I thought this book sounded interesting but then I read the first couple of pages and was like…I’m not in the mood for this kind of thing. Not sure if it would’ve improved for me but I doubt it.

The Ladie Upstairs is not a book for the faint of heart. It's dark, manic, and drenched in sensory detail—full of smells, textures, and gore that leap off the page. Reading it feels like someone is sitting on your chest and whispering feverishly in your ear; you're trapped in Ann's head, and it's a wild, suffocating ride.

The writing is visceral and relentless. You can't look away from the racing, spiraling thoughts, and the narrative keeps you gripped until the very last page. The ending is absolutely unhinged in the best way—it left me stunned, wondering what I had just experienced. I had a dozen theories throughout and genuinely enjoyed the tension of trying to piece it all together.

This book won’t be for everyone, but if you’re into body horror and don’t mind a bit of madness and blood, I highly recommend it.

This is easily the most beautifully written fever dream I have ever had the pleasure of being privy to!
Reading this felt like a slow spiral descent into madness. The way Jessie Elland can keep you unbalanced, unnerved and utterly enthralled with her words, characters and sitting is second to none.

I can feel this book becoming my whole personality, and I am already a big believer of unhinged women. The femgore, Anns utter self disgust and the unsettling atmosphere of ropner is actually beautiful.

What a ride this book was... our main character was so compelling and I really enjoyed being in her head from beginning till end. The writing was incredibly descriptive and atmospheric, and I totally bought the gritty and grotesque tone of the book. The story also had a lot of shock factor, where some scenes were just plain horrific, gross, and disgusting. It's been a while that I've read a book that evoked such visceral emotions for me and I had a fun time with this story.

More a 3.5.

Many thoughts and feelings about this one, I’ve really never read anything like it.

This book is oozing with style, it has more metaphors and similes and winding twisted allegories in one page than some books would have in a chapter. Sometimes it really worked, I would finish a chapter thinking “Wow. This is brilliant”… and other times thinking “Did I just read two pages describing a single room”. It’s absolutely perfect for the story its trying to tell, it’s feverish and mad and bordering on stream of consciousness, I just can’t say I always enjoyed it.

I liked the actual story well enough, very interesting way of exploring classism in all its ugliness. Ann was an interesting main character for sure, the way her dichotomous thinking (paired with her visceral imagination) contrasted with her actual actions and meek attitude made her fascinatingly complex. Also the last 20% of this book is absolutely bonkers.

This book won’t be for everyone, its art at its most unapologetic and despite not always loving it I can’t help but respect it’s brutality