Thank you to NetGalley, Lisa M. Matlin & Random House Publishing - Ballantine for an arc of The Stranger Upstairs in exchange for an honest review. This review is wholly my own & may not be reproduced.

First – being the cover snob that I am – I want to say how GORGEOUS this cover is! That is what first caught my attention to this book because Lisa Matlin is not an author that I was previously familiar with.

You’ll have to wait a little while for this one with an expected publication date of September 26, 2023, but it’s definitely worth the wait!

Sarah, a successful lifestyle blogger has purchased and decided to remodel the infamous Black Wood House – the scene of a grisly murder-suicide. She believes it will be great for her blog and hopefully her failing marriage. However, as renovations begin, strange things begin to happen. The handymen begin to act strangely and have accidents, she hears footsteps walking around in the attic, her bedroom still has bloodstains on the floor and she starts receiving ominous notes all around the house. The more renovations that take place, the worse everything becomes. Sarah is convinced that something is out to get her, but who or what might that be?

I won’t say that it was unputdownable, but it was a very psychological read. Is the MC crazy or is the house making her crazy or both? The MC spirals quickly and you begin to wonder what is real and what is in her head. This was a very quick and easy read that I finished in two sittings. Psychological and Atmospheric reads are my favorites and this ticked both boxes for.

It took just a minute for me to really get into it, but once I did, I was enthralled. The pacing was great from that point forward and Matlin did a great job of writing believable characters.

I definitely recommend picking a copy up once it releases!

4/5 Stars

I LOVED this one! There were so many twists and turns and I wasn’t expecting most of the events that happened. This comes out in September so make sure you add it to your TBR. It’s her debut novel too. You won’t regret it!

Wow, what an experience! This book was just everything I never expected and knew I wanted from a horror story. I never thought a book could affect me and actually make me as scared as I was while reading this. The premise is super eerie and immediately caught my attention. From the first few pages I already knew I was going to love it. The writing is impeccable, so vivid and compelling. Our main characters have a marriage in turmoil. They are not good people … and yet somehow the author had me rooting for them nonetheless, which had me so conflicted and I loved that. The humor is stark and so witty. The visceral insight into Sarah’s perspective was so stark, in your face, and shocking. This author doesn’t hold back or hide the darkest parts of Sarah, which made it feel so much more real and gritty. She is not trying to make Sarah out to be anything other than her flawed (maybe slightly psychotic) self to us - a therapist who delights in her clients’ misfortunes because it makes her feel not so bad about her own. There are moments of pettiness that had me saying well damn, wow girl, you need to get it together lol. Matlin has a talent for showing us the depth of a person and immersing us into the story. The personification of the house was terrifying in the best way. The bizarre, creepy, both supernatural and humanly evil events that begin to occur are dark, ominous, and haunting. Definitely don’t recommend reading this at night! This was a fantastic read and an author I would love to read from again!

The premise of renovating a murder house got me interested. I really enjoyed the writing style of Lisa Matlin. It was hard to put The Stranger Upstairs down once I got started. This was a fantastic read and I'm looking forward to more from this author.

Thank you net galley for the advanced digital review copy.

My favorite book of the year thus far!!! Highly recommend! 5 well deserved stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Thanks to NetGalley, Bantam Books and debut author Lisa Matlin for advanced copy for honest review.

Influencer Sarah Slade has an idea to buy a house to show her followers her creative side. But she doesn’t buy just any house, she buy a well known murder house, The Black Wood House. Her husband Joe isn’t completely on board. Not with the big purchase, their new start, the bedroom with the bloodstained floor, or the feeling you get when you enter. Actually Joe hates everything about this house where a murder suicide happened many years ago. The neighbors also do not like what Sarah is stirring up. They are against her and her renovations, and wanted the house torn down years ago (for good reason). As Sarah starts the renovation, odd things start to happen. Noises in the attic. Creaks in the flooring. Notes left that only Sarah would know about. Nothing said aloud about past events that could have led to anyone but her knowing. As things progress, she knows the house nor the neighbors want her there. How long can she stay until she goes crazy?

I really enjoyed this book! A solid 4 stars. I read most of it at night, which definitely increased the creepiness factor. I'd describe it more as a suspense than a thriller. The ending was not what I expected at all and some of the plot lines were left underdeveloped, but overall I enjoyed this one!

