I haven’t finished this book - I saw lots of other reviewers raving about this one which intrigued me to request it however at 41% in I’ve decided it’s not for me !

I finished The Ladie Upstairs yesterday and it was probably the weirdest f***ing book I've ever read. It felt a bit like stumbling around in the dark, but in the best way. Out in May. More weird women in horror please!

This was a great read! It was a fever dream of a story. Gothic and lush. The writing was occasionally a tad flowery and repetitive but overall still enjoyable.

Oh I loved this. Parts of it genuinely scared me. I have absolutely no idea what happened and am very here for it.

Ann is a scullery maid at Ropner Hall, but she doesn’t belong in that kitchen with the others, so unclean and full of badness. She idolises the Lady of the house, and every person elevated and clean in the floors above, but only after a chance encounter with Lady Charlotte does she have her eyes opened to what happens above her station.

TWs for this book include: sexual assault, self-harm, violence/gore

This book is vivid. Sometimes to a fault; sometimes you can’t appreciate the beautiful imagery conjured because you’re already being whacked in the face with it again in the next sentence, with little to no breathing room. It grounds you in the moments that Ann is experiencing, and the visceral reactions she has to everyone around her. The detailed imagery is also a distraction from the plot - there were a few times I realised I had no idea what had happened, really, which you eventually come to realise is all part of Ann’s unreliable narration.

It’s hard to describe this book without spoiling any of the plot. It starts off slow, but once you push past the 30-40% mark it’s an easy read, because you never know what’s coming around the next bend of a corridor or locked door. The end is not a twist or surprising - you’re told the entire way along what is coming - but it is very satisfying. Although I’m left with so many questions.

This one’s a 3 star for me - it’s a fun plot with some really delightful descriptions, but they equally exhausted me at other times, with endless run-on sentences. The open questions left of how or why certain things were included are staying with me more than the actual plot did, which I don’t think was the author’s goal. I also don’t really think the SA needed to be included.

I’d definitely recommend this book if you enjoy a confusing but beautifully described narrative, vs a fast paced plot with simple-prose.

The Ladie Upstairs by Jessie Elland is an evocative, immersive tale set in the grand Ropner Hall, exploring themes of ambition, class, and the desire for a better life. The story follows Ann, a scullery maid who has spent her days working in the gloomy kitchen of the sprawling estate, dreaming of a different existence. Her chance for change comes when she is offered the opportunity to become Lady Charlotte’s personal maid. For Ann, this marks the escape from her challenging life below stairs, and the hope of a brighter future.

However, as Ann begins her new life in the privileged world above stairs, she discovers that it is not as simple or as perfect as she had imagined. Though she now enjoys a higher status within the household, she soon realises that the complications of her new role are far from what she expected. The ease of life she anticipated begins to feel more complicated and difficult as she navigates the new relationships and responsibilities that come with her position.

Elland’s writing is rich in detail, drawing the reader into the world of Ropner Hall with vivid, sensory descriptions. The contrasts between Ann’s past life in the scullery and her new life as a lady’s maid are stark, making the reader feel the weight of her transformation. As Ann becomes more familiar with her new environment, she is forced to reckon with the complexities of her position and the people she serves, leading to an exploration of class, power, and identity.

Ann is a relatable character, driven by her desire to improve her circumstances and to belong to a world that seems just out of reach. As she moves through her new role, her hopes and dreams are tested, and she is forced to confront the reality that sometimes, what seems like an escape can come with its own set of challenges.

The Ladie Upstairs is a compelling exploration of the dynamics of class, power, and ambition. It offers a thoughtful look at the complexities of moving between different social worlds, and the compromises one might make along the way. With its richly drawn characters and immersive setting, this book would spark meaningful discussions about the nature of social mobility, the choices we make, and the price of ambition.

Read more at The Secret Book Review.

The Ladie Upstairs is a slow burning story of obsession and instabilty, thrilling from start to finish. This novel was a genuine treat to read.
Our protagonist is as unreliable as they come and seamlessly blends reality and imagination in such a way that it can be difficult to keep track but I do believe that was partially due to me taking too many breaks from reading, but I also felt that it was deliberately confusing and wants you to question everything. I'd highly recommend this to lovers of femgore, and weird girl lit. Elland builds suspense brilliantly and I truly believe this will be a huge hit in 2025.

This book took me by surprise. I wasn't expecting a Gothic fairytale with every aspect of the writing turned up to maximum intensity from start to finish. The tumultuous imagery of bodies, body parts, bodily self-loathing, bodily functions and the fear of bodily responses fills every page like a howling storm.
The way the book disturbed me and wrongfooted my expectations of its being a 'historical novel' got me thinking about other, earlier books that must have similarly discombobulated their surprised readers: Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, or Wuthering Heights might have baffled and even upset their early readers but those books and others like them have stood the test of time and we now recognise that they were both unique and also avant-garde books that paved the way for radical developments in fiction. Perhaps Jessie Elland's novel will prove to be similarly groundbreaking, with time. It was not an easy read. I felt disturbed by the underlying themes of bulimia, personality disorders, young women so lacking a stable core that they have no sense of where they end and others begin, longing to merge with the object of their desire. Words were misused, abused, thrown out seemingly at random, but was that due to the author's intention or to her lack of firm knowledge of the meaning of the words she was using? Impossible to say. The effect was to undermine the stability of her narrative, an effect that served her nightmarish vision well.
I thought a comparison might be to Jane Austen pastiches that involve zombies, but I haven't read any of those. I was expecting the book to end with a fullblown zombie apocalypse but the writing shied away from that, instead tying a fairly neat structural loop to suggest the ghastly dance of death at Ropner Hall would continue for all eternity.
In all honesty, I didn't really enjoy The Ladie Upstairs as I was so out of my comfort zone, but kudos to Jessie Elland, nonetheless, for so fearlessly committing to her outlandish and rather terrifyingly out-there story.

