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The voices stop, I hear movement off the sofa and Emily whisper, ‘I don’t know, shall I answer it?’ I slam my fist into the door again. Yes, you should answer it. The door opens slowly and Emily’s small face peers around. She sees me and a flash of recognition and concern crosses her features. She furrows her eyebrows and opens the door wider. The writing kept me engaged throughout the book. I could easily visualize the house, the flats, and the occupants. The setting was a major force in the narrative. With overriding themes of grief, loss, and loneliness, this book cast a lingering look at lives of single women in the big city. I am immensely grateful to One More Chapter for my digital review copy through NetGalley. All opinions are my own. I’d be lying if I didn’t say some of this was a little corny, but I appreciate what the author wanted to do for her character. I did find the ending to be anticlimactic, and it was disappointing in another way I can’t expound upon, as I don’t want to spoil the story. I just thought things were building up toward something different. I came to care about both Suzie and Emily, which made the abruptness of the conclusion rather jarring.
I place the phone on the table, the screen face-down. I take a deep breath and push away the remainder of my coffee. I let the tears slide down my face and cool the warmth in my cheeks. I swipe at stray hairs circling my face and gather my belongings. Yes, it seems like Suzzie suffers from trauma, she’s not reliable narrator and she is obsessed with her upstairs neighbor Emily a lot. Actually her upstairs neighbor seems like her only distraction and a way of coping mechanism for her to get up from her bed and move on her life. It is mostly sad, depressing, slow burn thriller gripping your attention from the beginning and you’re trapped inside Suzie’s blurry, unreliable, struggling head! There’s something amiss about Suzie : she keeps drinking, spiraling into pessimism, holding on to memories with some man: a husband, lover, what happened to him? Of course she gets worried about her neighbor but she is also scared to lose her main focusing subject help her to get through her days.
This is a gripping read, beautifully and heartbreakingly told and I definitely need a spell before I can move on from this fabulous 5* read. I am still at a loss for words. I have been chasing that Gone Girl high for so long when I read thrillers, and this one finally hit the mark’ Amber, NetGalley She warns her landlord Mike and Mike informs Emily’s parents. It seems like she has lost her job. There’s a chance she ghosted her parents. She did it before. She’s a portrait of little erratic, irresponsible and unpredictable young woman. The book has a sad, but immensely creepy vibe. Sad because both women seemed so lonely, yet they were immersed in a highly populated urban center. They might have been friends if they could have looked past their differences. One needed quiet, the other needed noise to stave off her loneliness. Creepy because Suzie had an aura of ‘ unreliable narrator‘ about her… For the first half of the book I was all the time wondering if she was a narrator that I could trust.
Emily ends her call and shuffles to the bathroom. I hear her piss sink in the toilet bowl and then the flurry of water down the pipes. Maybe she’s getting ready, maybe the man from the phone will be around soon and she needs to prepare. The shower starts and dinner is forgotten. I smile, remembering when I used to forget dinner, the excitement of the evening too overwhelming, too thrilling to bother. Now, it is a regime, a signifier of time.Suzie is a young woman, living alone in a ground floor flat in Islington, North London. She's obviously going through a hard time, although, it's not clear why? However, she's in a bad way and is not happy with the issues she experiences with her various neighbours who rent the flat above. Then the latest tenant disappears. Compelling, heartbreaking and beautifully written. This superb thriller will stay in my mind for a very long time’ B P Walter, Sunday Times-bestselling author of The Dinner Guest In Suzie’s opinion, no one seems to care enough about Emily’s disappearance – not her parents, not her coworkers, not even the police – so Suzie is determined to get to the bottom of things. At first, I couldn’t understand why Suzie would care so much about finding a neighbor she was so irritated by, but as the story evolves, Suzie’s motivations are revealed. Both Emily and Suzy are interesting characters. Emily is an aspiring writer, shunted off to London by her parents while they endeavour to repair their fractured relationship. Suzy lost her husband suddenly and tragically and is struggling to cope. Both women are emotionally fragile and vulnerable, and have far more in common than either realise.
DISCLOSURE: Thank you to Harper Collins UK, One More Chapter, via Netgalley for providing both a digital and audio ARC of The Girl Upstairs by Georgina Lees for review. All opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own personal opinions. Suzie Arlington can hear everything that goes on in the flat upstairs-she knows when the latest tenant, Emily eats, sleeps, has sex, and uses the toilet. She knows what music she likes, the food she prefers and the wine she drinks. Unfortunately, the pacing of this novel is just so slow and Suzie just isn’t interesting enough to pull you in and sustain you in the unfolding storyline. There’s not sufficient personality on display or emotions conveyed powerfully enough for you to care very much and so it just feel rather flat and monotone. The same thoughts go round and round Suzie’s head so that it becomes tedious. It’s certainly character driven but they aren’t characters that I can relate to. I can’t get my head around why Suzie would get so involved in Emily’s life to the extent she does when she had been in conflict with her?? She doesn’t know her at all so wouldn’t she just report and walk away? The police investigation and the behaviour of the police officers doesn’t strike an authentic note as in some places Suzie is allowed way more latitude than would actually happen. Suzie also makes convenient discoveries that the police overlook. Really? Some of the dialogue in weak which is especially apparent in the police investigation. There’s a lot of clipped underdeveloped dialogue that doesn’t feel true to life. This is very evident with less than pleasant characters who then feel somewhat stereotypical. The ending after a slow build up feels rushed and I have to say, it’s a surprise! Maybe too much is a surprise! Seeing Suzie filed a complaint against her neighbor for excessive noise, wouldn’t you be relieved that she’s missing? For some reason, this makes Suzie think that she knows her neighbor better than anyone else, so when Emily goes missing, she becomes convinced that she is the only one who can find her.Her expression doesn’t shift. She doesn’t go to defend herself. It’s like she’s heard it a million times – other neighbours, her parents, other people. Emma @damppebbles is honoring #bookbloggers with her annual #R3COMM3ND3D2023 – and today is myday! November 18, 2023 She ignores me. ‘Shall Dad and I come up soon? Or do you want to come home for a bit?’ she says, rushed.
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