I'm always thankful when a book actually is as purported to be. In the case of The Upstairs Room, it was described as eerie and creepy, possibly a house with a past and dark intentions. That may sound odd, but I reveled in the spooky atmosphere of this novel. It was utterly chilling in a subtle way. As someone fond of a good do-it-up project, the thought of a Victorian with a dark side excited me.

I felt such sympathy for Eleanor as she struggled with the ever increasing odd happenings in her life and Rosie's bazaar behavior. She seemed much more victimized by circumstances than Richard, whose sole purpose in life was to sort out the decorating of their new home rather than care for the members of his family.

But, there's much more at play here than a creepy old house story. There is a deeper examination of life, wholeness and comfort levels within relationships. Whether a relationship is new, sexy and exciting, or softer and more comfortable, like a habit, the scrutiny of both was honest, if possibly unflattering. The deep dive into expectations and ultimate acceptance showed great insight making this more a psychological study than a spooky ghost story. A fantastic bonus of a find! I will certainly keep a weathered eye for future works of this talented author.

This book is beautifully written. I was gripped at the start of the book but I am afraid it took some effort to finish it. Maybe it was just not my type of book. I liked the way the characters were described and how the plot came together piece by piece but I had hoped for more of an ending.

The Upstairs Room caught my attention immediately and I settled down for a good ghost story/psychological thriller in the classic haunted house.

Before their house move Eleanor was a perfectly normal mother of two young children who was married to Richard, a boring, condescending husband who seems to be a rather lazy sort. The very good, basic plot is one I've come across many times and the way the house affected everyone was pretty much typical. Rosie's character was not portrayed in any depth and could have been improved by more interaction with her mother. The lodger, Zoe, was almost superfluous to the plot and her romantic interludes added nothing to the overall story.

Initially it held my attention, the writing is excellent but unfortunately the characters are not really very strong and I found my attention wandering. I kept expecting more of this book and then it ended rather abruptly and I felt like I had missed something important!

My thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for providing a digital review copy.

Eleanor and Richard can't believe how lucky they were to find a Victorian home in London. They move in with their two daughters plus a little later on, Zoe, the lodger, to help pay the mortgage. So far so good, but then things change and not for the better. It's a pity that this wasn't more creepy and sinister, that there was a lot less vomiting and headaches. Nothing wrong with the style of writing except there was just too much of it for this type of book - far too long for what actually happened in it. Didn't like Richard and Zoe at all and Eleanor was too wimpish to have any sympathy for. I loved the description of this book and the cover, but sadly that was all.

This book is about a haunted house, but its not a horror book. It more about the characters and the effect that the house has on people.


The point of view changes amount the adults of the house. Its feel more like the women's story though.We have characters lives mirror each other, but made different choice. It was an interesting exploration.



The writing is third person, with focus point of view changing every chapter (I think). I enjoyed the writing style.


The ending is very anti-climatic. It was the natural conclusion of the book, but if you're ghost fan you might be a tad disappointed. This a character driven so the plot isn't really focus,

Overall, I give 4/5 stars for annoying neighbours. This is a odd match of a haunted house story with character study where choices lead you. I enjoyed it, if you into character stuff and more about the stain a haunting would have on the inhabits, this is the novel for you.

I thought that The Upstairs Room would be an old-fashioned ghost story, but whilst it did have some spooky moments there wasn’t many of them. The novel was mainly about three of the individuals who lived there.
I have to say that I struggled to like any of them initially, but as I read more I started to like Eleanor. I would think that being married to a man like Richard would be enough punishment for anybody. But as well as putting up with him she was also the one who suffered most living in the house. She knew that there was something wrong, knew that her eldest daughter was suffering but got no help. She was just reminded that she was ill. Their lodger, Zoe was a mess, she had nothing and had no idea what she wanted. But Richard was also causing problems for her.
I persevered with this novel because even though it wasn’t like I expected it to be, a spooky read, the relationship between the three intrigued me. At times, I found it as chilling as what was happening in the upstairs room. If I had a quibble it would be that I would have liked to know more about what happened in the house in the past with less focus on the present day inhabitants.

With thanks to the publisher for the copy received via NetGalley.

