BOOK REVIEW: The Upstairs Room by Kate Murray-Browne

Pages: 320, Kindle Edition
Published: July 2017, by Picador
Cover Rating: 5/5

A Clever play of words with a sense of mystery and a gothic tale

Kate Murray-Browne’s debut, The Upstairs Room is a gothic tale with a modern radiance set in London, United Kingdom that revolve around the lives of three characters in a Victorian house.

The storyline starts with a married couple Eleanor and Richard who are in their thirties, bearing two young daughters and decide to buy a Victorian house in London Fields by stretching their financial limit. Their dream is update the decor left by the previous owners in a horrendous manner. Only after moving do they find that the house in not only left in terrible way but it contains an eerie atmosphere inside it. Similar feelings are shared by their twenty-seven year old lodger, Zoe, when she comes across a room upstairs in which every inch of the wall is scribbled by a name – Emily.

Thus, Eleanor tries to unravel this mystery and the eerie atmosphere that is making her sick both physically and mentally. The storyline starts with in mysterious manner. A reader can clearly notice the clues that the author share to construct the story further. I am impressed how carefully and in subtle way the author has constructed the plot that has a balance and is gripping at the same time. The third person narrative voice is fast pace and in no time you will be able to finish this book.

The eerie atmosphere I described before is the essence of this book. It gave me goosebumps, (also the fact that I was reading this book around midnight) literally. I can conclude that it is actually not a ghost story and a reader is kept in mystery as some time it seems that there might be a rational explanation to all these happenings.

The characterisation of all main characters with occasional flashbacks is good. I strongly feel, by judging the length of the book which consists a good amount of pages, these occasional yet in-depth flashbacks of characters past were unnecessary to a point but maybe this the Kate’s way of deceiving a reader to feel the sensations that I described. Also, after carefully calculating the amount of horror this book contain is very low and would like to applaud the author on her clever play and creating those appalling feelings with her words.

I picked the this book for two reasons. One, I love how beautiful the cover is designed (thus justifying the cover rating) and a feeling of mysteriousness it conveys to a reader looking at it. Second, the blurb of the book portrayed a mysterious plot inside my mind rather than the gothic and a horrifying one. I was surprised to find this book is share similar storyline boundaries with other gothic novels like Austen’s Northanger Abbey. Maybe, next time, I should read the blurb more carefully. Though I am not even slightly disappointed by my purchase.

I recommend this book if you are interested in gothic tales, Victorian houses, fast pace tales, with lots of mystery element and a decent or low amount of paranormal activities, go for it.

4 out of 5!

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