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The family upstairs, lisajewell. Spoilers!

38 replies

Namechange3007 · 10/08/2019 21:09

Anyone else read this yet? I loved it and want to talk about it!

OP posts:
delilabell · 17/08/2019 17:52

Yes I thought that. Or that he's poison them all together once he'd got his "family" back

IHaveBrilloHair · 23/08/2019 17:49

I really want to read this but I'm not paying that much!
I absolutely loved, "the house we grew up in"
Her recent books are good, not keen on the older ones though.

Debbiecurtbag · 23/08/2019 19:34

Just finished it. Agree about the ending I read the last paragraph and was expecting another chapter. I assume he was only wanting to see her to find Phin. I agree though strange that Henry was forgiven for clearly locking them in and wiping their phones. I almost feel as though it was left open to have a sequel.

Hoghgyni · 23/08/2019 21:05

I read The House We Grew Up In on holiday and got a bit annoyed with the constant leaps forward and backwards in time. Does she do this in all her books?

JemimaTab · 05/09/2019 18:09

It’s well written and I mostly enjoyed it, but there were some things that annoyed me a bit. (SPOILER WARNING FOR THOSE WHO HAVEN’T READ IT.). There were quite a few things that stretched credibility IMO. One being that it would be highly unlikely that a house would be left empty for 25+ years for someone to inherit. If it wasn’t going to be sold, the solicitors managing the estate would have had to at least make it income-generating e.g. rent it out. Also, there would at least be people going in to clean / maintain it (or squat in it!) over the years - it was all a bit convenient that various items were just left there for the characters to find later. I liked the “cult” aspect of the story and wished there was more time spent exploring that and in particular how the mother character was sucked in. To me, it lost its way about 80% of the way through, when the characters came together and it all became a bit implausible and rushed. Some of the ends were tied off in a way that didn’t convince me and didn’t seem to do justice to what had gone before. So like I say she can clearly write and there was some interesting stuff there but I was a bit disappointed by it overall.

MarigoldEntwin · 08/09/2019 22:14

I’m torn ... I was very compelled and read it very quickly but there were some things I just was a bit baffled by.

  • What happened to Justin?
  • Why when Libby met Clemency did she tell her the entire story so easily ... basically telling a stranger about you being involved in helping to cover up a murder?
  • How was Phin found? Thought he only told Henry his dream of being a safari guide?

The ending just felt rushed in my opinion

Yappieone · 20/02/2020 08:59

Loved the book, couldn’t put it down
But ... who sent the first ever text to say The baby is 25?? Nobody knew where Lucy was, who she was or her phone number ?

carbuncleonapigsposterior · 22/02/2020 20:37

Enjoyed this book very much, there was a Ruth Rendell/Barbara Vine quality about it, at her best she weaved a great tale, a much missed writer.

Lee17 · 03/08/2020 14:08

I loved this book. I couldn't put it down. I got a bit confused with the characters so I wrote them in the front of the book so I could see who was/belonged to who. I have a question about the ending but don't want to spoil it for others.

Lee17 · 03/08/2020 14:56

Hi, was it a calendar reminder? Or Henry?

Lee17 · 03/08/2020 14:58

MarigoldEntwin. Didn't the investigator find Phin? He worked out he had spelt his name slightly differently but looked like him.

Lee17 · 03/08/2020 15:03

Because the police thought it was a suicide pact, they didn't bother to search?

happydminor · 16/08/2020 21:17

Hi there. This is a massive spoiler so don't read if you've not finished the book. I've just finished and am left with a few questions, the main one being that how Lucy could know for certain whose baby it was if she was sleeping with both Phin and David? In the book it was assumed that it was based on how the baby looks - as in just like Phin - but, as Phin could've been the baby's brother, if David was the father then that would make sense. Also, David was very manipulative, and if his major interest in Lucy was to get her pregnant then he would definitely know when this was most likely to occur and if she became pregnant when he had not been having sex with her then he would've known it was not his.

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