Emily must be a nightmare neighbour and you can feel Suzie’s tension, she’s so taut she could snap and Emily seems to be the catalyst that stirs and awakens something in her and she becomes obsessed and obsessive about her neighbour. That’s the good part! But Suzy feels in her guts something is up and her neighbor is in great danger. Even digging through her disappearance means she has to confront her own secrets she keeps, she’s stubborn enough to find Emily! But it also means crossing some lines and put a target on her head! Oh Suzy what have you done to yourself? I feel my eyes glistening, the familiar warmth in my chest and the words caught and distraught in the roof of my mouth. Although amateur sleuthing is a trope I dislike, I thought the author used it in a way that mostly worked here. Suzie’s choices weren’t wise, but understanding her history helped me, as the reader, comprehend the driving force behind her investigative tactics. It seemed fair that she’d choose to pursue the mystery when she realized no one else was going to. The reason Emily’s disappearance haunted her so deeply made complete sense. Then one day it is strangely quiet upstairs, what has happened to Emily? Suzie decides to try to find out and reaches out to her landlord. The police get involved, but Suzie feels that they aren’t doing enough.

Emily ends her call and shuffles to the bathroom. I hear her piss sink in the toilet bowl and then the flurry of water down the pipes. Maybe she’s getting ready, maybe the man from the phone will be around soon and she needs to prepare. The shower starts and dinner is forgotten. I smile, remembering when I used to forget dinner, the excitement of the evening too overwhelming, too thrilling to bother. Now, it is a regime, a signifier of time. Living alone in London, Suzie Arlington is acutely aware of every movement and noise made by her neighbor, Emily. However, when Suzie realizes it is suddenly too quiet in the upstairs flat, she cannot help but get answers to her neighbor’s mysterious disappearance. Joe Nuthin’s Guide to Life” by Helen Fisher – Book Review @RandomTTours #BlogTour #BookReview @simonschusterUK #JoeNuthinsGuideToLife @HFisherAuthor November 20, 2023 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… 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.WOW!!! I. COULD. NOT. PUT. THIS. DOWN. I read it all in ONE sitting! It was amazing! The storyline was captivating and engrossing while the main characters, Suzie and Emily, were so well written and interesting that I couldn't get enough of them… Bravo!!’ Yamil, NetGalley When I found out what happened to Emily at the end, I was surprised (though perhaps I shouldn't have been?) Suzie's story ended in a most satisfactory way. I’d still try another book by this author though. I’d like to see if another book will be more promising. This one has a good premise, but I’m afraid the writing just wasn’t optimal and the story seemed implausible at times. The police work did not seem up to par when a layperson gets more clues than the police! I didn’t really get connected to the characters, this one was too slow a read for me.

The writing kept me engaged throughout the book. I could easily visualize the house, the flats, and the occupants. The setting was a major force in the narrative. With overriding themes of grief, loss, and loneliness, this book cast a lingering look at lives of single women in the big city. I’ve been in London for 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 new life. Time for Emily to leave. Suzie can hear everything, yes absolutely everything that happens upstairs, from visitors to her neighbor Emily using the toilet.

Hobbies

In Suzie’s opinion, no one seems to care enough about Emily’s disappearance – not her parents, not her coworkers, not even the police – so Suzie is determined to get to the bottom of things. At first, I couldn’t understand why Suzie would care so much about finding a neighbor she was so irritated by, but as the story evolves, Suzie’s motivations are revealed. One day, Emily doesn't come home and Suzie gets herself overly involved in trying to figure out what happened. These characters are real and likeable- they made mistakes and did silly things, but felt relatable. Even when Suzie went way above and beyond what I would do to investigate the disappearance on her own, I felt that I could empathize with her and didn't really have to suspend my disbelief. The book has a sad, but immensely creepy vibe. Sad because both women seemed so lonely, yet they were immersed in a highly populated urban center. They might have been friends if they could have looked past their differences. One needed quiet, the other needed noise to stave off her loneliness. Creepy because Suzie had an aura of ‘ unreliable narrator‘ about her… For the first half of the book I was all the time wondering if she was a narrator that I could trust.

She warns her landlord Mike and Mike informs Emily’s parents. It seems like she has lost her job. There’s a chance she ghosted her parents. She did it before. She’s a portrait of little erratic, irresponsible and unpredictable young woman. Of course Suzy keeps making complaints about the noise to her landlord, informing the housing council and showing at her door to confront her! Unfortunately, the pacing of this novel is just so slow and Suzie just isn’t interesting enough to pull you in and sustain you in the unfolding storyline. There’s not sufficient personality on display or emotions conveyed powerfully enough for you to care very much and so it just feel rather flat and monotone. The same thoughts go round and round Suzie’s head so that it becomes tedious. It’s certainly character driven but they aren’t characters that I can relate to. I can’t get my head around why Suzie would get so involved in Emily’s life to the extent she does when she had been in conflict with her?? She doesn’t know her at all so wouldn’t she just report and walk away? The police investigation and the behaviour of the police officers doesn’t strike an authentic note as in some places Suzie is allowed way more latitude than would actually happen. Suzie also makes convenient discoveries that the police overlook. Really? Some of the dialogue in weak which is especially apparent in the police investigation. There’s a lot of clipped underdeveloped dialogue that doesn’t feel true to life. This is very evident with less than pleasant characters who then feel somewhat stereotypical. The ending after a slow build up feels rushed and I have to say, it’s a surprise! Maybe too much is a surprise! PDF / EPUB File Name: The_Girl_Upstairs_-_Georgina_Lees.pdf, The_Girl_Upstairs_-_Georgina_Lees.epub I just didn’t find this to be the spine-tingling psychological thriller described in the synopsis. In fact I felt very little tension or suspense at all.I grab my new version of a Joe Hill novel, the spine sharp and fresh, the front cover smooth and unmarked. There are no memories in this, I think, and I revel in that for a moment. From the start, I just knew that this would be an absorbing read. The protagonist, Suzie Arlington is a sad and lonely woman of thirty-five. She works 'in marketing' and owns the ground floor flat of a house in Islington, London. She longs to return to her family home in Hove, Sussex. However, her attachment to the memories of her husband Ben, in the flat where she lives, override her longing for home.