The Girl Upstairs: An absolutely gripping psychological thriller debut with a jaw-dropping twist from a stunning new voice in crime fiction

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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? It is mostly sad, depressing, slow burn thriller gripping your attention from the beginning and you’re trapped inside Suzie’s blurry, unreliable, struggling head! There’s something amiss about Suzie : she keeps drinking, spiraling into pessimism, holding on to memories with some man: a husband, lover, what happened to him? 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. This was a unique play on the "something weird is going on with my neighbor" genre and I greatly enjoyed it. The story centers on Suzie, a young widow who is having trouble getting out there again and fixates on her upstairs neighbors, who come and go every 6 months. The newest one is a recent college grad named Emily,. who immediately gets on Suzie's nerves from being loud and inconsiderate. You also get alternating chapters from Emily's point of view, which is a clever way of garnering empathy for her when at first you only see her from Suzie's perspective. The smell of tomato and basil sifts through the ceiling and settles on my taste buds. She plonks down in front of the TV and the sofa shifts forward, the TV turned up. She’s placed her phone on the floor and I can hear the dense vibrations directly above me, taunting me. I look up and catch myself in the lounge mirror, my face scrunched and deep frown lines clawing my forehead, my pale complexion a host to dark purple circles under my eyes. My sandy blonde hair is knotted into two plaits resting on bony shoulders. I sob, but I can’t hear myself above the deep static tones of Emily’s television; as with her, noise is more important right now and I let the tears drift away and place my lasagne in the oven.

For some reason, this makes Suzie think that she knows her neighbor better than anyone else, so when Emily goes missing, she becomes convinced that she is the only one who can find her. Suzie reports this to the owner who informs Emily’s parents and the police. But Suzie thinks she knows Emily best (but why?) because she could hear everything going on up there. So she undertakes her own half baked investigation (but why?). That’s the story. The rest is padding. On the face of it, this should have been a fabulous read. It definitely had all the ingredients for it. I've been in London 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 Emily to leave. Both Emily and Suzy are interesting characters. Emily is an aspiring writer, shunted off to London by her parents while they endeavour to repair their fractured relationship. Suzy lost her husband suddenly and tragically and is struggling to cope. Both women are emotionally fragile and vulnerable, and have far more in common than either realise.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. My mum’s pixelated face appears on screen and so does mine. I catch myself and smile more, wider, until I don’t recognise myself. My mum is waving into the camera, her white teeth shooting across the screen and her soft red hair falling elegantly to each side. Suzie lives in a downstairs flat in London – depressed, lonely, and extremely frustrated with her noisy upstairs neighbor Emily. The floors are thin, and Suzie can hear EVERYTHING – Emily’s music, her phone conversations, even her bathroom habits. So when Emily’s flat suddenly goes quiet, Suzie knows there’s something wrong. 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…

Suzie Arlington can hear everything that goes on in the flat upstairs-she knows when the latest tenant, Emily eats, sleeps, has sex, and uses the toilet. She knows what music she likes, the food she prefers and the wine she drinks. We can make up your old room and look after you for a bit? Lunch down the pub and coastal walks, doesn’t that sound nice?’ DISCLOSURE: Thank you to Harper Collins UK, One More Chapter, via Netgalley for providing both a digital and audio ARC of The Girl Upstairs by Georgina Lees for review. All opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own personal opinions. This is a gripping read, beautifully and heartbreakingly told and I definitely need a spell before I can move on from this fabulous 5* read. The voices stop, I hear movement off the sofa and Emily whisper, ‘I don’t know, shall I answer it?’ I slam my fist into the door again. Yes, you should answer it. The door opens slowly and Emily’s small face peers around. She sees me and a flash of recognition and concern crosses her features. She furrows her eyebrows and opens the door wider.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. I’d be lying if I didn’t say some of this was a little corny, but I appreciate what the author wanted to do for her character. I did find the ending to be anticlimactic, and it was disappointing in another way I can’t expound upon, as I don’t want to spoil the story. I just thought things were building up toward something different. I came to care about both Suzie and Emily, which made the abruptness of the conclusion rather jarring. Underneath” by Anne Goodwin – Book Review #NovNov23 #novella @inspiredquill #Underneath#BookReview November 22, 2023