Eleanor and Richard move into their dream home in London with their two children Rosie and Isobel. They plan to do the house up but in order to save some money they have a lodger move in called Zoe.
Zoe is just out of a long term relationship and doesn't know which way she wants her life to go.
They all start noticing strange feelings in the house some more so than others. The house stirs up old memories and emotions about who they all really are and what they want in life.
This was a slower burner but was still a really interesting read learning deeper about each of the characters.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with an ARC of this book in return for an honest review.

I was really looking forward to reading this book and thought Halloween was the perfect time of year to indulge. I was left feeling a little miffed when I finished the book and found the only thing that was giving me chills was the weather.

While the story had kept me entertained, I was disappointed that the promised supernatural element of the story had been lost amongst the long, drawn out - and sometimes pointless- commentary on the characters and their dysfunctional relationships. There is no doubt that Kate Murray-Browne has the ability to write an engaging story but this one fell a little flat for me.

Eleanor has moved to a Victorian townhouse that stretches their budget in East London with her young family: her husband and two children. To cover some of the costs, they rent a room to Zoe, a self-conscious 27 year old who has not yet found her purpose in life, stumbling from one job to another.
Soon problems become apparent. The house needs a lot of work, but not only that, Eleanor begins to feel ill almost constantly, her only reprieve being when she leaves the house. Her daughter Rosie turns from golden girl to problem child when she begins biting her mother and awaking screaming from nightmares. Zoe too suffers nightmares, of a girl watching her while she sleeps. And then there’s the Upstairs Room – the one covered in the scrawls of child named Emily, and the tales of the family who lived there before from the neighbours.

This book is pleasantly haunting and creepy. You’ll feel a constant sense of uncertainty and find yourself looking over your shoulder feeling that someone’s watching you as you read. The storyline is brilliant, coming to a frightening climax and conclusion.

This book started well but never really developed into a compelling story. Too many side issues which were very detailed but added nothing to the story as a whole. I thought this was going to be a spooky story but never really took off for me.

I really really loved 'The Upstairs Room'. Marketed as being a straight, modernist ghost story, it's actually so much more than that. A young family move into what appears to be their dream home but - owing to the ridiculousness of the London property market - they find themselves having to take on a lodger to make ends meet. However, the house holds secrets of its own and these slowly begin to creep into the lives of all who live there.

The plot of 'The Upstairs Room' contains so many layers that it's difficult to place it in just one category. There's elements of the gothic with the creepy presence of 'Emily' whose spirit appears to be embedded into the very fabric of the house. But most of all, it's about relationships - the people we become when we settle down, the compromises we make when we start families and the people we turn into when we can't get what we want from someone. I found the parts featuring the lodger, Zoe, to be the most affecting because it felt like I'd been in her situation too many times to count (living in a crummy bedsit with weird landlords and distant kinda-sorta-boyfriends.)

This is an intelligent, well plotted and incredibly readable book. It will certainly creep you out, although perhaps not in the way that you think...

I loved this book about the power a house can have over a family. When Eleanor and her family move into a dream house in London Fields, they think they have it all. Zoe moves in as a lodger and it isn't long before Emily, the previous family's daughter, returns, spiritually, to affect many facets of the family's life. This is a novel about our modern times, about our desperation to obtain the (sometimes) unobtainable - but, at the same time, Murray-Brown is extremely adept at using Gothic conventions to write a creepy tale.

I absolutely loved this ultra-modern ghost story. Creepy and atmospheric, it's also a finely observed and HILARIOUS portrait of East London's middle-classes (both young and less young). The dry intelligence with which Murray-Browne dissects and lays bare the idiosyncrasies of this segment of society truly had me laughing out loud (sometimes in wry self-reflection). The commentary on relationships, marriage and thwarted potential threaded through the story was insightful and thought-provoking, as we watch the two couples form, fall apart, re-form. And the ghost story itself was a subtle chiller - not overdone, but deployed with skill and restraint that made its effects believable. I was gutted not to get 'an answer' (as it were) but I respect the decision to keep it ambiguous!

Eleanor, Richard and their two young daughters recently stretched themselves to the limit to buy their dream home, a four-bedroom Victorian townhouse in East London. But the cracks are already starting to show. Eleanor is unnerved by the eerie atmosphere in the house and becomes convinced it is making her ill. Whilst Richard remains preoccupied with Zoe, their mercurial twenty-seven-year-old lodger, Eleanor becomes determined to unravel the mystery of the house’s previous owners – including Emily, whose name is written hundreds of times on the walls of the upstairs room.


This was an enjoyable and easy read. The story follows a husband and wife who are all hiding their true feelings and thoughts from each other, and their lodger who is at a bit of a crossroad in her life and looking for direction. It's not the most memorable novel I've read but I did find it well written and would read more by this author.

Thanks to net galley and the publisher for providing me with an advance copy in exchange for my honest review.

Thank you to the publishers and Netgalley for an advance e-copy in return for an honest review.

This book doesn’t sit comfortably in any genre. From reading the synopsis I was expecting something a scary ghost story along the lines of early Stephen King, or the old black and white film The Haunting.

Eleanor and Richard buy a large townhouse to do up, and make a home for themselves and their children. The house is empty, and the estate agent is cagey about the previous owners who are looking for a quick sale. The house is not perfect in that it needs redecorated and refurbished, and there is a upstairs room where the door sticks, and a child (obviously disturbed) has written her name ‘Emily’ all over the walls. This for me was the signal for a scary ghost story where the new owners are subjected to a terrifying ordeal at the hands of the ghost in the scary upstairs room.

