
Member Reviews

What a fun, unique thriller this was!! I was hooked the second I started reading and was upset every time I had to put this book down to do something else. All I wanted to do was keeping reading!
I am ALWAYS a sucker for a good haunted house story and this one was so different than others I’ve read. It has a Jumanji-type ending that, honestly, still had me guessing?
There were a couple of twists that I didn’t really like ~at the time but the more I read, the more sense they made and the better they got? So by the end, this had me reeled back in!
Honestly, I can’t explain my reading experience without spoilers so suffice it to say, this book is a WILD ride and I had a great time!!! But if I had to explain it with spoilers, they are here: [I thought the reveal that Sarah stole her sister's boyfriend and that's why they ~fled their hometown was such a letdown. Because I definitely thought they'd killed someone. But the more that was revealed about that, the more it aligned with what I'd already guessed. Though after the fact, I did appreciate that that was a slow reveal. And I LOVED the ending. At first I was annoyed that it was *just* carbon monoxide poisoning and the house wasn't really haunted. But the fact that the house couldn't be torn down and there was no evidence of a leak and is probably just a really angry, actually alive house was SO COOL and honestly made me rethink my whole opinion of this book and absolutely love it!]
The characters were ones you love to hate. The writing style is really fun and sucks you right in! And I loved learning more about Australia (not me having to look up a lot of common Australian animals and phrases I wasn’t familiar with).
Overall, this was a solid thriller and I’m so glad to have read it!!! I will definitely keep this author on my radar and I can’t wait to read more in the future! And if you picked this as a BOTM selection, you made a solid choice!
Thank you to NetGalley & Bantam Books for allowing me to read this in exchange for an honest review. What a treat!!

Instagram influencer and celebrity therapist Sarah Slade buys a notorious home, infamous for the murders that took place in the house 40 years ago where a seemingly normal husband takes a hammer to his sleeping wife and daughter one fine morning.
Sarah Slade finds a therapist job in the coveted town of Beacon and promises her followers to keep them updated about home renovations on her website.
Little did Sarah know that the house not only has dark secrets but also a life of its town. The house hates to change, to be better just like herself?
Ever since she moved to the house, her husband seems to be absent. Is he still brooding over the mistakes committed in their past?
I finished this book in one sitting, I could not put this down and this book had me guessing till the very very end . Totally unexpected twists though I wish some of the characters were more fleshed out. Some loose ends but over all managed to keep me on the edge till the very last page.
Highly recommend this author!
Thanks to Netgalley and Penguin Random House for an ARC of this book for my honest opinion!

3.5 stars,
I just read another haunted house book that had much higher reviews. That I didn't really like. Now this one has lower reviews and I enjoyed the heck out of it.
It has hateful ass characters who I wanted to see what happened with and the perfect creep factor that I felt like someone was watching me while I read it.
The author has a note at the end where she describes some of the experiences of her own life and I actually really liked that. She describes the "dark night of the soul." and I know exactly what she was talking about.
Booksource: Netgalley in exchange for review.

The Stranger Upstairs follows Sarah, a social media influencer and therapist who purchases a murder house to both renovate for profit and make content for her blog. She hopes that renovating this house together with her husband will help save her deteriorating marriage. However, her neighbors do not want her there and are unwilling to hide their dislike. She deals with them and the other challenges that come with living in a house everyone is scared of throughout the rest of the book.
This book was very creepy and the story was unlike other psychological thrillers I have read. It was a fast paced read that left me thinking about the book even when I wasn't reading it. It is a great debut novel! This was 3.5 stars for me!
Thanks to NetGalley and Random House Publishing-Bantam for the ARC!

This is average for me. There were some things about the writing that irritated me like the author’s tendency to use words like “creeeeeak” and “meowwwww.” Thank just felt distracting. There is also an element to the ending that is becoming tiresome in thrillers.

Thank you to the publisher for sending me an eARC of this title!
I gave this one the good old college try, and unfortunately, gave up at the 40% mark. I thought to myself, "Do I care about the ending of this?" and when I realized I had no desire to know what happened, I figured it was best for me to put it down.
I think what bothered me the most was the main character/narrator. I found her to be absolutely insufferable and exhausting. She clearly has some skeletons in the closet (skeletons I guess I will never know about since I decided to not finish the book) and a bad attitude that I could not stand. I know a lot of readers enjoy "flawed characters", I felt this MC was beyond that - I thought she was detestable. I didn't want to spend another 100+ pages in her head!
I do want to recognize that the author was likely trying to create a character that was horrible, so I do have to give her credit for that! But this went so far that I didn't want to know anything about her - I can't think of one likable trait she had.
I also didn't find the sections that were supposed to be spooky to be spooky at all. I wasn't scared, didn't feel suspense (and I was reading it mostly in the dark while my husband slept), I mostly just felt bored.
All in all, bummer for me on this one. On to the next!

This is a creepy, unnerving novel about Sarah Slade, a writer (and a fake therapist), who moves into a house where a husband murdered his wife and attempted to murder his daughter decades prior. While living there with her husband, she begins to have hallucinations, be paranoid, and think she's hearing things in the house. I was surprised at the end of this but it wasn't a favorite. I would still read another book by this author!