This book literally had me on my toes the entire time. I couldn’t figure out who was the culprit, if I trusted the house or if the FMC was really responsible for her own situation. So many secrets, so many twists and turns. What an amazing debut book from the author. 5/5. Read this book just so we can discuss it together, please and thank you.

Thanks to netgalley for this ARC.

I have to admit the book moved quickly and snared me in. And you think you have it figured out but then comes the twist.
Sarah & her husband Joe buy the "murder house" --a scene of a gruesome murder many years earlier that no one wants to go near (can't get anyone to come to the house to do the work) and the community wants it gone. They are going to renovate, share updates through social media, and flip it. However, this house seems to have "life" Sarah feels it--she sleeps in the master bedroom, where the blood stain still lingers, and her husband seems to always be nonexistent. They have been together 5 years and are linked by hometown tragedy and secrets that they had to run away from. these do slowly reveal themselves...As Sarah stays in the house, she begins to realize the community is shunning her and she is starting to feel ill on top of hearing many strange noises in the night. And no one will talk to her...she feels as the the neighbors are trying to scare her out...possibly even kill her. Or is it really the house? Slowly, Sarah is slowing her grip Intermittently, there is a preview through news reports that something drastic does happened at the house--bodies found but who? This certainly keeps you guessing as well as wanting to know what is Sarah & Joe's deal?!
I Liked the level of creepiness even if some of the back story needed more depth, especially with the husband. The story kept moving and was easy to take in. And the ending did not disappoint.
Thanks to NetGalley for the preview of this book :)

This was a good read. Super creepy and a few good twists. I couldn't put it down once I started it. Highly recommend for anyone who likes creepy thrillers! Thanks for the opportunity to read this! Great first book from this author.

Thank you Netgalley and Bantam for this early read(:

Sarah and her husband buy property in a high end neighborhood. Sarah is stoked about it because it’s dubbed “The Murder House” and she thinks she gonna get famous when she blogs about it and the renovation process her and her husband will be doing. Sarah and Joe have a pretty sketchy past. It soon comes to bite them in the ass. Is the house causing the chaos between the new owners, or the neighbors who don’t want anyone in that house? Either way, Sarah and Joe are in danger when creepy things start happening at the murder house where Bill bludgeoned his wife to death.

The realness of the writing in this book is what hooked me from the start. Lisa Matlin does a fantastic job at taking you right to the scene. I loved the creepy house and the creepy sounds. I even loved the idea that the neighbors would do whatever it took to get the tenant out.

If you loved Home Before Dark by Riley Stager and/or The Book of Cold Cases by Simone St. James then definitely grab this book asap!

Remember to tuck them toes in at night while reading this one 😜

Lisa M. Matlin’s The Stranger Upstairs introduces us to Sarah who has bought Black Wood House, the site of a murder in the 1980s that has sat vacant ever since. Using the money she earned with a best selling self-help book, she moves in with her husband, Joe, and rescue cat, Reaper. Her intention is to renovate the house with the idea of eventually selling it for a huge return. After all, the house is in a small, highly desirable town just outside Melbourne and values increase more than 30% each year on the houses there. What could go wrong?

When renovations start, weird occurrences begin. The plumber get hurt trying to repair a slow drip on the shower. Reaper attacks Sarah, who is the only person he sort of tolerates. A body is found at the house. Weird messages are found. A neighbor warns her that the murderer who used to live there thought someone was living in the attack and it drove the man crazy. He tries to tell Sarah that the house makes people crazy and she needed to leave before it makes her pay for it. Sarah chose to ignore him. On top of all the oddities, there are secrets. Secrets about the house, secrets about Sarah’s past, and secrets about Joe’s past. Who is the alleged stranger upstairs? Why does the house pulse with black energy when anger happens within its walls? Will Sarah be able to keep her sanity long enough to find the answers she seeks?

This book was a hot mess, but not enough to make me give up on it. The main character, Sarah, makes the frenetic pace and disconnectedness of what happens chapter to chapter, some times even within a chapter, like she climbed into Marlin’s body as she wrote it. I had to go back in some areas and try to connect the jump in what “media post” chapters were saying to see if there was something I obviously missed. (The answer is no, I didn’t miss anything.) The odd host of supporting characters were shallow and unlikeable, except Emily, a therapist Sarah worked with. ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group-Ballantine for the advanced copy. Opinions expressed are my own. This book is set for publication on September 25, 2023.