The book reminded me A LOT of The Conjuring 2. Same sort of principle - sketchy things going on in an old house in London, little girl being affected, etc. It wasn't as scary (at all), but there were plenty of times when I was freaked out.

It was an entertaining and well-written read. It was just creepy enough to keep me hooked and scared. There was also a lot of character development/back stories that made the book less scary as a whole. The writing allowed me to connect with the characters and care about their wellbeing.

*Thank you to Netgalley and Pan Macmillan for the ARC, for which I have given an honest and unbiased review*

I was really looking forward to this book – it looks and sounds like a creepy ghost story, exactly what I was hoping for when I picked it up. And it started off really well. After just a few pages I was convinced I was going to love this book – enticed by the mysterious house and engaging writing style.

It begins with Richard and Eleanor viewing a spooky, dated and badly in need of renovation, old Victorian house. Eleanor isn’t keen – there’s an eeriness about the house that makes her uncomfortable. Richard on the other hand, partly swayed by the surprisingly low price tag and the idea of a project convinces her and they move in with there young daughters. But old houses don’t come cheap and to boost their income, they take in a lodger Zoe, who rents the basement part of the house. As three adults settle into their new home, it becomes clear something isn’t quite right. Why is Eleanor so violently ill when in the house but ok when she leaves? What’s causing Zoe to sleepwalk and giving her nightmares? And who exactly is the little girl, Emily, whose name appears scrawled all over the house?

So I was pulled into this book pretty quickly. The setting is tense, the atmosphere eerie and foreboding and the writing is of the style that absorbs the reader causing pages to speed by without even noticing. I was all curled up, shivering with anticipation and ready to be spooked by a deliciously sinister ghost – only it never quite happened. I felt this book didn’t quite get to where it was going, or perhaps where I was expecting it to be going.

However, that’s not to say I didn’t like it, because actually, when I got past the fact it wasn’t the bump in the night ghost story I was expecting, I could actually appreciate how subtly sinister this book actually is. There’s a lot of heavy, oppressive and claustrophobic atmosphere to The Upstairs Room, and not all of it is supernatural. The three adults of the house are all flawed, somewhat unlikeable and clearly unsatisfied with their lives. I think there’s some subliminal message about the emotional effects of adult unhappiness on children, and wondered if the ‘monster’ was actually the adults own despair at themselves. The meaning or story behind the ‘ghost’ is never fully resolved and very open to interpretation – which some readers might dislike. However I quite like a book that leaves me sitting thinking afterwards, and The Upstairs Room certainly did.

It did dip a bit in the middle, and I became a little bit frustrated as the book flits back and forwards to Richard, Eleanor and Zoe’s past – it just didn’t interest me as much as the present story and what was happening in the house. But then the pace picked up again, things began to unravel and I enjoyed the final chapters very much. I have mixed feelings about this one – on the one hand I was disappointed that it didn’t quite live up to my expectations in the chills and thrills department, and thought it lost it’s way a bit in the middle. However, I loved the author’s use of atmosphere and subtle eeriness and thought her writing was very easy to read. I also liked the ambiguity of the ghost and enjoyed pondering my own theories regarding its meaning. Overall, a good book and definitely an author I’ll watch out for in future.

Thank you to Net Gallery and PAC Macmillan for the advanced copy of The Upstairs Room. In return for an open and honest review.

I enjoyed reading this book. It makes for good reading and can be read in a few sittings.

It wasn't as spooky as I thought, but it did keep me guessing what was wrong with the house! No spoilers here!

The story is told via Zoe (the Lodger), Eleanor and Richard. Three versions of the house, three lives to follow - past and present.

I did find it confusing with so many characters brought into the story from the past, but it certainly didn't detract from the story.

The book combines psychological thriller, with the story tellers love lives. It's a little different and well worth a read. Enjoy and thanks again for the advanced copy.

Will be including in summer reading blog post shortly.

This is a modern take on a classic haunted house story combined with chick-lit relationship tensions and traumas. Although there is nothing original in the ghost story concept, this combination puts it in a different genre and as such it's well written and I couldn't put it down,

Warning - if you are only interested in the ghost story aspect the plot is fairly thin and the time hops might frustrate you, but I was very happy to explore the characters and the "why" in more detail.