And for much of the story it tried to be this, the house is making Eleanor ill. The new lodger in the basement, Zoe, starts sleep walking, and waking up in the night with a heavy weight on her chest. Not to mention there is a scary girl who keeps appearing outside who stares at the house. Neighbours don’t’ seem to want to talk about the previous owners, and the house has taken on the role of. The children start to act strangely, and at times the older child Rosie seems to be possessed.

But then the story veers off into character analysis. How Richard and Eleanor got together, Zoe’s back story including the breakup with her boyfriend. There is no much character exploration that the ghost story almost sits in second place. It seemed to me that the story didn’t know what direction to take. And so didn’t take any direction. There is a terrifying game of Hide and Seek where I was literally saying to my kindle: ‘No don’t go in the room, don’t do it!’ But for the rest of the novel it’s a character exploration. Even the story of the scary girl is left abandoned with herself and her Mum just walking off in the crowd.

Loved this book - genuinely chilling! To make your average contemporary London home every bit as spooky as a classic Gothic setting is no small achievement. Elegantly written, undeniably thrilling and wonderfully original - I cannot recommend highly enough.

Had good potential - but didn't quite fulfil expectations. Felt like the plotline got sidelined by a lot of cliches and unnecessary faffing. There was a good build up of the eerieness and unsettling feeling of moving into a new home - but it didn't build on that potential to deliver a good punchline. Sadly disappointed.

An unsettling but compelling read with well drawn out female characters. The author uses vivid descriptions and intertwines the characters stories effortlessly.
My only disappointment was that I felt I needed more back story on "The Upstairs Room" but I was pleased that the ending wasn't over dramatic.

First of all I would like to thank Netgalley for a free digital copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
I seriously thought I was going to like this one. It started off good too. I could relate to the young family that was moving into this old Victorian house that was in bad shape but within their budget. When tenant Zoe took her entrance in the house I was curious to see how the story would develop. The writer takes her time to introduce the main characters. She tells about how Eleanor and Richard met at university and we learn about Zoe and her previous relationship. However at a certain point I couldn't quite see how these storylines mattered. In fact I found them distracting. And although I was intrigued by the eerie things that happened in the house and the effect they had on Eleanor and the others, things didn't develop as quickly as I hoped they would. Unfortunately this caused me to loose interest in the story halfway through. It just wasn't what I expected.

The Upstairs Room tells the story of a family who have moved into a Victorian house in London Fields where strange things happen... I enjoyed reading it partly because it's set in my local area but also because it I quite like eerie stories. I did, however, feel like the ending was a little rushed. The author builds up the storyline for each character but then it sort of comes up an abrupt ending which was a little disappointing. At the end I wanted to know what actually happened and why but I guess I'll never know!

Thanks to Netgalley and Picador for the ARC!

The Upstairs Room is a beautifully crafted, eerie novel which really wriggles its way into your mind, slowly developing into much more than your average thriller/mystery.

One successful element to the story is the characters, and how well developed they are. Though many aspects of their personalities got on my nerves, I did feel for them - especially Eleanor - as
when things started getting weird!

The story feels like it’s more about the characters themselves, and the house which is almost a character in itself, than the occurrences – they act as a catalyst for developments and incidences between characters and the story focuses more on Eleanor, Richard and Zoe and the way they interact with each other and deal with the increasing feelings of unease – or disbelief – among themselves. The story is actually fairly slow paced but has plenty of really strange, unsettling moments that created a truly spooky atmosphere. Some parts definitely reminded me of films I’d seen, but executed really well without feeling cheesy or over-dramatic. The feeling of unease slowly creeps through the book and you’re never sure if you believe that there is anything supernatural about the house or not.

The Upstairs Room is a slow burner but one which really drew me in and focuses on character development as much as any thrills or creepiness. A great read!

This book had me gripped from the first page to the last! The characters were very credible and the more I learned about them the more I was compelled to turn the pages and have stayed up way past my usual bedtime reading!
I enjoy this style of writing and found it to be compelling and real and slightly spooky in equal measure from an author I'd never read before but would actively seek out again.
I will be recommending his highly to friends and among the book groups I'm a member of!

A modern day ghost story set in London, featuring all the nightmares of Big Smoke living: unaffordable housing, financial overcommitment to secure said housing, mid-life crises and misbehaving mysterious children.

This book is a real page turner. You really begin to wonder if someone is gaslighting Eleanor or if her dream house in East London really is haunted. (No spoilers here. You have to read it for yourself to find out.)

A very fun, albeit spooky, read. However, it only earned three stars because I thought some of the storylines were extraneous and didn't move the plot forward. For example, I really didn't need to know all the finer details of their tenant Zoe's love life. But I still enjoyed the book overall.

Many thanks to Picador and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I enjoyed this novel but felt it wasn't sure of it's identity. I felt like the author would have perhaps been better to dedicate a whole other novel to the character of Zoe and keep this one focused as a ghost story. To me, the author gave up on the supernatural aspect right at the end which was extremely unfulfilling as a reader. Was Emily the ghost child or had the house made her mad? Her family situation was also never fully explained. A good but confused novel.

Creepy and thrilling. I loved the way the author described the house - so dark and cloying. An interesting and well written novel. Give it a whirl!