I was unable to put this down - so tense!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced reading copy.

I didn't vibe with this book but it felt like a 'me thing' rather than the book itself being at fault. I have been kind of turning away from books which deal with creepy relationship happenings - weirdly I am more ok with it in vintage fiction but here it just left me feeling depressed. I can see that the writer is a highly gifted artist and I wish them all the best in their future endeavours but it just was not quite what I was looking for on this occasion. Many thanks for the galley copy - I will keep this review to myself and not publish on any other sites.

I wanted so badly to be scared from the blurb of this book and from the reviews I had read. However, it was a mixmatch of genres and I struggled to follow the book and therefore did not finish it.

Omg talk about a roller coaster read wow this book kept me on the edge of my seat threw out I just couldn't put it down this writer keeps you hooked and once your hooked your not letting go I found this book thrilling the characters were fantastic and well thought out and the little clues all the way threw keep you guessing until the end this book stays with you long after you close the book this book is well worth the read I promise you wont be disappointed

I really like Kate Murray-Browne's writing, it's very rich, however this was not really the style of thriller I enjoy. I felt too frustrated with Richard throughout the book and found myself disinterested in the characters relationships. I think this is one more for someone who prefers domestic, dark marriage stories than haunted houses which is what I expected.

Unfortunately, this book wasn't downloaded to my Kindle, therefore was unable to give it a read. However, I can believe it was most likely a wonderful read, filled with lovely characters.

I loved this story. Very well written and found the storyline intriguing. I stayed up late to get it finished. This is always a good sign when I can’t stop reading

Really enjoyable read. Good characters and a Good story. Well worth a read. Think others will enjoy.

When I first read the mysterious synopsis for The Upstairs Room, I knew that I wanted to read it. As a fan of both psychological thrillers and tales of a supernatural kind, this debut seemed to tick all the boxes for a truly thrilling summer read. So I was very excited when I was approved for it on NetGalley.

Richard and Eleanor have plunged all of their savings into buying their dream Victorian townhouse in London Fields. Along with their two young daughters, they’re attempting to settle into a house that bears more than its fair share of having been lived in. As Richard becomes a little obsessed with their 27-year-old lodger Zoe, Eleanor becomes consumed with anxiety surrounding the house and its previous occupants. She makes it her mission to uncover the secrets behind the quick sale of the house and the name Emily scrawled hundreds of times on the walls of the upstairs room.

Going into the book, I wasn’t sure whether it would be a story of a haunting or a story of someone’s descent into insanity. Honestly, I’m not entirely sure the book knew either because it seemed to have elements of both. I still don’t know whether the house did have some paranormal activity or whether it was simply a case of too much negative energy from the living. Sadly, I’m not sure we are supposed to have a definite answer on that. I think this is one of those ‘down to the reader’s interpretation’ conclusions, which frustrate my truth-hungry self.

Eleanor apparently becomes incredibly ill, when she has spent too long in the house. At first, I couldn’t quite work out why she was so heavily affected but nobody else seemed to be. Then eldest daughter Rosie started becoming more aggressive when she was at home. Zoe the lodger began having sleep paralysis and sleepwalking. Richard developed a pretty disturbing habit of spending time in Zoe’s part of the house when she wasn’t there and becoming a little too preoccupied with her. So I became convinced that the eerie atmosphere and the strange behaviour was down to a malevolent spirit who was trying to rid them from the house. However, the book began fixating on Richard and Eleanor’s past and Zoe’s previous relationship and how she’d ended up living as a lodger. It went off on tangents about how unhappy Eleanor truly was and how Zoe was struggling to find her purpose in life and love. So I began to wonder whether the situation with the house was simply an outward reflection of how much uncertainty and unhappiness lay within its inhabitants.

Pretty much all of the characters were thoroughly fleshed out and we got to know Eleanor, Zoe and Richard very well. Even some of the side characters were very well-developed and interesting to spend time with. I thoroughly related to Zoe in some respects even though she behaved completely differently to how I expect I would. Her inner monologues really resonated with me and I did find myself rooting for her, despite her making some pretty bad decisions. Eleanor frustrated me and there were several points where I wanted to shake some sense into her. She behaved like a helpless hysterical woman a lot of the time and it got tiring to read after a while. I found Richard a little strange even before his obsession with Zoe started. He didn’t really have many likeable traits and although he does appear to love his wife, he was less than complimentary about her in their younger years.