#netgalley #arc #bookstagram #lisammatlin #thestrangerupstairs #randomhousepublishing

A fun, deliciously creepy book that harkens back to THE HAUNTING OF HILL HOUSE and HOW TO SELL A HAUNTED HOUSE (the latter would have been a more faithful title, I think!).

The Stranger Upstairs is full of wonderfully disturbing moments and beautiful prose that fits the vibe perfectly. I really enjoyed the exploration of mental health, and the main character’s downward spiral—even if I was shouting at her the whole time!

However—I wasn’t really sure what this book contributed that was new to the genre! It read very similarly to many other gothic haunted house stories. That, and the title was admittedly misleading—which is hilarious, because Grady Hendrix’s title HOW TO SELL A HAUNTED HOUSE would’ve fit PERFECTLY here, while THE STRANGER UPSTAIRS wouldn’t have been a terrible title for the Hendrix book. ANYWAY. Make of that what you will.

3.5 stars rounded up. I recommend to lovers of gothic literature and haunted house stories!

Very grateful to Netgalley and the publisher for the arc!

Holy Guacamole! What a ride this was. I couldn’t put it down and was SHOCKED by everything. This is going to be the book of Fall, I’m calling it now.

This title will be released in September. MARK YOUR CALENDARS!

Thank you @netgalley and @randomhouse for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

You'll want to stay up to finish this one.

I would recommend this one! This reminds me of a tv show I had watched, but for the life cannot remember what it is called, anyways I think that you will really enjoy reading this one.

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for a copy of this book in exchange for my honest thoughts! You will want to check this one out when it releases in September!

Thanks to Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine, Bantam and NetGalley for sending the ARC of Lisa M. Matlin's debut novel 'The Stranger Upstairs.'

I flew through this one. It's a really enjoyable, very well-paced thriller cum horror cum murder mystery with a very strong dollop of commentary on the tyranny of social media.

A young self-help 'influencer' and her husband buy a murder house with the (her) plan to renovate and sell at a big profit because, despite social media appearances, all is not well.

What follows is a really, really well done account of a descent into some kind of madness as the layers of the characters' past are uncovered and the truths (or are the truths) revealed.

Is the house haunted or is Sarah the victim of the locals' desire to see the house - a blot on their perfect landscape and property prices - razed to the ground.

What of the previous owner?

That latter point, for me, is one of a couple of plot holes or at least an unresolved threads. Unless I missed it, we never really uncover why the local populace is reluctant to even acknowledge that previous owner's existence. The whereabouts of the surviving victim of the original murdering spree is also left hanging out there unresolved.

I very much enjoyed the exposure of the falseness of the Instagram/social media presentation of peoples lives. As well as the pressure of trying to survive current and past traumas (some self-inflicted) Sarah's struggling to keep up with the voracious demands of her social media presence.

All-in-all, great fun and I'm looking forward to more from Lisa M. Matlin.

Thank you to Random House, Netgalley and the author for this eARC in return for my honest review.

First off congrats to the author on her debut! The cover is absolutely stunning and pulled me in right away.

The story of Sarah and her husband purchasing this home, that had some very tragic events happen 40 years ago, was nothing short of craziness. When Sarah starts coming unraveled, with the things happening in the house around her, what will happen? Will she and Joe make it through their already rocky marriage? Will she end up going over the edge herself in this home? That’s what you will read about in this one.

The storyline was well thought out, though I felt it needed a little more of a plot and some extra time on the development of characters.

Overall I would give it a 3.5/5 🌟

Thanks Netgalley for allowing me to read this book. Sarah and her husband buy a house that has a history. She's hoping this change will help. While making updates to the house, she runs into more instances she can believe. This was an entertaining read.

