I read this in one day! I loved it and couldn’t put it down. Black Wood House was creepy! I wasn’t sure if the house was haunted or Sarah was losing her mind. It definitely kept me guessing. The ending was great.

𝐈𝐭'𝐬 𝐥𝐢𝐤𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐬𝐞 𝐝𝐢𝐬𝐚𝐩𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐬. 𝐋𝐢𝐤𝐞 𝐢𝐭 𝐰𝐚𝐧𝐭𝐬 𝐦𝐞 𝐛𝐚𝐜𝐤 𝐢𝐧𝐬𝐢𝐝𝐞, 𝐛𝐮𝐭𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐬𝐥𝐢𝐜𝐞𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐚𝐩𝐩𝐥𝐞 𝐢𝐧 𝐚 𝐩𝐚𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐥 𝐚𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐧, 𝐬𝐦𝐢𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐚𝐝𝐨𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐥𝐲 𝐚𝐭 𝐦𝐲 𝐬𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐲-𝐡𝐚𝐢𝐫𝐞𝐝 𝐜𝐡𝐢𝐥𝐝𝐫𝐞𝐧. 𝐎𝐫 𝐦𝐚𝐲𝐛𝐞 𝐢𝐭 𝐰𝐚𝐧𝐭𝐬 𝐦𝐞 𝐚𝐬𝐥𝐞𝐞𝐩 𝐢𝐧 𝐦𝐲 𝐛𝐞𝐝 𝐬𝐨 𝐦𝐲 𝐡𝐮𝐬𝐛𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐜𝐚𝐧 𝐦𝐮𝐫𝐝𝐞𝐫 𝐦𝐞.

Most people wouldn't buy a murder house to renovate and document its progress on her Instagram, but Sarah Slade is not most people. 𝐌𝐨𝐬𝐭 𝐩𝐞𝐨𝐩𝐥𝐞 𝐬𝐰𝐞𝐞𝐩 𝐦𝐨𝐧𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐮𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐫 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐛𝐞𝐝. 𝐈 𝐩𝐮𝐥𝐥 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐜𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐛𝐚𝐜𝐤 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐥𝐞𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐦 𝐜𝐫𝐚𝐰𝐥 𝐢𝐧, Sarah thinks smugly.

A therapist and author of a bestselling self-help book, Sarah has just bought Black Wood House, the cozy Victorian home in which a man bludgeoned his wife to death with a hammer and tried to do the same to his daughter, who managed to flee the house only never to be seen again.

Sarah needs a distraction from her failing marriage, and this renovation and flip will bring her the cash and the adulation from her followers that she so desperately craves. But the problems begin almost immediately...her husband becomes more and more distant, and he refuses to sleep in the master bedroom whose floors are still stained with blood. She is having difficulty concentrating at work, the neighbors are suspicious and withdrawn, but worst of all, the house is speaking to her. It feeds off of her vitriol and secrets, and Sarah has an abundance of secrets.

This book truly got under my skin. Sarah's deeply unsettling personality changes, the menace of the house (which was most definitely a character in its own way), and the heightened sense of paranoia and tension had me reading long past my bedtime, forcing me to save the last 20% for daylight. A stellar thriller that will have you questioning everything and everyone. A huge thank you to NetGalley and Bantam/Random House Publishing for this early read. THE STRANGER UPSTAIRS will publish September 26, 2023.

I LOVED this book. I finished it in two sittings because it was so engaging. The plot twist was not one I saw coming!

This book threw me for a loop! So crazy, loved the twists and turns. The unreliable narrator doesn't always work for me, but it certainly did this time. Highly recommend! Thanks to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group Ballantine for the ARC!

I highly recommend this twisty psychological thriller when it comes out in September! Lisa’s debut novel is so creepy that I gasped at some points. This is haunted house meets woman unhinged. I love a good unreliable narrator, and this did not disappoint!

Meet Sarah Slade, a therapist and Instagram influencer, who along with her husband, moves into Black Wood. This house has a seriously dark past, but Sarah wants to renovate it. Strange things start happening, and it’s almost like the house doesn’t want her fixing things. Her life spirals when bodies start being found on the premises, her marriage is in trouble, and neighbors turn against her and the house. Sarah clings to her lies and secrets, but it soon looks like everything will soon come crashing down…

Five stars all the way, dark, twisted , and will have you second guessing yourself all the way through the book. And the characters themselves, I wouldn't trust any of them in real life, as for the house itself, it gives you the atmosphere that your not alone in it .

