EXCERPT: I heard Emily before I met her. The harsh smack of heels against cheap wooden floorboards. The gentle buzz of a phone followed by a surge of high-pitched notes, sometimes angry, sometimes excited, rarely sad. The sadness came through the slim pipes in the bathroom, the soft gurgles that slipped down the plumbing and escaped through my extractor fan. The incessant music thrumming through the ceiling, invading my space. Emily has terrible taste, mostly new tracks, screeching pop singers holding long, high notes, the same beat in every song.

I knew Emily before I met her. Italian food on Mondays, meatballs rich and smothered in tomato sauce. Tuesdays, something eggy. Wednesdays, something meaty. Thursdays and Fridays, mostly wine. A takeaway on Saturdays, usually Chinese, the sticky leftover noodles escaping through the shared food waste bin like silky worms breaking through soil. Sometimes I could smell the food and other times I knew from a discarded receipt in our communal hallway.

On Sundays the shake of bottles being emptied into the recycling bin outside from her weekly wine shop. A crate of six, always. They sound lovely from the tasting notes I found clinging to the letter box. A malbec, blackberry and vanilla notes with a finish of chocolate and nutmeg, soft and warm.

I've been in London over ten years now and I haven't found a quiet place. I live in Angel, Islington. The nice part, with the grand white townhouses, the ones advertised as being on tree-lined streets. I can't see any trees, just blunt shavings in the ground, weeds rising and arching over the stubs like gravestones. I'm on the ground floor of a two-storey house and Emily is above me. She moved in over six months ago and I thought she might leave, as people do here. People Emily's age, early twenties, they come and go like the seasons, and it's spring now. Time for Emily to leave.

ABOUT 'THE GIRL UPSTAIRS': How well do you know your neighbour?
Would you trust them with your life?

I heard Emily before I saw her. The harsh smack of heels against cheap wooden floorboards. The loud phone calls. The incessant music.

I knew Emily before I met her. Discarded receipts in our communal hallway. Sticky leftovers in the shared food waste bin. Wine shop vouchers in the letterbox.

Now she’s gone missing, and I’m the only one who can find her. The only one who can save her.

Because I know her best, and I heard everything.

The Girl Upstairs is a spine-tingling psychological thriller of grief and obsession that explores how lonely London can be and how sometimes it’s our neighbours who see us most, who know us best…

MY THOUGHTS: While I didn't find this to be an absolutely gripping psychological thriller, it is an interesting and compelling debut novel that I would put firmly into the domestic thriller camp.

It's funny the things that you miss when they're gone. Suzy has a noisy, inconsiderate neighbour upstairs, but when she hasn't heard any noise for a few days, she becomes concerned and raises the alarm because, strange as it may seem, no one else is remotely worried about where Emily might be. This lack of concern worries Suzy, and it becomes her purpose in life to find the missing woman.

I enjoyed this debut novel. It's realistic, sympathetic and utterly believable. It doesn't set out to shock, or apall; the author just goes quietly about her business of telling an intriguing story with just a soupçon of lingering menace to entice the reader onwards.

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.

I really enjoyed the subtlety of the writing, and I will definitely be lining up for this author's next offering.

I read/listened to The Girl Upstairs and enjoyed the narration as delivered by Meg Travers.

⭐⭐⭐.6

#TheGirlUpstairs #NetGalley

I: #georginaleesauthor @onemorechapterhc

T: @GLees_author @OneMoreChapter_

#contemporaryfiction #domesticdram #mystery

THE AUTHOR: Georgina studied creative writing and film at university and has since pursued a career in video-games journalism, covering some of the most popular games in the world. Her psychological thrillers are inspired by her surroundings, from the congested London streets to the raw English countryside. She can be found playing games, writing stories, and reading anything from fantasy to crime fiction.

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.

For an explanation of my rating system please refer to my Goodreads.com profile page or the about page on sandysbookaday.wordpress.com

This review is also published on Twitter, Amazon, Instagram and my webpage

This is an audiobook that is gripping, memorable and so easy to listen to!

The story is all about Suzie, a woman living on her own, clearly in the aftermath of some tragedy. She is bothered by her noisy upstairs neighbour, Emily, a twenty something woman who has recently moved to London, When Emily disappears it seems that Suzie is the only one to express concern.....but is there cause for concern, or is Suzie simply troubled by the events in her past? As Suzie is unable to resist some amateur sleuthing we are sure to find out!

In addition to an engaging plot, the narrator does an excellent job with this audiobook, and though her narration of Suzie and Emily is done in the same voice, it was always very clear whose perspective we were hearing and as such I didn't feel confused at any point.