Black Wood house's newest owners aren't who they say they are... and the house knows. Best-selling therapist Sarah Slade and her bartender husband think they've found a good deal when the Black Wood Murder House goes up for sale. They plan to blog about the renovations, get some sponsorships, sell it and start their new life with the massive profits. Unfortunately, the townspeople and, it seems, the house itself, want the house bulldozed. As things continue stacking up against her, Sarah will have to race to finish the renovations while she still can.
I absolutely loved this one and flew through the bulk of it. The only issue I had was that the end got very confusing. Ultimately it mostly sorted itself and the last bit was phenomenal, but there was definitely a bit at the end where the characters became extremely hard to keep track of and I had to read it twice.

For a debut novel I believe Lisa Matlin has hit a home run out of the park folks!!! I loved the alternating timeline to bodies discovered yet again that fall victim to the Black Wood House, but then flashes back to current residents Sarah Slade and her husband living amongst all the strange and creepy happenings since they moved in and started trying to renovate!
The house isn't just a house it seems, Sarah and Joe aren't who they seem, so many secrets waiting to be revealed! Throw in the past murder 40 years ago and also a previous missing owner and there are a few more secrets to this house! Well done unfolding of a murder house with an even creepier attic inside!! I loved every minute of this and loved the suspense ride!! This book has a sadness that is so eloquently written dealing with mental health and bravo to the author from start to finish with this debut!! I hope there is something else in the works for another twisted filled psychological thriller because I will be watching for one!! Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for the gifted copy to immerse myself in and find another hit!!

"Want a great deal on a house? BUY ONE WHERE SOMEONE WAS MURDERED! Here's the killer truth: A brutal murder can slash the price by as much as 50%. But would YOU do it?"
Sarah Slade, author, therapist and influencer, has bought the infamous Black Wood House. It was the scene of a vicious murder/suicide forty years ago and no one has lived in it since...except someone has. No one will even acknowledge her existence, but a woman named Amanda lived in the house for a brief period of time. Sarah is anxious to extend her social media following and thinks that the renovations will be a boost to her blog and popularity, at least until her new book comes out. Well, that is, if she ever gets around to writing it. Sarah is not doing well - she can't focus on her patients, her husband Joe is increasingly absent, and she is losing time. But she loves the house, even down to the bloodstained bedroom floor. Besides, she can't give up when she has so much to lose.
Confession time: I would buy a house where someone was murdered.
So I thought this book would be perfect for me. But I had a hard time with it. Sarah was just so erratic. I can deal with her being unlikable, but she seemed to bounce around like she was living in a pinball machine. Is she having some kind of breakdown? Is someone stalking her and leaving her notes? Has someone poisoned her cat? Or is she just plain old crazy? For most of the book, I couldn't tell. I could never really plunge myself into the storyline and get lost the way I like. This was really leaning toward 2 stars for me but the ending and epilogue did save it a bit. Overall, I was rather disappointed though. This book really should've been tailor-made for my weird little heart.

Creepy and compelling. I flew through this one. Well done, Lisa -- I can't wait to see what you come up with next.

The Stranger Upstairs is, in a word, disturbing. I continued reading, thinking at some point the book HAD to get better. I've got news for y'all----it didn't.
Plot: Sarah Slade is self-help author with a penchant for trouble. That's the only way it could make sense that she roped her husband, Joe, into buying Black Wood House, a home notorious for the murders that occurred there years ago. The house is considered haunted, if not a downright abomination. Let's just say the neighbors have some strong feelings about wishing for the property to be bulldozed instead of renovated. When strange things start happening in the house (surprise, surprise,) Sarah feels like she's starting to go crazy. She's receiving cryptic messages, gets headaches all the time, and swears she's seen one of her neighbors lurking around the house. When everything in her world seems to be spiraling out of control, what will be the breaking point?
Aside from the fact that this book is alarmingly dark, it struggles seriously from a lack of plot. The amateur status of the writing unfortunately really shows. There was something about it that made me want to keep reading to see what the end resolution could possibly be, but I was left disappointed. Don't waste your time on this one. It borrows from the overused "haunted house" trope and is pretty predictable and boring. The shock and awe factor the author was going for didn't work at all for me.
Thank you so much to Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine, Lisa Matlin, and NetGalley for the ARC of The Stranger Upstairs!