Sarah Slade is a social media influencer who has made the controversial decision to purchase and document her journey renovating an infamous murder house called Black Wood House. Years before, a horrific murder-suicide took place in the house and it has sat empty ever since, or so Sarah is told. Sarah sees this as her opportunity to start over, expand her blog, make a killing on the house’s resale, and hopefully bring her closer to her estranged husband, Joe. As Sarah begins renovations, she meets resistance in every direction. The town wants the house to be bulldozed, Sara’s husband thinks the house is creepy, contractors don’t want to step foot inside, and the house itself seems to be rejecting the changes. When Sarah starts hearing footsteps throughout the house and finding menacing notes about personal things no one should know, her life begins to spiral downward at an alarming pace. Can she make it out of Black Wood House alive or will she be the next victim of the house’s madness?

Eeek! This book is creepy in the best way! The author created a very atmospheric and gothic haunted house thriller. The story is mainly told from the point of view of Sarah but includes a few chapters from other character’s perspectives. Sarah is a mess but I really enjoyed getting to know her! I found myself laughing at her dark sense of humor and highlighting a lot of her thoughts because they were hilarious while also being relatable. This is an outstanding debut! I also found the Author’s Note at the end to be very touching and inspirational. Thank you for sharing your struggles and now your successes! I can’t wait to follow Lisa’s career which I’m sure will be very successful :)

Thank you to Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine, Bantam, and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

First, thank you so much for this advance copy!! Talk about a fast read! I finished it in one day! I loved the pacing and nothing beats a good creepy story! This would be perfect to read during spooky time!

This was a fast, twisty read! I think this ends up falling a little more under thriller than horror but with certainly an element of spooky eeriness. My favorite character was the really grumpy cat who only loved the main character.

Sarah and her husband move to Black Wood House for a fresh start. 40 years ago a tragedy occurred there. Sarah starts to hear and see things that drive her crazier.
This was an excellent creepy read that I couldn’t hardly put down.
Thanks NetGalley and Random House Publishing-Ballantine for this ARC that will be released September 26, 2023!

Sarah, a popular influencer, buys Black Wood House with her husband Joe. Black Wood has a terrible history, since a previous owner murdered his wife in the home. The town wants to demolish it, but Sarah’s thinking is that she can renovate it and sell it for a good profit, while documenting it on her instagram blog. Soon weird things start happening to Sarah. She has terrible headaches and begins forgetting things. It seems the house doesn’t want to be fixed.

Wow, what a fun and crazy psychological thriller! I legitimately couldn’t tell if the house was haunted or if Sarah was losing her mind. Generally, I love an unreliable narrator and Sarah was an unreliable narrator done perfectly! The short chapters grew more and more frantic as the story went on, laying the groundwork for a final twist that never would have even crossed my mind! But after it was revealed, it made sense and I thought back on the all the red herrings throughout the story. It’s shocking to me that this was a debut and I can’t wait to see what this author comes up with next!

Thanks to Netgalley, Lisa Matlin and Bantam for the ARC! “The Sttangert Upstairs” releases September 26!

This review will be shared to my Instagram blog (@books_by_the_bottle) shortly.

Would you move in to a murder house? Sarah, an online influencer and therapist, thinks that the Black Wood House will be the answer to all of her problems. The previous owner ended up killing his wife with a hammer and tried to kill his daughter so Sarah was able to get the house for cheap. With her marriage in shambles and her online presence not drumming up the business like it had in the past; Sarah hopes that by fixing the house with her husband and posting updates both areas in her life will improve. However there are skeletons in Sarah's past and her neighbors do not want her there. She starts to get threatening notes, the house seems to be out to get her, and she feels constantly sick. To top it all off there really seems to be something in the attic. She hears noises and her cat seems to be telling her to go up there. Will Sarah survive or will it all fall apart?

This is a high intensity thriller that will keep you guessing. I really felt for Sarah who is a very unique character. I also loved her cat, Reaper, who was a fighter himself. There was an edge to this book where I thought I had things figured out but I was completely wrong. I highly recommend this novel for anyone who loves a great thriller!!

Thank you to Bantam/Random House Publishing and NetGalley for this advanced copy.

I should start by saying I have a hard time with books where the main character is unlikeable, And let’s face it, Sarah is about as unlikeable as they come. This unlicensed therapist has purchased a house that was the site of a spectacular murder several years ago with the idea of renovating and then selling it for mega bucks. She also hopes the project will help heal her marriage. Her husband sleeps on the downstairs sofa and conversations are few and far between. But Sarah begins to hear stage noises and random footsteps, something the previous owner/ killer also reported. Before long she finds random notes addressed to herself in places around the house when no one else has been there, and she begins to believe certain members of the neighborhood are trying to drive her out. But are the incidents actually real?

