Lisa Jewell weaves a creepy tale of an old house, cults, and secrets in this excellent read.
Libby Jones turns 25 and receives a letter. Being adopted, this letter will reveal the identity of her parents. It will also reveal that she is inheriting a mansion on the Thames, in Chelsea. Being worth millions of pounds, the hard working young woman is now a millionaire. What she cannot know is that there are other people with an interest in this house, and in her turning 25.
She learns that her parents died in some sort of cult ceremony when she was 10 months old. She was found in the house, crying upstairs, while the bodies lay on the ground floor, dressed in black. The other children of the house had vanished without a trace. As she visits the house and investigates her family’s past, we see what actually happened in the house in the years leading up to Libby’s birth.
This was a solid book. While not a scary novel, it did a great job of setting a creepy vibe, especially as the flashbacks unfolded. I enjoy a book with an unreliable narrator, and these flashbacks definitely satisfied that for me. I also enjoy a good mystery, particularly when they involve spooky old houses. This was another book that I sat down with on a rainy Saturday afternoon and did not put down until the last page was read. Check it out.
The Skinny from the Fatty 