Reviewed by Emma Crowley
It could happen to you.
Anya is enjoying a relaxing bath when she hears a noise in the roof. Through the open bathroom door, she sees the attic hatch swing open, and a masked figure drops to the floor. Thirty seconds later, Anya is dead.
Even in a wealthy neighbourhood like this.
Across town, Anya's old school friend, Julia, sees an online video of a masked figure climbing out of an attic. She suddenly realises why the footage is eerily familiar. It was filmed inside her house.
Even with friends like these.
Why would a stranger target Julia? Unless of course, it's not a stranger at all...
Many thanks to Random House UK/Transworld publishers for my copy of Someone in the Attic to review and to Sharon for having my review on the blog.
Every time I read a new book from the ridiculously talented author that is Andrea Mara I think this has to be her best yet that there is no way her next book can top it and then she goes and does just that. The fact that I read this new book way before publication day in June and am not leaving writing the review on the long finger is testament to how brilliant Someone in the Attic is. There was no way I could leave this languishing on my Kindle for several months before reading it as it was calling out to me. Plus I had seen some early reviews for it that had nothing but good things to say about this tense and thrilling story so I knew it was one I was going to enjoy. I started it late one night and literally was inhaling chapters. It really is a just one more chapter kind of book and then you realise you’ve read more than half of it. The fact my eyes were tired was the only reason I put the book down and the next day I devoured it in short odour until I reached the conclusion.
A sinister opening has the reader sitting up and paying attention and this compulsion never wavers from this point right until you reach the final word. Anya’s partner is away and she is relaxing after work in the bath but suddenly the attic hatch opens and a figure emerges. Minutes later Anya is dead. Well, if that is not a creepy and terrifying opening than I don’t know what is. I’ll never look at the attic hatch in the same way again and this feeling only further increased as I delved deeper into the story. Why was Anya killed and who was behind it?
We are then introduced to Julia who has just moved back to Dublin from America. She has two children Isla and Luca and is divorced from her artist husband Gabe but they have an unusual living situation in that they have two homes. One family home where one parent is always with the children and the other parent stays in an apartment when it’s not their turn to be with the kids. From the outset, there are hints that their return from America was maybe not one that was planned for a long time but rather circumstances there forced them to leave as they had no other option The specific details of this are revealed over time and they are expertly woven in with the overall plots within the book of which there are many but at no time did it ever feel complicated or convoluted. In fact it just grew more and more intense with every chapter and I couldn’t get enough of it.
Julia is practical, sensible and efficient but when her daughter shows her a video of their house taken from the attic showing rooms and downstairs. She is seriously freaked out and even more so when she discovers how Anya passed away. Julia puts it down to a show that is going viral on TikTok and thinks nothing more of it but soon more videos start to appear and there is no solid answers only more and more questions. Luca says that there is a man in the attic and that at night he comes to his room and he is convinced that everything he is saying is true. He sticks firm to what he is saying but the adults brush aside his concerns despite the mounting evidence. It really is beyond bizarre all the little things that start to occur that on their own wouldn’t warrant any attention but the fact that so many strange things start to happen in Julia’s gated community that she can’t find immediate answers for well surely she has to act especially when it really starts to affect her family.
Eleanor is a friend of Julia and Anya’s whom Julia is getting to know again. She is shocked that Anya has passed but over the course of the book she turns out to be a brilliant friend to Julia as she too is sucked into the drama. Eleanor is opiniated, dramatic, bossy, loud, loyal, kind and good. Really, all the characteristics you would want in a friend but Eleanor too harbours her own secrets and at various points we go back in time to when the friends were much younger and something happened that still has them being weighed down. The only negative I found with the book was this aspect of the storyline. I understood it was there to help the reader to get to know more about the friend group when they were younger but to be honest I was far more interested in what was going on now and if Julia would discover who was behind the videos and the strange little things happening in and around her home. These little vents really had me on edge and the tension, suspicion and intrigue grew the further I read. My head was spinning but in the best of ways trying to figure out who was behind everything and why. Time and time again it seemed very clear cut as various characters were introduced and you thought it had to be them. Surely there was no other answer but Andrea had everything so expertly plotted out that she was taking her readers on an adventure with so many twists and turns that the answers were never going to be clear cut or given away so early on in the book. Everyone needs to be watched in this outstanding and magnificent read. Absolutely, no one is above suspicion.
Andrea Mara is unbelievable. I really don’t know how she does it. One minute she has you convinced so and so is responsible for everything and then the next paragraph has you completely changing your mind and thinking how could I have thought that person was the culprit. She leads you up so many paths only to reach dead ends but it’s not frustrating in any sense of the word because as soon as one door closes another one opens and off you go again in another completely different direction. Yes, I had a sense of smugness in that I thought I had it all worked out fairly early on but that feeling was quickly quashed as firm and solid evidence is presented as to why you are wrong. Just like Julia, you are on a rollercoaster that just seems to go higher and higher and getting more dangerous and to get off is impossible until the truth has been revealed. My opinion and reasons for believing someone was behind all the sinister events changed as quickly as I was able to turn the pages and that’s what made this fresh, exciting and innovative.
To say this book was a page turner would be an understatement. It was delicious, enthralling and all I wanted was more, more, more. I loved the inclusion of the epilogue at the end detailing what happened to all the characters after the events. You don’t usually find something like that in a book in this genre but it was very welcome and really helped the book come full circle. All I can say is I wish Andrea Mara’s books came as quickly as I read this one but sadly that is not the case. Do yourself a favour come publication day and grab a copy of Someone in the Attic, this is a terrific book that will have you racing to the end with your heart thumping. I hope Andrea Mara is hard at work on her next book at the risk of sounding like a broken record this one will take some beating.
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