As I said at the beginning I usually don’t like books when the main character is so unlikeable. But I could not put this book down. I had to discover what was really going on with this house and in this woman’s life, and I was not disappointed. 😊

Rating: 5 stars
Publish Date: September 26, 2023

VERDICT: I LOVED this haunting thriller! Stayed up late into the night to finish it because those cliff hangers made it impossible to put down. It’ll keep you guessing until the very end.

READ IF YOU LIKED:
- Amityville Horror or The Shining
- Never Lie by Freida McFadden

PLOT:

An externally glossy Instagram influencer with a failing marriage and an ugly past buys a house where a notorious double-murder took place. Intending to revive her husband's flagging interest and their flagging bank account by renovating the house and flipping it for a profit, Sarah becomes increasingly convinced something--the unfriendly neighbors, the stalker leaving her ominous notes, maybe the house itself--wants her dead. A fast, fun, gasp-inducing read.

This. Book. My god. I don’t typically stay up all night reading books - especially now that I am pregnant - but I read 50% of this book in one sitting while my husband slept beside me because I could NOT stop! The pacing, the plot, the characters, from the very first page I was pulled into this crazy house and this crazy protagonist’s mind. I finished the book the very next morning and I do believe it is the fastest I have ever read a book. This book is going to be a hit in September and I am so grateful for my early copy!!! By a debut author no less, I am so psyched to read everything else she gives us!

This book was a wild ride from start to finish; nothing I thought I knew turned out to be true. I really liked the wondering about the main character and if she could be trusted or not, especially as the book progressed her world became more and more disordered.

The twists were perfectly timed and kept me guess not only as the the character and their backstories but to the cause of the problems within the house itself. It is an idea I have not seen in a book before and really got me thinking about how this could or would come to be.

Thank you so much for the advance copy!

"One need not be a chamber to be haunted; One need not be a house; The brain has corridors surpassing Material place." (Emily Dickinson)

Lisa Matlin recognizes the powerful impact of the human psyche when it comes to the deep pinches in the mind that hold those terrible hauntings. The Boogey Man is all too familiar. He sits in the dark recesses of our closets or folds himself expertly under our beds at night. We still look high and low for him. Strangely, he resides coiled tightly in our own minds.

Sarah Slade thinks that she has tapped into a gold mine. She and her husband, Joe, have purchased the infamous Black Wood House in an upscale Australian area. Their plan is to renovate it with the least cost and resell it for an amazing profit. They got it cheap. Way cheap. Why, you ask? Oh, it's one of those. A murder house.

To most people that would be off-putting. To Sarah, it's an opportunity to re-establish themselves and start over with a few coins in their pockets. Sarah is a popular social media influencer who happens to be a therapist as well. Joe is a bartender. Both have new jobs not too far from the Black Wood House. Their marriage is feeling the pressure of some bad decisions in the past. Oh, Baby, but this present decision will be a killer of a decision.

And the neighbors? Far from welcoming. Sarah has found threatening notes and a dead rat in her mailbox. The previous owner, Amanda, went missing. Nobody wants to talk about it. Nobody.

Lisa Matlin has an uncanny ability of creating a highly toxic atmosphere within these walls. Even the contractors hang up when they hear the address. Matlin lets the tides overflow and permeate into these individuals themselves. It takes a certain talent to inject a high level of tension and an even more crucial talent to keep it there throughout the novel. Sarah's past pulls up a chair in this one and feels quite at home in the depth and breadth of this house. Warning: Nightlight will not be optional while cracking this one open. It's a necessity.

I received a copy of this book through NetGalley for an honest review. My thanks to Random House and to Lisa Matlin for the opportunity.

I really enjoyed this thriller/horror! There were some parts where I was genuinely scared for our main character. I only dinged a star because I wish we would’ve found out what happened to Janet at the end of the book and I was hoping to find out more about why the house is the way it is (reasoning behind the paranormal stuff).

I really enjoyed this debut book from Lisa Matlin. I was hooked from the beginning and did not see all the twists coming at all finished it in almost one sitting! Sarah is a seemingly successful self help author and influencer who decides to buy a famous murder house and document renovating it. Of course nothing is as easy as it seems and problems begin almost immediately. We start to see that Sarah's marriage and her career aren't really what they appear to be either. The neighbors don't want them there and it seems the house itself doesn't want to be fixed up. Soon everything around Sarah is falling apart and she has to figure out who or what is causing it and how to stop it. This was a quick suspenseful read that I will for sure recommend. I want to thank NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine for the arc in exchange for an honest review.

Good book! This book had a bit of everything! It had suspense, intrigue, murder, mystery, and some really creepy twists and turns! The storyline was very interesting and kept me glued to my Kindle! I definitely recommend reading this book as it was well worth reading! Thank you Netgalley and the publisher for sharing this book with me!