Want a spooky fall read? This is the one for you. A story about a married couple who are having marital problems. They purchase a house that had a murder in it many years prior. They planned to renovate the house, document it on social media and make a lot of money doing it. The house has other plans.

The story gives off paranormal vibes and you can't quite tell what is going to happen in this story. Is it the house that has doomed everything? Is the wife? Read the story to find out what happens.

For a "haunted house" scary story, The Stranger Upstairs was a fun and fast read! Sarah and her husband buy an old house with a history of murdered residents. Creepy things begin to happen in the house. The horrors of Sarah's background become known. Spookiness ensues! This is a book that can be consumed quickly, and it kept me wondering "what's gonna happen?". The ending was oddly satisfying.

I would recommend The Stranger Upstairs to readers looking for a light read, with short chapters, and a few little jolts of fear.

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC.

Creepy, haunted murder house meets psychological thriller. While reading, I enjoyed it. Now while reflecting on it, I realized just how "all over the place" this story was. I mean, it wasn't bad, it just had a lot going on. The twist was good, but I feel like it could have been played out better.

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC of this book to review.

Combine a social media influencer and a murder house and you get a creepy, yet compelling read!
Sarah Slade buys a murder house thinking she can fix it for a profit and maybe fix herself and her marriage at the same time. Sarah’s life is a mess, full of secrets and of course she is a therapist.

This is not a fixer-upper story! I was reading this at night and it was hard to read at times. After reading this, I won’t be buying a murder house!

Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin Random House for the eARC in exchange for my opinion.
Pub: Sept 12,2023

The Stranger Upstairs is a thriller about Sarah, a marriage counselor and published author who has purchased a home where a famous murder once took place. Sarah intends to flip the house and sell it for a profit. However, she faces opposition from the entire community, who has campaigned for years to have the house torn down after the murder occurred. Sarah has been hoping that the profits from this home will help her repair her own failing marriage, but it soon becomes clear that something is wrong with the house. Sarah starts hearing footsteps from the attic, finding ominous messages around the house, and believes that someone is watching her at night.

There are very few characters in this novel that are truly likeable, and while I have seen that done before, I think it works well in this one, especially because the stakes are so high. Sarah is likely going to be highly divisive for readers, and while she has some truly horrible acts in her past, there’s nothing particularly bad about her current motives. She wants to flip the house, sell it for a profit, and survive long enough to do so. She’s not trying to hide its past, she is just making an abandoned home liveable again. At one point in the story, she discovers that there are still secrets in the house’s past. Instead of trying to ignore it or cover it up, she tries to learn more and expose what may or may not be corruption in the community. In her personal life and her professional life, she makes profound mistakes, but the reader can still root for her larger goals without liking her as a person.

This book depended heavily on an unreliable narrator to build the mystery and tension and draw out any major revelations, and I think that was done exceedingly well. The reader is warned early on that Sarah has a history that has not been fully disclosed, and she frequently posts things on her blog that the reader can clearly see is not true. Sarah’s mental health deteriorates throughout the novel, and the timeline and plot start to derail because of it. I think that works particularly well: it brings us closer to Sarah as a character, as we are experiencing the house as she does.

The worldbuilding in this book was interesting, especially because of the unreliable narrator. From the very beginning, Sarah isn’t sure what to make of the house, whether it’s haunted or if paranoia is just setting in because of the house’s history. Our knowledge about the house and our perspective on it is heavily colored by Sarah’s knowledge and current state of mind: when she is paranoid, she describes hearing sounds, and the reader must determine whether they are there or not. When Sarah decides that there’s a rational explanation for events and offers one, the narrative does not offer any alternatives. This did make it hard to determine what is true worldbuilding, and what is a thought in Sarah’s mind. Because of this, there were a couple of revelations at the end that came out of nowhere for me. I’m not sure that this is necessarily a bad thing – I think it comes down to personal taste.

In all, I’ll give The Stranger Upstairs a 7 out of 10. This is a decent thriller, and I think fans of thrillers will enjoy it, but if you’re looking for something outside that genre this one might not fit the bill.

I was really intrigued by the storyline at the start and it was definitely an interesting plot but the execution kind of dulled for me. I didn’t care for the main character. And she was a huge mess which made the story kind of hard to follow. I ended up DNF this one because i just didn’t care and the story wasn’t picking up.

I went back and finished this book. I think after finishing it i enjoyed it a little more. I had wanted more spooky vibes from the house than was given. I was surprised by the turn of events tho. And this main character 😳 she is an unlikeable character but j liked the background info on her that comes toward the end. I liked that the ending was surprising and unique.

