The Ladie Upstairs

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!

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.

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.