Someone in the Attic by Andrea Mara
3 out of 5 Magical Coffee Cups
Have you ever had an attic entrance with a little door that you have to pull down? How often do you go in the attic? Would you know if someone was up there? This book starts with a woman, Anya, in the bathtub. She sees through the open door, a person drop down from the attic. The next thing we learn is that she is dead. Who was in her attic? How did they get in there? Why her attic?
Later, a different woman, Julia, finds videos online via TikTok that seem to show someone in her attic as well. Is this AI? Is someone breaking into her house? Julia also happens to be an old friend of Anya’s. Does this have something to do with her death? Is Julia next?
Lots of people have all sorts of secrets in this book, and it is almost hard to keep track. Julia and her family have moved back to Ireland from the States because of something that happened with their daughter. Julia is also divorced, but she and her ex still sort of live together. They have a house and an apartment that they share. The kids stay in the house, and the parents switch. It’s odd, but if it works, it works!
Like I said, you start to learn about all these secrets and how they might be connected to the online videos. I was trying to make these huge leaps of what could possibly be going on. I was like, why would we learn about this storyline if it didn’t have something to do with the videos? And then I would be tying to come up with crazy connections. It was a lot.
I did like the mystery and all the little details that were slowly coming to light. My only issue is that there were so many little details coming to light that it was overwhelming. I kept forgetting who was who. Who did what. Who knows who. The confusion makes sense as we are learning things right along with Julia and she is new to the area so she doesn’t know a whole lot about her new neighbors.
In the end, it all came together, and the author even gave updates on the red herrings. There was very little that made me think, “But what happened with…”.
This book made me listen a little more closely to the sounds my house makes, and I don’t think I will be going to the attic anytime soon.
Literary Coffee 