Book Review | Something I Keep Upstairs

About the Book

Something I Keep Upstairs is a paranormal thriller that tells the tale of a mysterious house on an isolated island off the coast of a small New Hampshire town. When Billy’s friend Spivey inherits the house from his estranged reclusive grandmother, their small group of friends find themselves caught in a dark pact that has existed for centuries. The house on Wood Island has rules and their consequences are dire.

The introduction to the story is by our main narrator, Billy, who is haunted by what happened at the house on Wood Island when he was just a teenager. When Billy and his friends were seventeen, the idea that Spivey was inheriting a whole island was a teenage dream. What group of teenagers wouldn’t see an island as a parent-free paradise to do whatever they please?

However, coming into such an inheritance, Spivey learns there are rules for his newfound property and a mysterious lawyer who is at the helm of the island’s conservatorship. Even still, Spivey is a young man with a terrible relationship with his parents and island rules or no, he gladly takes his keys to his kingdom. Oddly enough, his late grandmother forbade Spivey’s parents from stepping foot on the island and thus it seemed like a haven for him and his friends. However, stepping foot on Wood Island would change things forever.

My Thoughts

I knew nothing about the story going into Something I Keep Upstairs. As I sank into the story, however, I was immediately intrigued. Paranormal Thrillers are my favorite kind. The second the haunted vibes appeared I needed to know more about this house and this island. I wouldn’t quite call this a haunted house story as the house isn’t quite the center of the mystery but rather Wood Island itself. I love a good sinister mystery and I was pleasantly surprised at how much this story stuck its claws in me.

I’m not always a fan of following teenage protagonists. Billy and his friends did make me want to rip the hair out of my head several times. However, in a story like this teens are the best protagonists because they are irrational and short-sighted by nature. The considerations you might make or any reservations you might have as an adult, they simply do not.

They infuriate you because they think they know what they’re doing. In reality, they’re simply digging themselves a hole so big they’ll never climb out of it. Part of me felt bad for these poor dumb kids. The other part was ready to shout at them for being so willfully ignorant. As a reader, I felt helpless when things went from bad to worse with seemingly nothing and no one to stop it.

For me, this book had a good mix of character interest, super creepy paranormal happenings, and high stakes. Oftentimes thrillers can succeed in one area but fall flat in others, which leaves me a bit disappointed. I was engaged all the way through and pretty desperate to get to the ending. I needed to know what was happening and how all of the pieces fit together. I just couldn’t put it down. What the hell was going on with this creepy island? I can only imagine the manic expression on my face during the last fifty pages. When I reached the end of the book I was unexpectedly distraught. I had to sit with my thoughts for a while and this story stayed in my mind for weeks afterward. It makes you wonder what sort of choices you would have made in any of the characters’ shoes or if there was even a choice to begin with.

Something I Keep Upstairs is a book that left me feeling like I was hanging on by my fingernails. I think this is a great recommendation for paranormal thriller fans and honestly quite a tension-filled reading experience.

My thanks to Hampton Press/Simon & Schuster and NetGalley for the advanced copy.