The Voice Upstairs
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4.0 • 1 Rating
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- $10.99
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- $10.99
Publisher Description
In 1920s England, a working-class girl who can see spirits works with a lord’s son to solve mysterious deaths at the local manor home in this “intensely atmospheric and eerie…compelling, secret-filled gothic tale” (Kirkus Reviews, starred review) perfect for fans of The Haunting of Bly Manor and Downton Abbey.
Wilhelmina Price has a dubious reputation in the village of Thrush’s Green. Ever since her mother’s untimely death, she has been able to see a person’s spirit leaving their body days or hours before they die. Wil has never been able to prevent these deaths, so her unusual skill has made her an outsider to most except her lifelong friend, Edison, the youngest son of Lord Summerfield. But when a maid at the Summerfield’s estate dies in the same mysterious way as Wil’s own mother, Wil takes on a housemaid’s position to investigate whether these women might, in fact, have been murdered.
There is nothing Ed Summerfield values more than his friendship with Wil, which is why he’s desperate to disguise how hopelessly in love with her he’s become—and his belief that he may be haunted by the ghost of his older brother, Peter. Because if Wil, with her supernatural powers, can’t see the same evidence of hauntings that Ed does, he worries he may actually be losing his mind.
Together, Wil and Ed must dig deeper into the Summerfields’ hoard of secrets, though the truth won’t give itself up without a fight that could prove deadly to the both of them, as they face cunning adversaries among the living and the dead.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In this moody supernatural thriller set several years after WWI, a teen who can sense imminent death and communicate with spirits helps uncover the dark history of a remote English house. All her life, Wilhelmina Price has lived in the row house at Wither Grange, the manor where her grandfather works and where her mother died mysteriously a decade ago. Her only true friend is Edison Summerfield, the youngest son of the manor family; he regularly pleads with Wil to contact the spirit of his older brother Peter, who died in the war, especially since Ed is convinced he's being haunted by Peter's ghost. But no matter how often she tries, she can't seem to reach him. As the hauntings grow worse, and several sudden deaths mimic that of Wil's mother, Wil and Ed must uncover long-hidden family secrets and appease the restless spirits before they become victims as well. Weymouth (A Consuming Fire) skillfully conveys a growing sense of dread via the eerie, unsettling landscape and gradually escalating supernatural happenings; the charming dynamic between Wil and Ed further helps to bolster this captivating exploration of perseverance against darkness and familial trauma. Characters read as white. Ages 14–up.
