David implements strict rules, convincing everyone to give up their belongings, wear homemade clothing, and eat a limited, meatless diet. Over time, David uses his charisma to charm Martina, Birdie, and Lucy and take control of the Lamb family’s finances and household. She claims David’s alternative medicine practices could help with the senior Henry’s deteriorating health. Birdie convinces the Lambs to invite her friend, David, his wife Sally, and their two children, Phin and Clemency, to live at the house. Martina allows them to stay at the house. A few weeks later, Birdie returns with her partner, Justin, claiming they’ve been kicked out by their landlord. In 1988, Birdie, a fiddle player for a popular band, convinces the Lamb family to let her band film a music video in the house. In Henry’s flashbacks, he explains how he, his father (also named Henry), his mother Martina, and his sister Lucy were a comfortable, wealthy family living in their mansion in Chelsea. After reading this article, Libby tracks down its author, Miller Roe, and the two attempt to investigate what happened to the other members of the household. This baby, originally named Serenity Lamb, was Libby. A baby was found in a crib upstairs, alive, clean, and well fed.

One day, in 1994, three adults-Henry Lamb, Martina Lamb, and David-were found dead by poisoning, presumably due to a cult-related suicide pact. Libby finds an article that explains how a group of adults and children lived in the house. She quickly learns that the house has a dark past, and the novel follows Libby as she unravels the house’s mystery. Libby doesn’t know much about her biological family because she was adopted as a baby. Alternating third-person chapters follow Libby and Lucy’s lives as adults, alongside Henry’s memories of growing up in a mansion in Chelsea in the late 1980s and early 1990s.Īt the beginning of the novel, Libby is a 25-year-old woman living in London when she receives a letter indicating she has inherited a mansion in Chelsea that belonged to her biological family.

The Family Upstairs tells the stories of three characters: Libby, Lucy, and Henry.

The likeness book