Rating:

“Endings are Loud”

Author: Lisa M. Matlin

Waning social media star and self-help book blitz Sarah Slade is looking to revitalize her fading fame and marriage with a little fixer-up project. She’s bought and plans to renovate an infamous murder/suicide house (Black Wood House) with the help of her hubby and inflexibly angry cat (Reaper), all while keeping up her façade as a good therapist. Of course, Sarah is doing more than trying to keep her perfect career going. She’s keeping her careful façade in place. Sarah has a past. Sarah has a lot of things to hide. And what better place to hide than right under the limelight, in the open, on a book cover, in the hash-tagged glitz of the Gram?

The Stranger Upstairs markets itself as a gothic ghost story, but then it pivots from eyes-in-wallpaper macabre and dream walking revelations to drunkly-forlorn-wife domestic thriller. Is there a ghost in the house, or an unreliable narrator penning her life story on a website? Is the town out to get Sarah in some insanely complicated plot focused on the house? Is something in the house malevolent or manipulative? Is the local real estate mogul plotting a slow revenge? Has someone from the past discovered who Sarah really is (maybe because all she did was change her name and her hair, yet remain in the same country and then become mega-popular and literary put her address on every online social media site)? Is the husband having an affair? Is the former, now missing owner involved? Is the new friend involved, or maybe even the employer? Someone else from one of the many, many other twisting and interrelating, unanswered, half masticated plotlines? Who can say? And who cares. . . .

What starts with a lot of promise soon goes from corny to confusing. There are so many questions and everything and the kitchen sink is thrown in, with nothing being answered. Is it a ghost, a ghoul, a zombie? Yes, and more. Is everyone and no one involved. Sure. Why not. Is it a horror story? Of course. A thriller? Yep. A mystery? Why not. A comedy? Unintentional, most assuredly. A cohesive story? Nope. That is one thing it is not. But man, it twists more than a minotaur on Redbull in a maze filled with explosive tiles. And it makes about as much logical sense (and is about as atmospheric too).

But, wait, you say! Atmosphere can save anything. True. The creepy bird wallpaper was nice… but it went nowhere. The bloodstain on the floor in the master bedroom . . .eh, been done and done before. Also, went nowhere. The rest of the house. Shrug. No idea what it looked like. Although for having been abandoned for 40 years, must have been ok since they moved right on in. Guess the poltergeists were at least tidy. But if you’re murderous you must bring something to the table. Except neat wallpaper. These ghosts want their wallpaper torn, folks.

Image by Barbara from Pixabay

And characters. Well, the husband is just kinda there. Sarah is completely unlikable and whines “oh, why, oh why does no one like me.” Well, lady, you’re kinda evil and you have the personality of a fruit husk, so probably that. Also . . . I’m pretty sure that to get a job as a therapist they would first check your credentials and would discover that you have a fake ID from MySpace or whatever . . .

Emily, the minor character friend, was pretty likable, but ultimately not important to the story. She is only there to allow the author to switch POVs randomly when Sarah just becomes too unreliable to even allow for any sort of story flow. And the cat, who thankfully does survive, is great because, well, he’s a cat. He’s not really important to the story though.

Overall, there is a lot of promise and hype about The Stranger Upstairs, but the book is ultimately amateurish. There is a lot of material thrown together, but nothing is finished or explained, basic logic (like, for example, the main characters determining that an unseen house is sellable before buying it to flip) is completely absent, and the “twisty” ending is a complete sham. It’s B-movie bad, despite the beautiful cover photo and the gorgeous write-up, which is ultimately more coherent and better written than the story it attempts to capture. Not recommended.

– Frances Carden

Follow my reviews on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/xombie_mistress

Follow my reviews on Facebook at: https://www.facebook.com/FrancesReviews

Frances Carden
Latest posts by Frances Carden (see all)