Overall this is an audiobook in the psychological fiction genre that I wouldn't highly hesitate to highly recommend.

My thanks to NetGalley, author and publisher for the opportunity to review this audiobook in exchange for an advance copy.

Utterly Engrossing

💛 The cover made me think thriller, but this is definitely more mystery. It’s about the discrepancy between perception and reality and the pitfalls in judging people. And I am HERE for it.

💚 The central characters, Suzie and Emily, are complicated and nuanced and thoroughly likable. Both start off as simple stereotypes based on the cursory opinions they had of each other. But after Emily goes missing, the missing details unfurl bit by bit to reveal so much more, all in time with the pace of Suzie’s search for her.
﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏
SOUNDBITE

🎧 I basically listened to this in a day. I couldn’t get enough. It’s easy to digest and follow so it’s perfect for a commute or while doing other things. Meg Travers is understated in her performance, which I found refreshing for this genre. It gave me leeway to impose my own views on characters, while still conveying emotion.
﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏
SHALL I COMPARE THEE TO...

This is a “The Girl” book by title, but genre-wise it doesn’t sit with the one “on the train” or the one “before”. I’d agree with the publisher’s comparison to Lisa Jewell, especially to her books The Girls and The House We Grew Up In in terms of tone.
﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏
Big thanks to NetGalley and HarperCollins UK Audio for providing me with an ALC in return for an honest review.

I really enjoyed listening to this audiobook.

Suzie and Emily are neighbours, but are not friends. Emily is very noisy and Suzie finds herself complaining about the noise a lot.

Until the noise stops. Suzie is convinced something has happened to Emily and starts investigating herself.

The story is told by Suzie’s perspective and starts a bit slow, the reader is left guessing, until the story starts being told by Emily perspective too and we start to find out more about what might have really happened.

I also found the style of writing very different to my usual, it was very descriptive, which was beautiful, but sometimes I found a bit annoying.

Thank you to NetGalley and HarperCollins for letting me review this book.

Intriguing blurb but starts off extremely slow to the point I nearly gave up on it. I found Suzie wasn’t an interesting enough character to keep you interested and her constant inner thinkings did grate a little. The pace did pick up somewhat about half way through when you got another characters perspective but I found the plot somewhat unbelievable and certain details really bodering on the point of ridiculous. The outcome was a little out of left field and not much development towards it. I liked the narration and her voice did keep your attention. All in all wasn’t for me.

2.5/5 🌟🌟/🌟

Thanks to Netgalley and HarperCollins UK Audio for the opportunity to listen to and review this ARC that due to be published on the 9th of Dec.

Triple wow!!! It’s a good job I don’t have to get up for work in the morning; this audiobook was so good, I listened to it in a single sitting right through the night.! The narration throughout was absolutely spot on. Took me straight into each of the two central characters, Emily, the girl in question and Susie, her neighbour.

The plotting is superb. Perfectly paced, tense and with small reveals taking the listener deeper into the backstory of each with every chapter. Georgina Lees very cleverly explores grief, loss, obsession, friendship, familial ties and more in a satisfyingly complex emotional psychological thriller. At times I was frustrated with Susie, but began to realise more was going on than is first apparent. The same with Emily whose circumstances are totally different. There are so many twists it’s impossible to know how it will turn out. It’s rich in character detail, strong sense of location and there are few books that keep me totally engaged to the point of not sleeping because I need to hear more. Absolutely first class storytelling and I’m looking for more from this author.

My thanks to the publisher for a review copy via Netgalley

I first read this book as an ebook, I enjoyed it so much that i listened to it again as an audiobook and found the narrator exceptional!

Wow, this book is mind blowing! Great, great read!!

It is a slow burner, so much so that I considered the possibility of giving up on it a few chapters in, but i'm so happy I didn't as this might as well be one of the best psychological thriller I've read this year.

There's so much depth to the story and the characters have so many layers that I was captivated by it and completely engrossed in it. I literally couldn't put it down and felt i just wanted to hug Suzie and Emily: it was very emotional for me to hear their side of the story and be privy to their real thoughts as opposed as to the actual facts only.

I highly recommend this book and I'll talk about it to anyone!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an ALC in exchange for an honest review.

Suzie and Emily. Neighbours. But one knows everything about!?
When Emily is gone Suzie is the one that is investigating.
I would never understand this point of view but anyway. It has some secrets but not many turns or twists that would shock you. For those who do not need a gripping story this might be better.

Thank you to Netgalley and One More Chapter for this opoerunity.