The Stranger Upstairs tells the story of Sarah Slade. Though, you probably know her as Sarah Slays - well-known influencer and self-help guru.
The carefully constructed facade Sarah built behind to crumble shortly after purchasing a famous murder house. A husband woke up one morning and brutally murdered his wife in bed with a hammer before attacking their daughter (she escaped and was never heard from again), and then killed himself in the bathroom. The house sat empty until Sarah decided to flip it for the Gram, and turn a nice profit.
The house may have other plans though.
The town might not be so welcoming, as many knew the family/the victims. Are they telling Sarah everything?
And soon, we learn Sarah has quite a few secrets herself.
At first, I thought this was going in the same direction as Just Like Home by Gailey, but I promise the twist is one you won’t see coming! It was un-putdownable, and I enjoyed watching Sarah slowly spiral 👏🏻👏🏻

I was really excited to read this book because Murder House! Who doesn't love that?! The cover is beautiful and really draws you in. Unfortunately, I felt a little unsatisfied at the end of the book and wanting more.
Sarah Slade is a therapist and social media influencer who buys the infamous Black Wood House. She is hoping to renovate the house for resale and wants to document the process for her viewers along the way. She is hoping this will help salvage her marriage with her husband Joe does not want much to do with her or this house.
The infamous Black Wood House is where Bill Campbell bludgeoned his wife Susan and tried to kill his daughter Janet Campbell, before ultimately killing himself. Janet got away and was found running down the street yelling "Don't kill me, Don't kill me, Don't kill me and has not been seen since.
Sarah and her husband know all about the Black Wood House and that is what Sarah thinks is going to make this journey with her viewers so much more exciting. The only problem is that Sarah and her husband have some secrets from their past that they would like to keep under wraps, but the house starts to expose.
The book started out great and was very promising, but the second part of the book got weird. I felt like Sarah became annoying at times and I found myself not being able to invest in the storyline. I had a hard time connecting with any of the characters as well. I will say that I did not expect the twist at the end which helped but overall this book was just average for me.
Thank you Netgalley and Ransom House Publishing-Ballantine for the gifted arc for my review! I also chose this book as my book of the month because the cover is just gorgeous!

Creepy. Twisty. Brilliant. Terrifying. Atmospheric.
The story is not a new one, but the way this one is written is really good! An influencer buys a murder house – what could go wrong, right? Nah, it does not go the way you think at first. It goes… worse. And then some more worse, but not in the ways you thought at first.
Honestly, I can’t believe there are no other books by this author. The writing is so good, I will be keeping an eye out for her next books!

I really enjoyed it! A creepy story of a manor that was left empty for many years, until a blogger, Sarah, buys it to renovate it. And then things go really bad. As the story progresses, we uncover new secrets which adds more intrigue to the story. I wish the story was a bit more tighter: some areas were not fully developed, and it felt a but unfinished. But I would recommend this whole=heartedly for this spooky season.
Thank you NetGalley and Random House Publishing for an early access to this thrilling novel!

Thank you Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine, NetGalley, and Lisa M. Matlin for gifting me this ARC in exchange for an honest review.
What would you do if the murder house you bought didn’t want you inside?
The Stranger Upstairs centers around a social media influencer with a shady past, Sarah Slade, who just purchased a murder house in hopes of renovating it and selling it, all while documenting her journey on her online blog. She moves into Black Wood House with her husband, Joe, and her cat, Reaper. Sarah and Joe’s already rocky marriage starts taking a turn for the worse as soon as they move in. Strange things begin to occur almost immediately. Sarah begins to find random notes around her house, hearing noises at night, and even her cat starts acting peculiar. If that wasn’t bad enough, her neighbors aren’t giving her the warmest welcome either. It seems as if everyone, including the house, doesn’t want Sarah there. But what are her neighbors hiding? Is someone out to get Sarah, is she going crazy, or is the house actually alive?
I’ll start off by saying that this book was definitely an entertaining read. I kept trying to guess what was going on and building theories in my head the whole time I was reading. I’ll admit, there were a couple of things that felt a bit unbelievable (won’t disclose as this is a spoiler-free review). There are quite a few twists and turns throughout the book and the ending is definitely not one I was expecting. I wasn’t a huge fan of the end, though. The book had such an interesting premise and I feel as though more could have been done with it. Nonetheless, it was an overall good thriller and definitely very psychological.

This was a wild ride and I was totally on board! I would never, ever buy a murder house! Also, Sarah is kind of a bag of dicks and a nightmare rolled into one! This was my 1st book by Lisa M. Matlin but is not going to be my last!
#TheStrangerUpstairs
#NetGalley

3.5 stars
This book was wild. I really enjoyed a lot of this. It was kinda crazy and was mostly entertaining.
Sarah and Joe buy and move into the local murder house. They want to complete some renovations, sell it and make a quick profit. Along the way A LOT of lies and secrets are slowly revealed. Sarah likes to portray herself in a certain light, but it’s not accurate to who she really is.
The house itself plays its own character in this story and things get fairly twisty towards the end. All sorts of scenarios were running through my mind while I was trying to figure out WTF was actually going on. The big reveal was a little bit less exciting than I would have hoped for, but it worked.
If you are looking for something a little bit different that is also dark and creepy then this is for you.
*** I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley and this is my honest opinion. ***

This is one of my favorite books I've read this year! It is a very eerie and atmospheric book. It has a really good amount of spooky moments that make this book intriguing and the writing is able to pull you right into the story. This was spectacular! Special Thank You to Lisa M Matlin, Random House Publishing, and NetGalley for allowing me to read a complimentary copy in exchange for an honest review.