This book was crazy. I don’t read a ton of thrillers, but I’m glad I picked this up. The main character is a social media influencer and decided to buy a murder house in the hopes of extending her career and turning a profit. But the house has different ideas and Sarah and her husband have skeletons in their closets that are starting to come out. This was a book that the twists and turns were not what I was expecting. I definitely enjoyed this one.

The Stranger Upstairs by Lisa M. Matlin is a typical, predictable thriller. It follows a very unlikeable narrator, Sarah Slade, who has just moved into Black Wood House with her estranged husband. Weird things start happening around the house as they attempt to renovate it. The house is the location of a horrible crime and two people died in it years prior to Sarah moving in. The more time Sarah spends in the house, the more her life falls apart. There are very few enjoyable characters in this book. One of them is a cat named Reaper. I found it easy to see where this story was taking us. This is a meh read for me. It had what I consider a dissatisfying ending. I’m sure I will be in the minority in my opinion. The book is twisty and is a great example of a gothic thriller. I think the more books like this I read, the harder it is for me to find them special. For what it is, I would say this is a 3/5 star read. I ended up with 2 copies of this book. I have an ARC and BOTM copy. This book is going to be published on September 12th, 2023. I do recommend it if you don’t read a lot of these kinds of stories. It is a solid book for someone new to the genre. Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group for allowing me access to an advance copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. This review will be found on Instagram and Goodreads indefinitely.
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Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC!

I was completely surprised by how much I enjoyed this book. I will preface by saying that I read the reviews and some stated it was a typical haunted house story. As someone who hasn't read too many, I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Sarah was one of the most unhinged characters I've read, and meant as an unlikeable protagonist, however I kind of found her refreshing. She owned her messiness and problems. She didn't apologize for them.

The settings were described with enough detail to paint a clear picture and it lent to the creepiness. I felt like I could see what was described and even smell what was described.

My favorite parts of this book are spoilers, but I will say there were a lot of twists I wasn't expecting, and the writing kept me completely engaged. I devoured this book and loved the ending SO much. It was dark, spooky, and fun in the most fucked up way. I'm shocked this is a debut and I'll happily pick up another Lisa M. Matlin book if she writes more.

This was a fast-paced, unsettling read for me. On one hand, it was a thriller about Sarah, a social media influencer who decides to buy a "murder house", a home where a brutal murder occured, with the intent to reignite her career and possibly save her marriage as well. Sarah wants to fix up the house, breathe life back into it, chronicle the process on social media and hopefully resell the house for a profit.

The book is set in Australia, a setting I love and the story itself is somewhat compelling for a thriller. But the narrative reads partially as a deep descent into mental illness and I couldn't help but feel for Sarah as she tried to somehow deal with her own demons, her financial situation and her failing marriage.

Sarah Slade is an influencer who has written a best selling self-help book. She has now bought a murder house with her husband to fix and flip and document on her website. Strange things start happening in the house; what’s going on?

I thought I was struggling with this book because I had a lot going on this month, but the truth is that it just wasn’t for me.

1) This is the second “haunted house” book I read this year and I didn’t care for either one of them.
2) This is the 5 billionth unreliable narrator book I have read and I AM OVER IT.

I skipped many pages just to get to the end to find out what happened, which is never a good sign.

That all being said, I appreciated the note from the author at the end and it made me feel bad that I didn’t jibe with her book. This is definitely a case of it’s not you; it’s me. I just wasn’t the right audience for it.

Many thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the opportunity.

Oh my goodness, this one was UNHINGED. I could not put it down and was entertained all the way through. I can’t believe this is the author’s first novel; she did great and I look forward to reading more from her.

Of course, the cover is gorgeous, but the storyline is genuinely haunting and twisted. This is the type of book that keeps you mentally pointing fingers at people, and makes you wonder just how much you can trust, and who. This is the perfect book to pick up this spooky season!

The MC, Sarah Slade, is quite an interesting character. I wasn’t fond of her, really, but her past was rather complex and that made me curious about her.

Read this one if you enjoy:
- unreliable narrators
- fast-paced books
- haunted houses
- marriage drama

A special thanks to the author for her lovely author’s note, and for being so honest with us. A truly lovely note, and I felt her on the doggy pictures request.