The "perfect" family, quirky lodger and assorted boyfriends/ parents etc characters are carefully built up and then completely unravelled going back into their pasts to show how they all ended up in this situation.

I wanted to shout at the husband, save the little girls, talk to the neighbours, tell the mother to deal with it (she is frustratingly Tess of the D'Urbervilles in her passivity to her relationship, house etc) .... and redecorate!

An unsettling debut that puts a modern spin on a genre that has been around for years, but never seems to get old.

Eleanor and Richard have been married for 6 years and have been a couple for a lot longer since they met at University. Although admitting it will be more of a nightmare for the first few years because of the amount of work the house needs ploughing into it, Richard has cajoled Eleanor to move into their 'dream' home. A bargain due to the dilapidated condition of the house, Richard is sure that the upheaval will all be worth it, and it will be a sound investment for their future. Eleanor isn't so sure, but allows herself to be persuaded.

Once in the house, she ventures to what becomes known as the Upstairs Room, where she finds a lock fixed outside the door, paint scratched away around the inner door frame as if someone has tried desperately to escape, and the walls covered in the eerie childish drawings and repeated scrawlings of 'Emily'. After this, Eleanor keeps seeing the name at various odd locations throughout the property and becomes quite obsessed with finding out about the family that lived in the house before – who was Emily? Why was she locked in that Upstairs Room?

As part of the deal to bring in some much needed funding for their 'forever house' project, the couple agree to rent out the basement of the house. Enter Zoe. Zoe is at a crossroads in her life and isn't sure which direction she wants to go in. Although not delighted with the shabby, unloved basement, it is her own space, and that's what she needs right now.

A few weeks pass and the new arrangement is stilted, but working. Slowly, things start to decline. The house feels oppressive. Eleanor falls ill – she suffers terrible migraines and nausea which she begins to believe are being caused by the house or by the mysterious 'Emily'.
Adding to the stress of the situation is the couple's eldest daughter Rosie, who begins to behave erratically, biting, shouting and suffering terrible rages. Richard, working part time in his job as a lawyer while progressing his Master's degree, brushes off Eleanor's worries as nothing to worry about and thinks that if he can get his act sorted and get the house done up, then Eleanor will suddenly just get better. But he can't seem to apply himself to anything.

Zoe feels it too, but thinks she must be imagining it; perhaps it's a reaction to her underwhelming place in society and overcomplicated love life. Then she begins to wake at night unable to breathe, feeling a heavy weight pushing down on her chest – she begins suffers from both sleep paralysis and sleep walking but what is causing it?

I found this to be a very interesting novel. I'd describe it as a modern day gothic novel with nods towards the housing crisis and casual sexism amongst other themes, although these are hinted to rather than overplayed. Atmospheric and character focused, it felt as though the 'Upstairs Room' elements (I don't want to give anything away) were more the gel that holds the main characters, and so the book, together, rather than being the main focus of it.

If you like your books mysterious, but with a little more character and social commentary than the normal 'spooky' novel, then I think you'll enjoy Kate Murray-Browne's debut.

This is a gothic-style tale where the main events centre around a house. It's a new family home for Eleanor and Richard and their two young children (plus their lodger, Zoe) and a character all by itself. Walls speak out the name of Emily, scribbled as it is in several places. Though it is the upstairs attic room in particular which is rich in a sense of ghostly presence and an unnerving, spooky atmosphere, making Eleanor, especially, reluctant to spend any time there.

In fact, being in the house at all makes her feel extremely unwell. She is highly sensitive to whatever horrible occurrence might have happened within its walls, becoming increasingly anxious and stressed whenever she has to be at home, and desperately looking for any excuse to escape. One of her daughters also seems to be traumatised by the house and reacts violently out of character for a while.

It is definitely not the happy family home, nor ideal writing space for Richard that they had envisaged. Rather, this house seems to bring out the worst in them, straining relationships all round. Zoe also has a bad time of things in her basement room. But, stretched financially as they all are, they try to stick out these seeming teething troubles with grim determination.

Slowly, some of the house’s dark history begins to become known. Eleanor's restlessness and desire to recover from her mysterious illness drive her to try to unearth the truth, hoping that as layers are revealed, they might all learn to live comfortably in their new home. There is no neat, all-loose-threads-tied kind of ending but enough is uncovered for future happiness to be possible again for all concerned. It succeeded for me as a contemporary horror story but I felt the narrative could have concluded better than it did.

