Rachel’s story is one of bravery and independence. However, in this book, Henry, the main character, is bloody brilliant – he’s a bit erratic, he’s got a wicked sense of humour and he’s clearly a little unhinged which makes you constantly question what he’s going to do next. Characters aren’t necessarily one of the highlights of Jewell’s novels, as the plot is usually where everything is a lot of the characters react and do things that you’d expect any generic person to do. I must say, I think The Family Remains is one of Lisa Jewell’s biggest successes when it comes to characters.
She’s a master of the suspense thriller dropping just enough drama and tenseness into scenes to keep you constantly wondering and guessing where everything is heading. Jewell has mastered giving you just enough teasers every now and then and just enough “ooooh” moments at the end of chapters to make you want to keep reading. The plot itself doesn’t race along at a fast pace but neither do any of Lisa Jewell’s books. Lisa Jewell really takes advantage of that here. One of the pieces of magic you get from writing a sequel is the connections to events that have happened in the previous book. I’ll be honest, because I’ve not read The Family Upstairs for so long, there were a lot of “twists” in this for me that I didn’t see coming and a lot of “oh yeah, I remember…” moments which were really cool.
Alongside this, there’s a parallel story running about Rachel who meets Michael who we read about in The Family Upstairs and her experiences with him. After disappearing off to Chicago where he thinks he is, his sister worries after him and quickly goes on a search for him. He goes on a search to find Phin who he was obsessed with in the previous books. The Family Remains follows Henry Lamb, one of the older children from the house in The Family Upstairs. The Family Remains picks up around a year after the last book and takes us on two separate stories that inevitably intertwine and connect in a really satisfying way. If you’ve not yet had a chance to read my review of The Family Upstairs, I’d recommend you do that first. These affiliate links do not affect my final opinion of the product. This means if you choose to purchase any of the products via the links provided below, I will receive a small commission at no extra cost to you. Please note that this article contains affiliate links. Please note that an ARC (advanced reader copy) of The Family Remains was kindly sent to me by the publisher in return for an honest review.
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