Thank you so much Netgalley, Random House Publishing Group, and the author for this ARC.
Pub date: 09/12/23

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Wow Wow Wow. I started this book and almost gave up but with first time reading a novelist I kept going and going and going. Once you start getting into this book you can't stop as you have to know what the heck is going on. I'm still not sure I really know but....
It is strange, creepy and weird but well worth reading. Kudos to this first-time author. Keep going Ms. Matlin. Thanks for giving me the creeps when I hear a weird noise in my house!

Wwoowwwww!!! This was her debut novel and I cannot WAIT to see what else she comes up with! Sarah Slade is a renown psychologist who purchases a “murder house” with her estranged husband in a perfect town to cash in on publicity during renovations and ultimately a big payday when it sells. But as she begins to chronicle the harrowing process, every aspect of her life begins to spiral out of her control. What day is it? She begins to lose track of her time and sleep and the house itself seems to have a growing sinister plan of its own. I was totally sucked in to this crazy story! I received this ARC read from NetGalley for agreeing to give an honest review.

Let me start by saying, isn’t this cover the most beautiful cover ever?! Don’t let it fool you. This is not a happy story. As I was reading I went from wondering if this is a ghost story, or our main character is crazy. I had many other theories going on as well….is this book like a Black Mirror episode? Is someone hiding in the attic? Soooo many thoughts that it kept me reading. Were any of my theories correct? You have to read to find out! I have heard you either love or hate the ending…..I am curious to know which spectrum those of you are who have finished this already. I love a good u reliable narrator, and this one had it done right! Except….I could have done without her having a drinking problem. But what can you do? This is a debut and was excellent! I will totally read her other books when they come out!

I also loved how vulnerable the author was in her author’s note at the end. She shared how she went through a mental breakdown constantly thinking of suicide when she was partway in this book. Thank you for sharing your story.

“𝐌𝐨𝐬𝐭 𝐩𝐞𝐨𝐩𝐥𝐞 𝐬𝐰𝐞𝐞𝐩 𝐦𝐨𝐧𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐮𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐫 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐛𝐞𝐝. 𝐈 𝐩𝐮𝐥𝐥 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐜𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐛𝐚𝐜𝐤 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐥𝐞𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐦 𝐜𝐫𝐚𝐰𝐥 𝐢𝐧.”

The Stranger Upstairs is a debut psychological thriller following Sarah Slade, the new owner of Black Wood House, who plans to renovate the mysterious murder house. Sarah was such a chaotic hot mess of a character. She was morally grey, sarcastic, and even unlikeable at times, but I was here for it. This one has lots of twists and turns, some which I guessed and others I never saw coming, and had me hooked until the end. 4⭐️

𝕎𝕙𝕒𝕥 𝕋𝕠 𝔼𝕩𝕡𝕖𝕔𝕥:
🏚️Creepy murder house
💔Marriage issues
🖤Unreliable narrator
🔀Twists & turns
🔨Psychological thriller

“Don’t kill me! Don’t kill me! Don’t kill me”

Sarah Slade is a self-made therapist, best-selling author, and social media influencer who buys a house that has stood vacant for over 40 years because of a brutal murder. Her goal is to renovate the house, record the process on her blog, and then resell for a profit. What could go wrong? The book’s premise was intriguing, and I was entertained enough to hang on until the end, but I think the author tried too hard to do too many things: a creepy atmosphere, an edgy, unreliable main character, haunting past secrets.

The result felt sloppy: glaring plot inconsistencies, unrealistic characters, and odd dialogue. And the ending felt flat and was unsatisfying. It seemed the author was going for shock factor at the expense of good writing.

The cover is beautiful, but the pages between need more polish. Readers looking for a bit of spooky and bizarre circumstances will enjoy this book but must be ready to suspend their disbelief.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine, Bantam for providing me with an advance copy of this book. My review is voluntary and reflects my honest opinion.

I was excited about a home improvement themed horror book, but The Stranger Upstairs didn't work for me at all.

To me, the writing was a little too rambling, the characters were flat and unlikeable and the plot was confusing. I was hoping for an Amityville Horror sort of book but I just couldn't get into this.