On the surface this may appear to be a modern day tale of a haunted house, but it is much more. It is also a story of relationships and families and the issues that people face every day. Issues like moving house, leaving home and standing on one’s own feet, stay at home mums and their loss of identity and independence, financial difficulties and more.

I love the way that Kate Murray-Browne builds the tension to produce a story that is creepy and very unsettling. I felt on edge reading it and caught myself jumping at the little things on several occasions. A great read.

How would you feel if you were ‘lucky’ enough to get a great offer accepted on your dream home? You’d be really excited, wouldn’t you, and be planning the schedule of works and be surrounding yourself with paint charts and enthusiasm - but what if you gradually began to realise that things aren’t all that they seem to be?
The Upstairs Room by Kate Murray-Browne is a little bit creepy...
I enjoyed this book – all the characters were believable and you could empathise with them all – although Richard, obsessed with his vision of how their home is going to be, when all is finished, doesn’t want to acknowledge that his dream could crumble and he keeps his blinkers firmly on, while Eleanor commences an increasingly desperate battle.
Zoe the lodger, has a complex life, away from the house and this gives the story another dimension – a story within a story.
What do you do when no one really wants to believe you? Who is, or was, Emily and what does she want?
The suspense builds nicely as this family start to fight the house, and each other. It is well paced and you don’t know what is going to happen – the events could go in any direction.
If you want something a bit on the different side, a mystery and spine-chilling thriller which is an easy, flowing read, and you don’t live in a spooky Victorian Townhouse, I can recommend The Upstairs Room by Kate Murray-Browne

I almost gave up reading this book halfway through thinking I didn't need to read another haunted house book, however the author's writing style and ability to make me care about the characters and their relationships kept me reading to the end. I still think the house cleansing and spirit world have been done much better in other books and films but 4 stars for the rest of the story.

I’m not really a reader of ghost stories, I think aside from Sarah Water’s The Little Stranger and some Point Horror’s when I was a teen they haven’t really been on my radar particularly. Something about this book really spoke to me though, perhaps it was the ‘normality’ of the setting; a family moving into a regular house on a street that could be anywhere, the hint of a mystery or the unravelling of a relationship which already seems to be stretched.

The character mainly affected by the events at the house is Eleanor; she gets terribly ill when in the house, starts mislaying things, finds other things in random places in the house and is startled by Emily’s name being written all over the walls of the upstairs room. I thought the exploration of the slow unravelling of Eleanor’s sanity was really well done – there was just enough of a question mark over the events for us to wonder whether ‘something’ is happening or if it is all in her mind. I could really feel her panic and fear and her complete loss of control over her life and the situation.

The supernatural parts of the book were extremely atmospheric and the tension built so slowly that before I knew it the hairs on the back of my neck were standing on end. There were some genuinely creepy moments and the overall feeling of ominous doom seeped from the pages. Words written on walls, dolls and an abandoned suitcase in a spare room, paper scrawled with drawings of birds found hidden behind radiators are all very innocuous but add them all together and they are on the more creepy side of normal.

I did find this book quite challenging; at times a ghost story, at others an exploration of, marriage and modern life it was difficult to ascertain what genre the novel was. Occasionally the supernatural elements did take a big back seat and the novel became more of a story about dysfunctional relationships and questionable life choices. Whilst I did enjoy the parts about the lodger, Zoe and her ill-advised relationship with a wrong’un they felt a little incongruous in a supernatural thriller. Although she is affected by the house we spend lots of time reading about her woes and it did detract from the eerie suspense of the book. Despite the few stand out scary moments in the latter part of the book I found the ending unsatisfactory, which is shame as it is a well written book and I did enjoy it overall.

I felt that this was slightly more of a paranormal than a thriller, but either way it certainly kept my interest and sent shivers down my spine! A quite intricate series of characters and relationships, which unfold, and there is no way of telling which way the book is going until the end. I read this in 2 days, as I was compelled to find out what happens.