A strange little tale of servant Ann and her relationship with Lady Charlotte. It felt like a good atmospheric gothic horror most of the time. Fully immersive, I had no problem with the disturbing and gross descriptions, but felt the story got bogged down in that world until it properly got going at about 40% of the way through. I wasn’t rooting for Ann, then I was, then I wasn’t again and so on. It was weird and mysterious and at times I loved it and other times well meh.

Honestly I was not a huge fan of this. I can't quite put my finger on it, but I struggled to connect on so many things including the characters and plot which is pretty important.

There's a reason so many reviews have mentioned the word 'fever' - this book feels hot and close and uncomfortable throughout. Mostly this works to good effect, underscoring the unreliable narrator and the animate nature of Ropner and its surrounds. There was a bit too much repetition in some parts for me but the skill of the author was undeniable in creating a topsy-turvy tale of ambition, desire, and unknowable forces.

The more of this book that I read, the more I realised that it's written in a style that I've found myself disliking in the past. Don't get me wrong, I loved the sound of the book and its overall story, but the way it's told took some of the experience from me, unfortunately. Also, I'm a huge fan of the cover so that's a plus.

A feverish unravelling, a desperate grappling, all within the confines of the grand Ropner Hall.

I absolutely loved the characters Jessie Elland has created. I saw everything playing out in my mind, the idea of Ropner a perfect contrast to the dark and claustrophobia. Ann had me hooked from the third page. Of course we’re all a fan of an unreliable narrator, with The Ladie Upstairs, I think you enter into a whole other realm of unreliable narration, and I am here for it.

One of the things I really liked about this, an impression I got fairly early on in the book was this perception of people’s spirit, the notion almost that they’re something other than people, but vessels for any evil or other force, a ghost, a shell. There are so many points where I just did not know what was coming next. Looking back, I think this impression is something pretty symbolic throughout the rest of the book.

Amongst all the chaos and jaw-dropping, there’s a lot of beautiful aspects to this book. Plenty of highlights, and some of the imagery and metaphors were unlike anything I’ve ever read.

I ruined part of the reading experience by reading the first half in super small chunks (thank you work/life distractions) which definitely upset my flow. That’s on me, and I trust after the first few pages you’re unlikely to want to put it down. That is of course, presuming that you like the dark.

Also, love the cover 🪞Thank you so much for the opportunity to read and review!

It's Inception, done right. A brilliant literary work of art.

From the start, this book is an eerie and atmospheric place. Ann's strange and obsessive mannerisms, longing to serve and piousness made me recoil from her character, she was deplorable but I was also totally and utterly invested in seeing her reach her goal.

The descriptions and dialogue between the characters within this book is not overdone, it lets your imagination spin webs of reality and there are key features brought back into the narrative to spark your memory and put the puzzle together.

The feverish beat to this novel kept me spiralling down, further into the depths of Ropner and hungry to watch the terrifying end.

This whole book was a fever dream on paper and I’m not entirely sure how I feel about it.
It did its job it was unsettling and atmospheric but it felt too complicated, the over use of metaphors took it from intriguing and tense to confusing in certain parts. I know that you’re meant to be a little thrown off, but it was had to digest.
Though as far as unreliable narrators go this is a great example. Our FMC is so delusional and warped her perspective is strange but I did finish it so it was worth getting to the end, I’m not sure I would recommend this unless it was to someone I knew would enjoy the chaos.

Fascinating book, I really had no idea where it wad going until the very end and even then I had to sit and have a good think about it.

For fans of Julia Armfield, Eliza Clark and Agustina Bazterrica.

Unfortunately the writing style of this didn't work for me! It wasn't the graphic nature or characters but something about the flow of the sentences. I'd like to try it again at some point on audio to see if I could click with it better that way as I was intrigued by what I read.

I found this book beautifully descriptive and so fascinating.

A wonderful exploration of womanhood and female inquisitiveness.

I would read this again, and again. Loved it. And that cover is fabulous.

If you like fever dream structured books, then this book is definitely for you!
Our main narrator of the story is Ann who works as a maid at Ropner Hall who develops this strange and unhealthy obsession with the Lady of the House.

The cover design is stunning, and it fits this book perfectly! The cover was also the reason I decided to request this book in the first place, and I was not disappointed because weird female fiction is my favorite type of books.

The writing is extremely visual, there are a lot of vivid descriptions (also of those of bodily fluids).
Disturbingly beautiful book, I couldn’t put it down!

A freaky little fever dream of a book. The Others meets Spirited Away meets Dorian Grey.
Did I like it? Unsure.
Did I understand it? Unsure.
It did definitely make me hungry though, which is maybe concerning.