enjoyed reading right to the end, with enough twists, turns and questions to keep me interested.

I look forward to reading more from Georgina. .

Thank you to NetGalley from the ARC in return for an honest review.

Suzie lives in the downstairs flat. She spends most of her time off work sick drowning in grief.
Emily lives in the flat above. Everything she does seems to annoy Suzie. Suzie knows exactly what she's doing by the sounds coming through the floorboards or by looking through the spyhole, of her door.
Then suddenly the noises stop. Emily is missing. Suzie raises the alarm but no one seems too concerned.

Has Suzie just disappeared. Or has some thing happened to make her go. Is she safe. Emily is determined to find out what has happened to her. Even if it means taking risks and getting into trouble with the police..
Thoroughly enjoyable book.
Many thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the opportunity to see an arc.

Neighbours. If you live in a block of flats there’s no avoiding them. They can, unknowingly, invade your privacy until you almost feel part of their lives, almost an unseen lodger. The loud phone calls. The incessant music. As the narrator, Suzie, says in the opening pages, ‘I knew Emily before I saw her. The harsh smack of heels against cheap wooden floorboards.’ I know that only too well.
Suzie Arlington now lives alone in her once cherished small flat in Islington. The flat above is rental and the tenants come and go. And then comes Emily; noisy, young and sociable. It’s the noisy part that arouses Suzie. And she complains first to Emily’s landlord and then the council after one particularly noisy birthday party. There’s a skirmish brewing….
Suzie’s family are concerned about her but she pushes them away. As the story unfolds, we learn the tragic reason for Suzie’s withdrawal from life. But when she goes upstairs to deliver a package she discovers that Emily had gone. The flat door is on the latch, a chest of drawers is empty and the bathroom has been cleared. It arouses Suzie from her cocoon as she decides to find Emily. The police are involved and one of them already knows of Suzie’s story. But Suzie takes matters into het own hands and is soon on the trail.
London is a character in itself in this novel in the way that it attracts people and draws them in. People who want to make a name for themselves. The pavements can be paved with gold for some but It drove Suzie and her husband apart and led to the tragedy. It can also be an anonymous place of jostling crowds and litter strewn streets.
Emily is a younger woman who’s escaped from her family and moved to London for a fresh start. She loves it, finds a job and is soon embroiled in an affair. She is also becoming annoyed with Suzie and her complaining. This is an effective way of the reader seeing events from her point of view so that you see Suzie from another’s eyes.
However the majority of the story is told from Suzie’s perspective. But Emily’s chapters are quite touching as she talks about her plans for a fresh start in London which seems to initially be a success.
But the book isn’t only a study of London life but also of grief, depression and being unable to move on with life. It wasn’t a fast paced thriller but an easy read and I didn’t see the twist. I felt it was convincing.
The Girl Upstairs is a good, solid, effective debut novel which had an interesting question at its heart. How well do you know your neighbours despite perhaps living on top of them?

I didn't enjoy this book at all, the blurb sounded interesting so I requested a copy, unfortunately I feel it peaked there and that's where I should have stopped.
It had promise, but the characters came across as thoroughly unlikeable.
Emily was childish and inconsiderate and Suzie just an annoying nosy neighbour who definitely needed some psychiatric help (despite her "tragic" backstory) they wouldn't have ever been friends just because they were neighbours.
Emily's parents were ridiculous and their story was pointless and unnecessary.
The story just went on and on, far longer than it needed to and the police were portrayed as entirely useless at every turn (why did they have to keep looking at the floor?) It was so unrealistic that the nosy neighbour is a better detective than the CID officers and that they would keep running round to her house and telling her things about the case and that their reaction to her interference and withholding information is just "oh well don't do it again"!! Seriously?
As I said, it started off as promising but didn't deliver and was about 300 pages longer than it needed to be, perhaps would have worked better as a short story, I definitely wouldn't class it a psychological thriller.
My thanks to Netgalley and the Publisher for my eARC in return for my honest review.

I am still thinking about this book a week after finishing it. The characters are so plausible, and I think that is what makes it so spine chilling. This book really makes you think about your surroundings and people you know in passing. Brilliant plot and conclusion. Would recommend.

This is a page-turner. Verging on the creepy side I read this book in two days. The characters are all so believable, their backgrounds , their lives, their friends and families made this book totally compelling. You never know who is moving in and The Girl Upstairs proves that point.

EXCERPT: I heard Emily before I met her. The harsh smack of heels against cheap wooden floorboards. The gentle buzz of a phone followed by a surge of high-pitched notes, sometimes angry, sometimes excited, rarely sad. The sadness came through the slim pipes in the bathroom, the soft gurgles that slipped down the plumbing and escaped through my extractor fan. The incessant music thrumming through the ceiling, invading my space. Emily has terrible taste, mostly new tracks, screeching pop singers holding long, high notes, the same beat in every song.

