I adored the cover of “The Ladie Upstairs” and I believe the cover itself will sell a few copies. The book was advertised as “female horror”, and I just could not say no to this. Alas, while there are a few things I liked about the story, I feel Ms Elland has not found her true voice yet… As with a lot of first novels, she tried to put EVERYTHING in “The Lady Upstairs” and the narrative ended up being somewhat intense and not linear at all, loaded and… pointless? There were a couple of ideas that I liked and hoped they would be explored further, for example: no time/space references, the idea that Ropner Hall was some sort of hell, the dolls, the strange main fest of the year… There were so many (what felt like) half-baked ideas running through chapters and none of them were really truly explored, similarly, the characters were unfinished, like shadows of what could have been.

At the same time, I really enjoyed Ms Elland’s writing and I think she is very capable of coming up with better constructed and much scarier books!

I note a couple of reviewers were upset by the descriptions of “bodily functions”, I was never offended by these descriptions, there are much more nauseating books out there!

I am grateful for the possibility to read and review the book ahead of its release date.

Jessie Elland’s ‘The Ladie Upstairs’ was truly promising to me. However, despite its vivid descriptions (which it frequently got lost in), I found myself sadly disappointed. The author has inserted herself too much into this story—which isn’t at all coherent. There is no linear story, rather bits and pieces of framework. The writing shows promise, but even as someone who adores imagery, the balance was way off. If you are going to write a poetic novel, there needs to be a frequent switch between simple and complex sentences; otherwise you may as well have written a long poem.

The occasional vulgarity felt out of place, often feeling like gleaming errors. Another issue ‘The Ladie Upstairs’ suffers is the stilted nature of telling v. showing. The author seems distrustful of the reader’s subjective conclusions. Though I’m not sure what the intention was with this novel as there is a lack of storyline. Thus the characters were inevitably flattened, soon becoming ghosts of people.

The setting itself could do with more development. I can see the passion the author has for this place, but I cannot share in it due to the lack of concrete detail. Jessie Elland has inserted herself so firmly that it is hard to penetrate the narrative. I almost feel this would have worked better as a series of vignettes.

Additionally, this book is falsely advertised. I almost didn’t pick it up because I thought it was a Bridgerton-esque novel, but it really isn’t. The front cover is very misleading.

The positives of ‘The Ladie Upstairs’ are the promise of an eventual great writer and a promising voice. Further down the line I can envision Elland producing interesting work, and despite my disappointment here, I will look out for them.

rounding up to 3.75

the descriptive writing the author has is absolutely beautiful and extremely visual. my only complaint, is that at times there was a lack of a story line going on in between the descriptive writing sometimes.

this book had a very whimsical, intriguing premise to it. if a person doesn’t like descriptions of bodily harm, this book isn’t for them.

around 50 or so percent in i worked out what was going in the story, yet the book still gripped me.

Firstly, this is the *perfect* cover for this audacious and enigmatic story. Elland's writing is the star of the show: luscious, grotesque, hallucinatory, and with more than a touch of Angela Carter about it.

The story itself plays effectively with our expectations: with deceptive nods to all the 'big house' classics, to Fingersmith, to Lady Chatterley's Lover and - of course - the Brontes... and yet it remains subversive to the end.

So first of all - applause to the cover designer of 'The Ladie Upstairs'. The design is stunning, like a John Singer Sargent painting. The author Jessie Elland's writing style is baroque and intense, brimming with emotion and sensory descriptions. I didn't find it easy to follow the plot at first - the reading experience felt like full immersion in a strange world.

My favourite passage of the book was when a woman was wandering through the opulent upstairs rooms of the country house which are "like wedding cakes", but sometimes a corpse follows her about (I think this is of a man she killed - but I might be wrong). The humour and imagination of this were great ("She usually lost the corpse in the library, where she was able to dust thick brown books in peace, and wonder, undisturbed, which of the golden titles Ladie had read.")

I was glad I took a chance on this book. The passion of the writing is impressive and has something of Emily Brontë about it. The author is only 24, and I am interested to read what she writes next.

Many thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the advance copy.

A weird little book!
I loved the spiky prose and the grotesque descriptions, I found it quite a hard read to get into but then once I was into it, I really enjoyed it. The story is bizarre and confusing but interesting! Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the ARC.

Ooooooh wow. What a disturbingly beautiful book. There was something so unnerving about this, between Ann and Ladie and their constant commentary, this felt suffocating to read. I adored the writing, it felt like I was drowning in sentences and paragraphs full of earthly descriptions. Elland has a real talent, her writing leaps off the page, so much so I could taste the food and smell the awful scents of the house.

Around 60% in I knew something was wrong. The narration got even more unreliable and I was on the edge of my seat. The ending caught me by surprise, I couldn’t believe how clever and well written this entire novel was. I loved it, for all of its awful descriptions of the human body and sin, I couldn’t put it down. A truly devious book, this was unrelenting and thrilling to read.

This was such a weird and wonderful book I will be thinking about it for a while! Luscious prose and wicked humour, it offers a darker telling of the country house and it is perfect for fans of Bridgerton and horror fans!

I found this dispicable in its over useage of descriptions and disgusting in its telling of bodily functions. It turned me and i know theres a story underneath but it was just too long drawn out and stomach churning.