'The Upstairs Room' by Kate Murray-Browne was such a dissapointment. I had such high hopes once I started reading and the book contained not only my name but my partners, my sisters and the couple in the story also got engaged in the same place as me. The similarities freaked me out so much I had to stop reading it before bed. What more could you ask for in a paranormal mystery than it making you too scared to read at night?

Well the more I read and got over the similarities I struggled to understand the point of the story. It dragged on, told a lot of unnecessary background, included a lot of irrelevant characters and I'm still struggling to understand why.

It focuses on a couple who move into a new home with a lodger. Strange things start to happen in the house. Suspicions of paranormal activity arise but nothing is confirmed and nothing extremely out of the ordinary happens.

I'm really struggling to write this review or put much effort in to it as I don't really understand what I've just read.

I recieved a free ARC from netgalley in return for an honest review.

This to me was more literary fiction / character study rather than mystery, although I guess you could say that the mystery drove the characters' behaviour to a certain extent, it wasn't so much a mystery to be solved in itself that drove the novel.
There was alot a lot of vomiting going on in this book so for those of you that suffer from emetophobia, you might want to give it a miss...
Eleanor moves into this big house with her husband Richard and their two young children. It's a bit of a fixer-upper, the fixing coming later when they have scraped up enough money, having already emptied the coffers in buying it in the first place. In order to assist this process they welcome lodger Zoe into the mix, living in the basement rooms.
Almost as soon as they move in, Eleanor starts to feel disturbed by things, always feeling better when she leaves the house, she becomes obsessed with it, especially the rather strange upstairs room which has some rather strange "features", and sets herself off on a mission to find out exactly why she feels this way. Meanwhile, Zoe has her own story and, in her chapters, we find out what is going on for her in her life.
This book was almost three stories in one We have the story of Eleanor and Richard, Zoe and her past and, bringing the two together, what is going on with the house. That sounds like it should be disjointed and, as I was reading it, I did start to wonder. But, at the end of the day, once I had finished the book, I was left with a mostly satisfying feeling with respect to the character driven aspects but a little flat with respect to the mystery which I felt played second fiddle at times. Of course the house and it's effects on the characters was front and centre the entire time, especially the effect it had on poor Eleanor and her gastric system! Richard was a bit wet at times too, and a little bit creepy towards the end. Zoe was the most interesting character. I think I enjoyed her parts of the book the most, like a car crash, it had me rapt at times!
The best way I can sum up this read for me is that whilst I was in the middle of it, one of my non-reading friends asked what my book was about. I fobbed him off with something like a mystery in an old house and a young family being affected by it, oh and there's a lodger but I'm not sure how she fits in! Well, that's also how I felt at the end too, and still now, several days after finishing. But, you know what, that's OK. That was what the book was for me, but it did hold my attention throughout, it was interesting, I was happy to invest my time in the characters' lives and, most importantly, I was mostly satisfied at the end. Not every book has to be easy to explain everything about, some books just are. This book most definitely was!

My thanks go to the Publisher and Netgalley for the chance to read this book.

I enjoyed this novel immensely. The prose takes nothing for granted and the entire endeavour is exceptionally well thought out, with plenty to keep the reader on their toes both in terms of story and structure. Initially, I felt more drawn to the Zoe-Adam-Kathryn triangle rather than the Eleanor-Richard-Zoe one, but gradually this shifted and the symbiotic house share delivered some wonderful moments. In particular, I loved how the most seemingly minor idiosyncrasies they all exhibited while moving around the house (frequently unseen) by each other fed into the ratcheting up of paranoia. The tension about the central mystery (the room upstairs, unsurprisingly) had me hooked from chapter one and was still holding my interest on the very last page. One of the traps inherent in the paranormal genre is, of course, the moment where the author must lay their cards on the table. Is this a paranormal event we're seeing or some level of human agency (malign or otherwise) in play. Half the readers want the ghosts to be real, half are waiting for the to be unsheeted as charlatans. The problem for the author, therefore, is how to deliver a solution which doesn't alienate half the audience. Without risking any spoilers I will say that I was *extremely* impressed with how Ms Murray-Browne dealt with this, delivering an ending which was entirely satisfying while leaving me plenty of room for all readers to go home convinced they were right all along. Bravo! I cannot wait to see what Kate Murray-Browne does next.