If you like books with a comic tone, you should definitely try this. Many people on Goodreads absolutely loved it!

Sad that this was a miss for me, but thanks to the publisher for providing an advance copy for review!

Lisa M. Matlin knocked my socks off with this book. The first few pages, I wasn't sure, but by the end of the first few chapters, I could not put this book down. What next? What next? The Stranger Upstairs will not disappoint those who enjoy a good mystery/thriller.
Also, I thoroughly appreciated the Author's Note at the end. Books such as these often leave me wondering how in the world did someone come up with these plots? Thank you, Lisa Matlin, for your candidness, answering my question. I appreciate your honesty and by sharing your story I hope this gives others inspiration.
Thank you NetGalley and Penguin Random House for providing me with this ARC. It was my pleasure to read and provide this review! #TheStrangerUpstairs #NetGalley

This was a twisty, layered domestic thriller debut that sees an Australian therapist/self-help social media influencer buying a murder house with her husband and hoping to profit off of renovating it and sharing about it on her blog.

I loved the depth to this book and the way the house felt like a character itself, the author also kept me guessing and wasn't afraid to go dark as secrets from the main character's past come to light and she tries desperately to keep them hidden. Plus that ending!! Pure chills, it was FANTASTIC!!

Great on audio narrated by Fiona Hardingham, with a not to miss author's note included at the end. Highly recommended for fans of authors like Sally Hepworth, Shari Lapena or Mary Kubica. Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an early digital copy and @prhaudio for a complimentary ALC in exchange for my honest review!

I had really high hopes for this one, and while it did have some pretty good tension building and some good unreliable narrator beats, I was overall kind of underwhelmed with it. For one, our main character, Sarah, is unreliable and that's fine, but she is painted as so unlikable and grating that I couldn't really invest in her too much. I can usually get behind nasty protagonists in stories like this, but it just felt like Sarah was ticking off so many tropey boxes for unlikability that it felt two dimensional. I think that if she had a bit more complexity to her I'd have been able to swallow it better. On top of that, the final reveal underwhelmed me, especially since it seemed to waffle a little bit between two solutions.

THE STRANGER UPSTAIRS was underwhelming, but there was enough meat and potential there that I will definitely be checking out Lisa M. Matlin's next book.

<i>I received a copy of this story from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.</i>

What a waste of potential!

This book is disappointing on so many levels. The characters are unlikeable, the thriller/horror elements are lacking, and the ending is a massive letdown. Add in poor handling of mental health issues and sloppy writing and you have a recipe for disaster.

I love a good thriller! But this story is so chaotic, trying to tackle too much, that nothing comes across as thrilling. We don't feel the town's hatred of the house, Sarah's fear, Emily's concern, none of it. It's just weird.

No one is on Sarah's side in this story because she's a deeply unlikeable character. And while I'm all for evil, morally grey, or otherwise atypical characters, there needs to be a reason for me to root for them. I need to be invested in them in order to care even a tiny bit about what happens to them. In Sarah's case, I just didn't give a crap.

I like nonlinear stories but the jump forward in time via news announcements or articles didn't meld well with the rest. It came across as lazy. As did the additional PoV introduced so close to the end. It would've been more thrilling/horrifying to see those scenes from Sarah's PoV.

And I can't even with the ending! What a cop out! Sure, the epilogue tries to undo a bit of that but it didn't land because I was already so checked out of the story. I just rolled my eyes, skimmed it, and let out a huge sigh of relief when it was finally over.

This isn't worth the time.

I received a digital copy of The Stranger Upstairs by Lisa M. Matlin via NetGalley. The Stranger Upstairs is scheduled for release on September 12, 2023.

Sarah Slade has just purchased Black Wood House, a house best known for the murder-suicide that occurred there years ago. The first owner of the house since the grisly events of the past, Sarah hopes to renovate the house, boost her flagging social media presence, and save her finances and failing marriage. As she starts to work on the house, her recruited builders begin to act strangely, she hears footsteps in the attic, and menacing notes convince her the house and the town around it might be trying to kill her.

