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The Family Remains: the gripping Sunday Times No. 1 bestseller (The Family Upstairs, 2)

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Detective Samuel Owusu finds a bag of bones floating in the Thames River. Forensic testing reveals that the bones are connected to a decades-old cold case that left three dead in a Chelsea mansion. Do you think Rachel and Lucy will continue to be friends, or do you think their bond in common is too painful for them to maintain a relationship? Other authors are at a ten out of ten, for me, and Lisa is a solid hundred.”—Gillian McAllister, The Sunday Times (London) bestselling author of Wrong Place Wrong Time I'm definitely an outlier here, many people have loved this one. I've been a fan of Jewell's for a long time, but her last two books just haven't been all that great for me. Hopefully I'll like the next one better.

I remembered the first book mostly although the details eluded me until this book reminded me, very well, of what exactly had happened in the first book. Because this book does such a good job of going over past events, I can see how someone could read this book and understand what is going on, more or less. But I think that the story has more meaning if you do read the first book before you read this one. It's not a pretty story, bad things happened in the past and they are happening in this book, too.What was your reaction to Michael’s death being deemed an organized crime murder? Were you expecting Lucy or Rachel to be held responsible for it? The novel opens in 2019,when a bag of human remains is fished out of the muddy banks of the Thames by a mud-larking guide.Detective Inspector Samuel Owusu goes to investigate. Whose bones are they? How long have they been there? When Phin goes missing, Lucy reaches out to his sister, Clemency, who brings up Phin and Henry’s complicated relationship. Lucy thinks to herself “Twenty-six years is long enough for memories to grow cobwebby, abstract. Twenty-six years is long enough to doubt your recollection of things, to wonder if maybe things really did happen the way you think they happened” (69). Do you think Lucy’s questioning of her own memories is similar to Henry’s reimagining of the past? What are the similarities and differences in the ways Henry and Lucy Lamb deal with their past traumas? Expanding on #4... This was officially one star when Henry and Lucy reentered the UK with their fake passports AFTER Interpol had located them and they were questioned by the police. BRUH. You're telling me that Interpol wouldn't be waiting for you on the tarmac as soon as you landed to confiscate your fake documents and put you in jail? Instead Henry is like well they need us here so duh they still work! No... Just no. Once again, I'd let this slide in the 2 hot 2 handle cozy, but not in a book that's aiming for something more serious. This is just nonsense. You committed a serious crime and you're just in the streets because some small town Detective wants to keep an eye on you?? PLZ SIR!!! In Justin’s suicide note, he says that Henry had “Such a strong sense of right and wrong. More than anyone else in that house Henry knew where the moral high ground should be and was constantly begging the grown-ups to try to find it” (407). Do you agree with Justin’s evaluation of Henry? Do you think Henry skirts the moral line so well because he understands where the moral high ground should be? Or do you think Justin is exaggerating here to help clear Henry’s name?

Do you agree with Justin that Henry is “Poor Henry” and that the Lamb children were “all victims. Whatever happened inside that house, none of them deserves to be punished for it” (340)? Cite examples as to why you do or do not believe Justin’s assessment. As always, Jewell does a fantastic job with characterization. I flew through this book in three days, as I needed to know more about Phin, Lucy, Libby, Rachel, Henry, and Michael. From the #1 New York Times bestselling author Lisa Jewell comes an intricate and affecting novel about twisted marriages, fractured families, and deadly obsessions in this standalone sequel to the “brilliantly chilling” (Ruth Ware, New York Times bestselling author) The Family Upstairs . I found this book to be overall just ok. Although you can piece together the story without reading book one ( The Family Upstairs), it is a better experience if you know (and remember) what happened in that book. I read through a detailed recap online because I barely remembered anything about that book three years later.Furthermore, I would categorise Henry, Lucy, and Marco’s story as more family drama/secrets/tragedy, with Rachel’s being more domestic thriller, and a dash of police procedural thrown in. Lucy thinks to herself that she “hates herself for putting Libby in this position, for coming into Libby’s blameless, uncomplicated life and tainting it with subterfuge and darkness” (347). Do you think Libby would agree with this and resents her birth mother? Do you think Lucy is able to forgive herself by the end of the novel?

I’m so sorry. But yes. And he appears to have been murdered, with a stab wound, several days ago. He has been dead at least since the weekend.” Bonjour, good morning. This is Detective Avril Loubet from the Police Municipale in Nice. Is this Mrs. Rachel Rimmer?” Lisa Jewell’s latest novel, “The Family Remains,” is a very confusing read in the sense that it involves a lot of characters, and the timeline constantly shifts from past to present. The narrative voice also changes with each chapter, with different characters voicing their perceptions and experiences and narrating the ongoing events in their lives. It begins with a prologue in which DI Owusu appears to be the main character, but as the narrative progresses, we realize there is no one protagonist but several. In the case of the antagonist, the situation becomes much more than complex. By the time you finish reading the novel, you still won’t be able to figure out whether there is any antagonist at all, if there is, whether there are one or several antagonists at the same time and whether he or she is a pure villain or mainly a person or people caught up in the course of fate and forced to do things they wouldn’t have done otherwise. I LOVED The Family Upstairs so much when I read it last month… yes I was late to the game… 🤫…I couldn’t wait to see what happened to our little family next… 😳 If you remember how the last book ended.. you will know why I was anxiously awaiting..😏Other authors are at a ten out of ten, for me, and Lisa is a solid hundred.” —Gillian McAllister, The Sunday Times (London) bestselling author of Wrong Place Wrong Time

The book wasn't terrible until the last 25% or so. I was going to give it a generous three stars because I was caught up in the drama of it all, but then Lisa Jewell said HOLD MY BEER and this story nosedived into one-star territory at the speed of light. They also found traces of Phineas, living in Botswana. They even plan a family reunion but Lucy finds out Phin already hit the road as soon as he found out their intention. And Michael Raimes found murdered brutally at his house in France , the very same man was married with Lucy Lamb: one of the victims who has been raped and abused at the mad house!Even though Lisa Jewell remains one of my favorite writers in this genre I have always maintained that The Family Upstairs is probably my least favorite among her books. Guess what? The Family Remains changed that and how! Early one morning on the shore of the Thames, DCI Samuel Owusu is called to the scene of a gruesome discovery. When Owusu sends the evidence for examination, he learns the bones are connected to a cold case that left three people dead on the kitchen floor in a Chelsea mansion 30 years ago. An above average read, which I think fans of The Family Upstairs will appreciate, but I preferred The Family Upstairs. From the #1 New York Times bestselling author Lisa Jewell comes an intricate and affecting novel about twisted marriages, fractured families, and deadly obsessions in this stand-alone sequel to the “brilliantly chilling” ( Ruth Ware , New York Times bestselling author) The Family Upstairs .

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