The Girl Upstairs - Georgina Lees

Description

How well do you know your neighbour? Would you trust them with your life?

I heard Emily before I saw her. The harsh smack of heels against cheap wooden floorboards. The loud phone calls. The incessant music.

I knew Emily before I met her. Discarded receipts in our communal hallway. Sticky leftovers in the shared food waste bin. Wine shop vouchers in the letterbox.

Now she’s gone missing, and I’m the only one who can find her. The only one who can save her.

Because I know her best, and I heard everything.

Review

Suzie lives in a flat in London with only one other flat upstairs, which is occupied by Emily. There is a lot of unwanted noise from upstairs and Suzie is getting very fed up of it all, and the way Emily treats the communal hall. So when upstairs suddenly goes quiet you'd think Suzie would be pleased, and to begin with she is. Until she gets the feeling that is all is not as it should be, and maybe Emily is missing.

Suzie takes it upon herself to begin her own investigation of where Emily might have gone. Emily has form for disappearing and so no one is that worried about her except Suzie. This seemed a little strange to me at first, but slowly we begin to get a sense of why Suzie wants to find Emily. I felt that this part of the book was a little protracted, it built suspense, but a little too slowly for me.

We begin to find out more of Emily and Suzie's back stories and the suspense has definitely built by now. I didn't warm to the character of Suzie, she felt too lost and wrapped up in herself that I began to wonder if any of what was happening was real. Emily wasn't too likeable either, until we are shown her earlier life. Things fell into place about her and in a few paragraphs I had a whole other view of her.

Eventually the book gets rather creepy. I began to suspect everyone Suzie came into contact with of knowing what had happened to Emily. I began to race towards the end of the book not wanting to put it down and was rewarded with a really good twist.

I'm giving this book 4 out of 5 stars. My thanks to netgalley for the ARC to review.

Comments

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