I also appreciated the authors note for this one. It gave me some good insight and i liked the author’s vulnerability and that she shared it to help others.

I’m giving this one a 3.5. I’ll round up in my rating.

3.5 stars rounded up to 4!

Synopsis: A social media influencer with a secret past buys a murder house to renovate, but finds more than she bargained for behind the peeling wallpaper in this gothic psychological debut.

For a debut novel is was quite an interesting and quick read. I felt like it was going into a few different directions at one point but didn’t expect the ending that came. I did enjoy it and it kept me engaged throughout the book.

Thank you NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group, Ballantine for granting me access to this book in exchange for an honest review.

Publish Date: September 12, 2023

This is another one I’m not quite sure how to rate. I think the book was actually pretty good, but I didn’t enjoy reading it very much.
My favorite part was the morally grey MC. I love dark lead characters, and I thought the way Sarah was portrayed was excellent.
Overall, I thought this book was well done, but I think “madness” books just aren’t for me. I don’t personally enjoy storylines where the MC’s life is slowly spiraling out of control and they’re questioning what is real and what isn’t. That being said, the way it was done was still very effective! I’ve just realized I don’t like being in that type of anxious headspace while reading.
I also think there were a few plot lines that were left hanging in the end, and I wish there was more resolution.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for the ARC ebook of The Strangers Upstairs.

OMG! I promise you, you have just found your new thriller. This book will drag you under from the first page and not let you up for air until the last page is turned.

Meet Sarah: influencer, wife, therapist. She has it all, or so she wants you to think.

“ ‘Don’t be afraid of the truth,’ she says. Be afraid of believing your lies.”

Sarah has bought a new house to rehab. Not just any house though, a house where an infamous murder took place 40 years prior. As the physical walls begin to come down, so do the walls of Sarah’s carefully constructed life.

One of the best new thrillers I have read this year.

Shout out to NetGalley and Random House Publishing for the advance copy of this book!

There were a lot of things I liked about this book. One was that I was not bored or dreading picking it up like I do with a lot of stories. Another was that it was a true psychlogical thriller. A lot of stories say they are, but they don't end up very psychological, or thrilling. I loved reading about Sarah. Lonely, doesn't even know who she truly is, misses her sister like no other, craving validation. It's sad but also relatable. It was a mystery til the end who was torturing Sarah, or if she was losing her mind. I felt actual concern about her character and wanted to get to the end to see if she'd be OK. I don't end up liking a lot of main characters or feeling connected to them. But I did to poor Sarah. The way she "slipped into another's skin" was interesting and tragic, and the ending was very original, and spooky. I loved it start to finish.

Thank you to Lisa M. Matlin, Random House Publishing Group, Ballantine, Bantom Books and NetGalley for the e-ARC of The Stranger Upstairs.
First of all, a horror – psychological thriller books is hands down my go to especially the closer we get to fall and spooky season. This is the authors debut novel and the competition in this category is fierce. It is a little slow at first, and at times it is hard to follow Sarah’s side thoughts that come around to real time – and that is ok. I will circle back around to what she writes next because she is good. Very good.
Sarah Slade is a therapist and self-help writer. With her husband, Joe, they buy the Black Wood Murder House that they intend to flip for a hefty profit. She has dollar signs in her eyes at every turn, but life isn’t going the way she expected it. Sarah and Joe’s marriage is falling apart and their renovations are not going as expected. The house seems to know things – things that no one else knows. As each day continues, Sarah seems to spiral more and more out of control. As a reader, you will suddenly encounter news stories from 15 days out and blog entries from the future with a lot of clues- then flip back to real time.
This is a page turner! With twists and questions that would make a great buddy read!

Riddled with suspense!

The story started off strong, hooking me with its dark premise and unique voice. I was immediately drawn in by the protagonist, Sarah, who buys an infamous ‘murder house’ with her husband, Joe, after which they quickly move into despite the tragedy that occurred inside years prior. It’s clear from the start they’re having marital issues and at one point, she even admits her suspicion that he’s having an affair. Then the notes start appearing.

The setting did a great job at creating an underlying tension and at one point it left me wondering if there was a supernatural element to the story. The pace slowed down in the middle as Sarah’s drinking increased and she forgot to take her medication, but it picked back up again in the last quarter of the book. The characters were believable but very unlikable, except for Emily, which made the ending all the more difficult to read. The theme of mental illness was very clear and woven throughout the story in clever ways, but in the end I felt confused about the specific condition Sarah suffered from. Her slippery mental state was palpable to read, including the scene when she collapsed at work and had to be sent home. The twist was interesting and somewhat logical, although I felt it a little too coincidental that the effects would play out in the exact same way with the previous owners.

