BOOK CLUB QUESTIONS: The Family Upstairs

MAY 2020 BOOK CLUB QUESTIONS

 

Welcome to my questions on The Family Upstairs by Lisa Jewell

 

DAY 1

Kicking off with a general question - what did you like best about this book?

What did you least like?

 

DAY 2

This is the blurb for The Family Upstairs:

Be careful who you let in…

In a large house in London’s fashionable Chelsea, a baby is awake in her cot. Well-fed and cared for, she is happily waiting for someone to pick her up.

In the Kitchen lie three decomposing corpses. Close to them is a hastily scrawled note.

They’ve been dead for several days.

Who has been looking after the baby? Where did they go?

 

Did this appeal to you or turn you off?

Is the blurb important to you when you're choosing a new book? Do you like a lot of information or a little?

 

DAY 3

Of the three points of view this story was told from, which one did you enjoy the most: Libby, Lucy or Henry?

Did the story work for you being told from multiple POV, or did you keep flicking back to see what last happened to each character? Did you connect with each of them?

 

DAY 4

How would you describe Martina and Henry (husband)? What was the root cause of their tragic demise?

 

DAY 5

Most of the household detested David. What did Birdie and Martina see in him?

 

DAY 6

Do you think Henry’s destructible behaviour was born out of his need to survive the abuse David imposed upon him, or do you think there was, as Clemency states, “a streak of pure evil” in him?

 

DAY 7

Did you guess the ending of this book or was it a complete surprise?

 

DAY 8

Is this the first Lisa Jewell book that you have read? If not, which of her others would you recommend? Would you read another one of her books? What do you think of her writing style? How does this story compare with other psychological thrillers?