The Family Remains by Lisa Jewell (The Family Upstairs #2)

My Rating :⭐

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!

The Family Upstairs left me with some unanswered questions. I had hoped (Lesson Learnt: Be careful what you wish for!) that the sequel would answer those questions and redeem the previous book in my eyes. Were my questions answered? Yes! But to be honest, I think living with those questions would have been more satisfying than having to endure The Family Remains. I try not to DNF books out of respect for the author’s hard work, but this book really tried my patience. My buddy read with SabiReads (you can read her review here) was what helped me read through to the end.

As the story begins, we see Lucy, Henry and Libby carrying on with their lives after the events in the previous book. A trip to Botswana to meet Phin is planned but falls through when Phin leaves Botswana when he finds out about their upcoming visit. Henry is adamant about finding Phin and following certain leads ends up in Chicago, temporarily severing contact with his sister and her kids who, however, track him down and promptly follow him to the Windy City. There is absolutely no character development for any of the main characters in the novel. Yes, we have a new character, Rachel, Lucy’s ex-husband Michael’s second wife, whose perspective is shared as part of the narrative and is of absolutely no consequence except to serve as a filler for what is overall a weak and underdeveloped story. We already knew Michael was an abusive husband with shady dealings. It was indicated in the previous book that Lucy was not a suspect in his murder and the case was closed. So why reintroduce that plot point here for the sake of a twist that again is of no consequence? We also have a bag of bones discovered by a mud–larker in the Thames which connects to the house of horrors that has since been sold off to a new owner. An investigation into the identity of the deceased is launched and the past comes back to haunt the family! We have an investigator who appears now and then but again he is always and remains always one step behind.

The initial 50% was boring with not much happening but the background of the story (events of the previous book) being mentioned quite a few times and Henry’s obsessive search for Phin (therefore, if you haven’t read the first book, you won’t have much problem following this one since the basic details about past events are mentioned frequently). The only interesting ( though immensely unlikeable) character is Henry whose obsession with Phin is the only engaging part of the narrative but only up to a point because after all that build-up, the climax will either have you rolling your eyes and/or laughing at its absurdity and/or throwing the book at the nearest wall in frustration (please take care not to do that if you’re using your e-reader, it’s not worth it!)

Needless to say, this was a disappointing read. I am aware mine is an outlier opinion so you might want to go through other reviews before you decide on this one. Many have liked this novel more than I have. It pains me to rate a Lisa Jewell novel this low but there is absolutely nothing about this book I feel good about. After reading this one, I'm left with only one question: What was the purpose of this sequel?