A couple with a secret past binding them together buys a murder house to renovate but as they make their attempts the house seems to be fighting them, when they aren’t fighting themselves, in The Stranger Upstairs by Lisa M. Matlin.
Starting over isn’t unfamiliar to Sarah Slade, but this time as the social media influencer and therapist begins renovations on an infamous murder house, Black Wood House, she’s posting updates on her lifestyle blog so there’s greater scrutiny on the façade of a life she’s built to hide her secrets, including the deterioration of her marriage. With hopes that fixing up the house to make a tidy profit may help improve things between her and her reserved husband Joe, Sarah’s stress and anxiety levels ratchet up, making it easier to attribute some strange things happening in the house to that, but as sounds, like footsteps in the attic, suddenly slamming doors, and mysteriously menacing notes appear, Sarah is convinced that someone in the tightly knit community of Beacon is trying to intimidate her to leave. When Sarah tries to get to the bottom of who could be harassing her, she uncovers the mystery of Amanda, the woman who purchased the house before her who disappeared, sending her in a spiral that she could be next, especially if the truth about her were revealed.
With a house presented as an intriguingly ominous and haunting entity, the scenes that take place within the confines of those walls have an eerie feel to them to drive readers to question just what the reality of the situation unfolding is. While there were unnerving things happening in the house to build up suspense within the narrative the pace moved slowly until events reached a sudden boiling point and began to happen in a quickfire manner; the secret binding Sarah and Joe together, while terrible, was built up to be much more dire, causing the truth of it to feel overblown, especially with Joe’s lack of presence during the story. Sarah is yet another depiction of a woman with mental illness struggling to cope while using alcohol and being presented as unreliable as a result, which is disappointing because her mimicking ability and tendency was fascinating but generally underutilized and could have helped to set her character apart from others of her ilk in such a familiar story. Though the inclusion of blog posts and new stories varied the format of the text, there was a lack of emphasis on the touted social media element of Sarah’s character and the insertion of another character’s perspective for a couple chapters, though providing a level of rationality to balance the delusions seizing Sarah, felt disjointed in their incorporation, taking away from focus on how Sarah’s mental state changed.
Overall, I’d give it a 3 out of 5 stars.
*I received a copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

The Stranger Upstairs by Lisa M. Matlin will keep you awake at night listening for sounds in your attic!
Lisa M. Matlin knows how to write spine chilling novel’s, that will make you look at homes for sale totally different.
With a house that’s haunted by a family that the neighborhood loved, woe to the people that decide to buy it.
This was a read until you’re finished, fantastic thriller of a book!

Could you stay in a house where someone was murdered? 40 years ago, Bill Campbell brutally murdered his wife, Susan in Black Wood House. He attempted to do the same to his daughter, Janet, but she managed to get away.

Sarah Slade sees no issue living in a “murder house”. Sarah is therapist and best selling author of a self help book. Her and her husband, Joe, hope to fix up the house after a vacancy of 40 years. If they are successful at turning around Black Wood House’s reputation they stand to make a decent profit. Sarah believes she can fix the house but Joe is apprehensive and finds the house creepy.

There is so much work to be done on the house but we soon discover that’s not all Sarah needs to improve. Her marriage is failing and Joe grows more and more away from her. Sarah is also meant to be hard at work on her second book but is finding it harder to write.

Sarah’s plate is definitely full but you learn early on that she is not reliable. Her past is full of lies and her true identity/personality are a secret even to herself. I can’t say that I liked Sarah or Joe and that can put off some readers who want to root for someone.


I love the cover! There’s been a trend lately of thriller/horror books ditching the traditional black and red for bright pinks and purples.

I like when books tell the story in different medias. Blog posts, text chains and news articles are a fun way to move along the storyline. I was originally drawn to the social media aspect of the story. I wish that had been utilized a bit more. We could’ve seen Sarah sharing photos of updates and more feedback in the comments with her attempting to find people to work on the house. This aspect of the book kinda flopped for me. As well as the house renovation.

I feel like some of this was disjointed. I still enjoyed the book but I felt like the pace was off. Usually stories like this have the couple move in full of optimism, little things happening here and there and then a big finale. Maybe some readers will enjoy that this didn’t follow that same old technique. I would’ve enjoyed learning more about the original murder. I think some restructuring of the plot and timeline could make the book feel more complete.

Perfect for fans of psychological thrillers. Thanks NetGalley and Lisa Matlin for the opportunity to read The Stranger Upstairs. I have written this review voluntarily.