I knew Emily before I met her. Italian food on Mondays, meatballs rich and smothered in tomato sauce. Tuesdays, something eggy. Wednesdays, something meaty. Thursdays and Fridays, mostly wine. A takeaway on Saturdays, usually Chinese, the sticky leftover noodles escaping through the shared food waste bin like silky worms breaking through soil. Sometimes I could smell the food and other times I knew from a discarded receipt in our communal hallway.

On Sundays the shake of bottles being emptied into the recycling bin outside from her weekly wine shop. A crate of six, always. They sound lovely from the tasting notes I found clinging to the letter box. A malbec, blackberry and vanilla notes with a finish of chocolate and nutmeg, soft and warm.

I've been in London over ten years now and I haven't found a quiet place. I live in Angel, Islington. The nice part, with the grand white townhouses, the ones advertised as being on tree-lined streets. I can't see any trees, just blunt shavings in the ground, weeds rising and arching over the stubs like gravestones. I'm on the ground floor of a two-storey house and Emily is above me. She moved in over six months ago and I thought she might leave, as people do here. People Emily's age, early twenties, they come and go like the seasons, and it's spring now. Time for Emily to leave.

ABOUT 'THE GIRL UPSTAIRS': How well do you know your neighbour?
Would you trust them with your life?

I heard Emily before I saw her. The harsh smack of heels against cheap wooden floorboards. The loud phone calls. The incessant music.

I knew Emily before I met her. Discarded receipts in our communal hallway. Sticky leftovers in the shared food waste bin. Wine shop vouchers in the letterbox.

Now she’s gone missing, and I’m the only one who can find her. The only one who can save her.

Because I know her best, and I heard everything.

The Girl Upstairs is a spine-tingling psychological thriller of grief and obsession that explores how lonely London can be and how sometimes it’s our neighbours who see us most, who know us best…

MY THOUGHTS: While I didn't find this to be an absolutely gripping psychological thriller, it is an interesting and compelling debut novel that I would put firmly into the domestic thriller camp.

It's funny the things that you miss when they're gone. Suzy has a noisy, inconsiderate neighbour upstairs, but when she hasn't heard any noise for a few days, she becomes concerned and raises the alarm because, strange as it may seem, no one else is remotely worried about where Emily might be. This lack of concern worries Suzy, and it becomes her purpose in life to find the missing woman.

I enjoyed this debut novel. It's realistic, sympathetic and utterly believable. It doesn't set out to shock, or apall; the author just goes quietly about her business of telling an intriguing story with just a soupçon of lingering menace to entice the reader onwards.

Both Emily and Suzy are interesting characters. Emily is an aspiring writer, shunted off to London by her parents while they endeavour to repair their fractured relationship. Suzy lost her husband suddenly and tragically and is struggling to cope. Both women are emotionally fragile and vulnerable, and have far more in common than either realise.

I really enjoyed the subtlety of the writing, and I will definitely be lining up for this author's next offering.

I read/listened to The Girl Upstairs and enjoyed the narration as delivered by Meg Travers.

⭐⭐⭐.6

#TheGirlUpstairs #NetGalley

I: #georginaleesauthor @onemorechapterhc

T: @GLees_author @OneMoreChapter_

#contemporaryfiction #domesticdram #mystery

THE AUTHOR: Georgina studied creative writing and film at university and has since pursued a career in video-games journalism, covering some of the most popular games in the world. Her psychological thrillers are inspired by her surroundings, from the congested London streets to the raw English countryside. She can be found playing games, writing stories, and reading anything from fantasy to crime fiction.

DISCLOSURE: Thank you to Harper Collins UK, One More Chapter, via Netgalley for providing both a digital and audio ARC of The Girl Upstairs by Georgina Lees for review. All opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own personal opinions.

For an explanation of my rating system please refer to my Goodreads.com profile page or the about page on sandysbookaday.wordpress.com

This review is also published on Twitter, Amazon, Instagram and my webpage

Suzie lives in a flat in Islington, and it’s clear that there’s been some kind of major trauma in her life. The flat above hers is rented by Emily, a party girl who makes lots of noise, so Suzie is in contact with Emily’s landlord.

Then Emily disappears, and Suzie thinks that she’s the only person who really knows her and can find her.

A gripping suspense story with lots of twists and turns, and an unexpected ending!

Thank you to NetGalley, HarperCollins, and One More Chapter for an advance reader copy in return for an honest review.

Kept me guessing throughout the entire book. I would recommend this to anyone into whodunnit/thrillers. The characters are that perfect mix of flawed but endearing that I love so much and the book kept me engaged and keen for the entire thing - I read it in two sittings.

This novel was tense, not just in relation to the mystery of the missing neighbour, but also in its portrayal of the two women and what is going on in their lives, unseen. There was powerful sense of loneliness yet also a feeling of claustrophobia in the way that home is not always a sanctuary and life catches up with us whether we hide away from it or not.
I enjoyed the book and would read more by this author but I did feel that the plot could be a little tighter so that we are carried along by it and can look back and see the track of key plot points when we reach the conclusion.

I enjoyed this book. It was intriguing the way that the plot developed. You felt that her search was a total lost cause, but things turned out to be rather unexpected.
A good book.

This review will be posted with Waterstones