The Upstairs Room is not really a story of a troubled girl named Emily haunting a house she used to live in. It’s not a story of an evil spirit terrorising a family out of their new house. It’s a story of how something momentous and life-altering such as moving house can change the human mind. How that much upheaval can affect people negatively. The house is Richard and Eleanor’s dream family home. They bought it with every hope and intention of raising their daughters happily there. There’s an idea that perhaps there was never anything supernatural going on and that Eleanor’s illness and doubts, Zoe’s troubled sleep, Richard’s wandering mind would have occurred in any house that they all moved into together. The idea that the confusion and disturbance was within them all along and that to avoid their problems, they tried to blame the house. The idea that too much negativity under one roof can have a cold, haunting, confusing, terrifying effect on an entire household. Somehow I feel like that conclusion is probably more likely.

I think I probably would have liked it to lean more on the supernatural side of things but it’s certainly an enjoyable eerie read and an excellent debut. I was kept guessing the whole way through and my original deduction was thrown out of the window. Although it didn’t quite go down the path I wanted it to, it’s still a great mystery with some very profound statements on the human condition.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC of this title, which was much anticipated!

This book is, honestly, the ghost story for the housing crisis. I love the concept; a family living beyond their means but desperate to stay living in London Fields buy a house they can barely afford that is full of creepy writing on the walls. Sounds legit; there are people willing to live with a lot of things for the sake of the right postcode. There's a lot about living beyond your means, about putting up fronts, gentrification of London and the art scene.

But, weirdly, not enough about what is *actually* going on.

This book could also be classed as a family saga, almost, with long gazes to university pasts and relationships, what could have beens. How the family even became a unit, based on these very long reminiscences and the near mutual dislike of on another, is a mystery in itself. It could go back to the above though- how much can you live with to get the right postcode? The right match (according to societal and personal and Cambridge expectations)?

It's like a Kate Tempest song, mixed over The Exorcism soundtrack playing very faintly in the background.

a slow paced mystery that i personally wouldn't classify as a thriller since yes things are sometimes spooky or surprising as they are happening but not in the "heart racing, i can not believe what is happening" type of way which for me is a thriller.

still a nicely written and told mystery with a gerat plot and interesting characters that if you enjoy a slower build defiantly worth a read!

I read this during October and I have to say the timing was perfect. I really enjoyed this creepy and spooky tale and would probably compare the suspense to the style of Shirley Jackson. I enjoy stories where the threat is just out of sight, disappearing round corners before they can be fully seen and I think Kate Murray-Browne mastered this quite well. Would certainly recommend!

I found this book somewhat disappointing. I’m not sure if it was the style of writing or the fact that nothing seemed to happen. Whole chapters were devoted to the past and I felt they didn’t really add to the plot. Sorry but this one wasn’t for me.

This book turned out to be totally different to what I was expecting. Instead of the creepy haunted house mystery I hoped for it was a domestic/relationship drama with some very minor paranormal elements. Not my cup of tea, unfortunately, but I would recommend it to readers who are interested in stories about dysfunctional characters and complicated relationships.

I'm not really a ghost story fan so I think that I enjoyed the story more than those looking to be scared out of their wits. The writing has real atmosphere and builds up tension in the family very well as they move into their spooky house and start to notice disturbing things. An enjoyable, well-written story but perhaps not a ghost story.

I did enjoy this, but I was still a little disappointed. Murray-Browne's writing style is great, the setting was well-drawn and the characters were interesting enough. But the problem is that the blurb and attractive cover led me to think it would be a creepy, tension-building domestic horror story. It's not – it's a sad, claustrophobic, well-observed domestic drama with mostly unlikeable characters and one or two mildly creepy moments. Which is fine, and it works well for what it is – it's just not what I hoped for.

The Upstairs Room sounded so intriguing but I found myself hugely disappointed. I was really fed up at around 70% and it was a real slog to finish.

The book is well written without a doubt but the plot just goes round and round with nothing being resolved.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Unfortunately The Upstairs Room just wasn’t for me.

Thank you for the opportunity to read this book. Unfortunately, it wasn't for me, but I'm sure others will love it.

This is definitely the creepy book that is makes itself out to be and I think the cover is perfect and conveys this incredibly well.

I found it took me a while to get into but once I did it flowed well for me and the eerie atmosphere from the book really popped from the pages.

Not an author I had heard of so I was pleasantly surprised!

A gothic novel, a modern ghost story, a satyr of today's middle-classes in East London... This book is so many things and has so many complex layers that it cannot be labelled to one genre in particular.
This contemporary study rings very true though and if like me you have lived in London, you will easily identify with the protagonists. But the greatest accomplishment of this book is the way the author slowly peels layers after layers to reveal the characters' true selves. Claustrophobic, eerie, melancholic and truly chilling a times, this book makes the reader into a voyeur - and boy, it is not always easy to watch...
I found the ending truly satisfying and so will you, just as long as you do not expect a scientific denouement - after all paranormal activity cannot be fully explained or understood...