The Stranger Upstairs has a solid gothic feel. For me, this was one of the strengths of the story. Sarah finds herself in a creepy house: bloodstains still on the floor, windows that won’t open, strange sounds, odd behavior from her pet, husband, and others who enter the house. The oddities of the house build throughout the novel, which worked well.

The escalation of events in the house puts a great deal of pressure on Sarah, which results in changes in her mental state that read true. This did help me feel for Sarah as the novel progressed. In the beginning, however, Sarah was very tough to connect with as a character. She is very obsessed with social media and her presence there, which I don’t particularly enjoy reading. On top of this, she had a level of self-awareness around her social media obsession that did not ring true. This felt like commentary from the author, which pushed me away from the character.

In terms of plot, there was an interesting set-up here, but many of the plot points as the story continued felt like coincidence, rather than logical progressions of the events. There were also some elements of what was happening in and around the house that were dropped and never revisited or explained. This led to the overall story feeling a bit unsatisfying in the end.

Overall, The Stranger Upstairs is a vibe-heavy psychological thriller with some stumbles in both character and plot.

Familiar thriller tropes executed perfectly...

This book didn't do anything new. But it did exactly what I wanted. And it did it so well. This really was that unicorn book for me. It gave me the experience that I always picture for myself during fall thriller season, but that can be so hard to come by in real life.

I had no idea where this book was going until the very end. The blend of creepiness, paranormal undertones, and just general strangeness created the perfect backdrop for a mystery that was surprisingly compelling. The twists and turns built slowly and were well integrated within the plot. It didn't rely on cheap red herrings, bait and switch moments, or flying off the rails to create feelings of uncertainty.

The book integrated excerpts from social media, news reports, notes, and journal entries to tell the story. Mixing up the way in which the story was told made the reading experience feel fresh and fast paced.

The voice-y-ness of the main character was a real strength of the book. She was cynical, funny, and tortured. I wanted the best for her, but I also kind of hated her. I found her career fascinating and really enjoyed seeing her interact with patients and co-workers. And her cat! I loved her cat.

The main thing keeping this from 5 stars was the ending. Not that the ending was bad. It's just not the resolution I wanted. But, maybe there will be a sequel!

The Stranger Upstairs by Lisa Matlin is a mix of a horror story and a psychological thriller. The story centers on Sarah Slade, a self-help author and therapist who buys a "murder house" with intentions of posting the renovation updates online to build her social media presence and accumulate sponsorships. The house was the scene of a gruesome murder years ago and the townspeople would just as soon see the place bulldozed, it may be haunted or is that Sarah's overactive mind playing tricks on her? And will Sarah's attempt at fame result in the secrets of her own past being revealed? What will the stress of all this do to her relationships with family, husband, co-workers, and neighbors?
There's a lot going on here, perhaps too much. I appreciate many of the things the author is trying to accomplish, but characters are underdeveloped, relationships are not fleshed out and left unresolved and there's a lack of commitment to some of the plot lines. I wish she had tried to do a little less and to do it better.
Thank you NetGalley and Random House Publishing - Ballantine for an advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

I was invited to read an ARC of The Stranger Upstairs and I am so, so glad I gave it a chance. The description put this book a bit outside my comfort zone as I anticipated it might lean towards horror. However, this is a solid mystery/thriller with a lot of extra creepiness factor from the "murder house" that the MC buys with plans to flip.

Sarah Slade is a self-help writer and a therapist, and this murder house is her newest project. She plans to use her social media to share the renovation process and hopefully make some extra money. But things start going awry very quickly, and soon we learn that Sarah and her husband Joe have a lot of secrets that they are hiding- and running from.

I love that I went into this one with very little knowledge of the plot. This synopsis is just what it should be, an enticing tease of what is to come and not too much information at all. Full of juicy secrets and twists big and small, this one was such a fun ride and one I couldn't put down. It was both a popcorn thriller and one with a bit more depth, especially through the lens of the author's note. The only small critique I have is one loose thread at the end, but I don't think a good book has to tie everything up. And maybe it was intentional! Lastly and the icing on the cake, I've never read this final twist before. Given how many books I read in a year and that this is in my top genre, that's huge!

Don't miss this one. I can't believe it's a debut and I am truly sitting on pins and needles waiting for Lisa Matlin's next novel.