The Family Upstairs by Lisa Jewell

I know this sounds weird, but I enjoy reading books about cults. There's just something so fascinating about what compels ordinary people to toss aside their lives and follow a cult leader blindly, often to dire extremes. 

There are three stories interwoven in The Family Upstairs. The first is 25 year-old Libby, who inherits a house from her birth parents. She was adopted as a baby, and knows nothing about her birth family, but she soon learns that terrible events led to her adoption. 

The second is Lucy, a single mother of two desperately trying to get back to Britain from France. She and her family are destitute, living on the street, but somehow she needs to find the means to get passports and travel back to her home country. But why is Lucy so frantic to get back? 

The last narrative is Henry, two decades in the past, who documents what happens to his parents and sister when strangers begin moving into, and slowly taking over, their Chelsea mansion. It's Henry's story that delivers shocking scene after shocking scene, unraveling years of madness. 

This book was so crazy! I found myself staying up late at night, just because I needed to find out how it ended! And I often have a problem with Jewell's endings, but this one was very satisfying! 

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for an ARC.

Look for The Family Upstairs online and in bookstores on August 8th!