3/5⭐️⭐️⭐️
For readers who enjoy dark topics, creepy settings, and unreliable female narrators.

This is a twisty psychological thriller with a supernatural element of a possibly haunted murder house.

Almost all of the characters in this book are unlikeable, except for a side character that works with Sarah and her cat Reaper.. who is my favorite character in the entire book. Sarah has bought a murder house with the intention of flipping it with her husband and documenting it on her blog and instagram hopefully to get sponsers and make some money. The further we get into the book, the more haunted the house feels, like its actively trying to get Sarah and her husband to leave. Sarah starts spiraling and we aren't sure if its the house or her own past coming back to bite her in the butt.

This is definietly intriguing in plot, but I think the characters were a little too unlikeable for me, it made it hard to connect with or care what happened to any of them. Minus the cat. Who I was very invested in seeing what happened to. But it had potential, and the house was sutible creepy, Lisa Matlin did a great job of bringing the haunted house vibes to life.

While this book didn't 100% work for me, I would definitely check out other books by this author in the future.
Im going to leave a slight spoiler below so if you don't want to know anything stop reading here...
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The cat lives

I was granted an early e-arc copy of this book, thanks to Netgalley & the publisher.

This is a debut novel from Lisa M. Marlin. We follow an influencer as she buys a house with the intentions of fixing it up, but as she is renovating the place up, she might have gotten herself into more than she bargained for. This house is known for a murder-suicide that took place years ago. Our influencer is planning on documenting the project for her social media accounts, but how much can she do for the views? When will the happenings be too much for her?

What a fun debut novel this was! I wasn’t quite expecting it to take some of the turns that it did, and they aren’t my favorite things to happen in books, but I was invested in this book for the vibes and they were defintlety giving all of the spooky Halloween type vibes. Overall, I had so much fun with the book, even though it was out of my comfort zone. I would highly recommend that you don’t go into this book at night, unless you are not easily scared.

The premise of this book was so promising, but it fell a little short in the execution, for me. It was hard for me to care about and connect with the characters, and there was a lot of showing rather than telling.

Thank you NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group for a complimentary copy of this novel.

A 5-STAR DEBUT NOVEL!!! A Gothic, Psychological thriller with a murder house full of secrets. Social media influencer and therapist, Sarah Slade and her bartender husband, Joe, buy Black Wood House. But it’s not just the house with shady and murderous secrets. Sarah and Joe also have secrets of their own to keep hidden. Who are they really? What are they hiding from? And the town itself where Black Wood House is located seems to have its own secrets as well. A woman previously disappeared just before Sarah and Joe arrived. Before her, almost an entire family was murdered and their daughter disappeared. And Black Wood House doesn’t seem to want to be renovated. Sarah begins to hear footsteps in the attic at night, her cat begins to act weird and gets very sick. Strange notes begin to pop up that only Sarah would know the information contained in them. She’s slowly losing it. Will Sarah and Joe’s secrets be their unraveling or is Black Wood House going to claim them just like the previous owners?

I am not sure I would ever buy a house with a murder in it... especially after this book! This book was so twisty and I was not sure where it was going to end up. Great book for the fall season. You don't want to miss this thriller!
Thank you to Netgalley and Random House for allowing me to read this book.

DNF at 25%. I found myself not invested in the story or the unreliable narrator of Sarah Slade. It was an interesting premise for a novel, but ultimately I didn't care who was murdered in the house during renovations.

Thank you to Bantam, Random House, and Netgalley for a copy for review consideration.

A creepy psychological thriller which has the MC questioning her grip on reality and of course leaves us readers throughly invested.

Wowzers! What a ride! Amazing debut novel, suspenseful, thrilling! Unexpected twists and turns, you never know what’s going to happen next!
Self-help guru Sarah Slade and her husband Joe buy an infamous murder house that’s been vacant for 40 years to renovate and sell. The people of Beacon aren’t happy with the renovation of Black House and aren’t afraid to let it be known. They think the house should be demolished. Strange things start happening and Sarah blames her neighbors. Soon she finds notes in the house with things no one would know. Sarah thinks her past has come to haunt her along with the house. Questioning the neighbors doesn’t seem to be helping but she finds out she isn’t the first owner of Black Wood House since the murders happened and that she disappeared not that long ago. Can Sarah find out what’s happening in her home before she disappears too?
Thanks NetGalley for this ARC is return for my review.