The Other Family

A Novel

By: Wendy Corsi Staub

Narrated by: Hillary Huber

One of PopSugar's Most Anticipated Books!

One of Bibliofile's Most Anticipated Mystery/Thriller Books!

“Great psychological suspense with a wallop of a twist.” —Harlan Coben, #1 New York Times bestselling author

New York Times bestselling author Wendy Corsi Staub makes her trade paperback debut with a fast-paced thriller in the vein of Lisa Jewell’s The Family Upstairs and Megan Collins’ The Winter Sister. Here, a family making a fresh start moves into a house which was the site of an unsolved triple homicide—and are watched by an unknown person...

The watcher sees who you are...and knows what you did.

It’s the perfect home for the perfect family: pretty Nora Howell, her handsome husband, their two teenage daughters, and lovable dog. As California transplants making a fresh start in Brooklyn, they expected to live in a shoebox, but the brownstone has a huge kitchen, lots of light, and a backyard. The catch: its previous residents were victims of a grisly triple homicide that remains unsolved.

Soon, peculiar things begin happening. The pug is nosing around like a bloodhound. Nora unearths a long-hidden rusty box in the flowerbed. Oldest daughter Stacey, obsessed with the family murdered in their house, pokes into the bloody past and becomes convinced that a stranger is watching the house. Watching them.

She’s right. But one of the Howells will recognize his face. Because one of them has a secret that will blindside the others with a truth that lies shockingly close to home—and to this one’s terrifying history.

©2022 Wendy Corsi Staub (P)2022 HarperCollins Publishers

Good but pay attention

As an audio book, I got lost a few times. Some of the characters are “sprung” on us to help make the story make sense. Not as well developed as I like. Overall, good story and it ends up with questions answered

What happened at the end?

So many open ended pieces that I feel like it was just shut down abruptly.

Undecided

I thought I was enjoying this book until the ending when I had to re-listen several times to get the storyline and names straight and to figure out what really happened.

Good story

Good story with well developed characters and a twist. The narrator did a good job with the voices of the different characters.

Satisfying in suspense!

I loved this! Great stand alone book! The story telling really packs on the suspense and twists!!

teaser

but disappointed. I wasn't getting hyped to the storyline. disappointing. did I miss something

I Loved Everything About This Book

I absolutely loved this book! The writing style, characters, and especially the narration. Grabs your attention right from the beginning and holds it through the end. So many twists and turn. Highly recommend!

Unfinished

Too many holes. Slow burn and left unfinished. What happened between Stacey and Lennon. Why did the neighbors just know her. Too much left unsaid.

Narration is painful

Hilary Hubert was terrible. The daughters voice and the boyfriends voice were like nails on a chalkboard. Would’ve been so much better with a Brittney Presley or January Lavoy. Almost couldn’t finish it because of the narrator but the story was great!

Not mind-blowing, but definitely kept me engaged

I found this book on the author’s blog: a post about must-read thrillers with endings that will leave you gasping. She has some great recommendations on there and the premise of her book (also on the blog) intrigued me, so I jumped on Amazon and bought the audiobook.

I tried to keep my expectations realistic, but…

The story was pretty good, kept me engaged and wanting to hear more. But I had the ending figured out almost immediately. I love when I do that and then the twist makes me have to go back to the very beginning and rethink everything I read (think The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides, which is—to this day—the ending that shook me like nothing else). But just when things are coming to the climax and I’m waiting for my world to be turned on its head…it just ends. I want to know what happened after the big “twist” ending!

Now, to be fair, I read/listen a LOT (2-5 books a week, at 2x speed) and mystery/thrillers are my favorite (Chris Carter’s Detective Robert Hunter series is my personal favorite) And I’m an English/literature teacher and a fiction writer myself. So it really is difficult to shock me. If you are unlike me and you don’t go in with impossibly high standards for twist endings, this really is a good book. The characters are diverse and decently fleshed out, the story flows fairly well, and she doesn’t go overboard with descriptions or horrible similes. The narrator’s voice isn’t perfect for the younger characters, but it’s pleasant and I think her accents are great. And thank Christ, the author doesn’t blame the entire story on the main character having Dissociative Identity Disorder. I’m so freaking sick of that trope. It’s literally every other book nowadays. So brava, Ms. Staub, for not going that route.

TLDR: I’ll say this…it’s not the most thrilling novel I’ve ever read, but it’s entertaining and I don’t regret spending a credit on it.