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Other authors are at a ten out of ten, for me, and Lisa is a solid hundred.” —Gillian McAllister, The Sunday Times (London) bestselling author of Wrong Place Wrong Time When Phin goes missing, Lucy reaches out to his sister, Clemency, who brings up Phin and Henry’s complicated relationship. Lucy thinks to herself “Twenty-six years is long enough for memories to grow cobwebby, abstract. Twenty-six years is long enough to doubt your recollection of things, to wonder if maybe things really did happen the way you think they happened” (69). Do you think Lucy’s questioning of her own memories is similar to Henry’s reimagining of the past? What are the similarities and differences in the ways Henry and Lucy Lamb deal with their past traumas? I'm definitely an outlier here, many people have loved this one. I've been a fan of Jewell's for a long time, but her last two books just haven't been all that great for me. Hopefully I'll like the next one better.
The chapters themselves are short, making this a very bingeable read. It follows multiple POVs and timelines.The clues point forward too to a brother and sister in Chicago searching for the only person who can make sense of their pasts.
Lucy moves Henry’s house with her two teenage children, reconnecting with her daughter Libby, looking for her own house with the help of inheritance money her daughter kindly shared with her and uncle Henry. Early one morning on the shore of the Thames, DCI Samuel Owusu is called to the scene of a gruesome discovery. When Owusu sends the evidence for examination, he learns the bones are connected to a cold case that left three people dead on the kitchen floor in a Chelsea mansion 30 years ago. Mrs. Rimmer. I am afraid I am calling you with some very distressing news. Please, tell me. Are you alone?” At the end of the novel, Henry takes on characteristics of the man he met in Chicago, Kris Doll. Why do you think Henry, despite his previous moment of clarity about his self-worth, begins to take on this new identity? Do you think his obsession with Kris is ominous, or simply due to the trauma he experienced as a child? The book is purposefully convoluted but at times it just felt too disorienting. In the beginning, I debated abandoning this, but wanted to see how Jewel would bring it all together. I was impressed by the ending.A: Absolutely. I always pledged that I would never write another sequel after I wrote After the Party, the sequel to my first novel, Ralph’s Party. I hadn’t enjoyed the experience and didn’t like the resultant book and thus was very adamant at first when readers were asking for a sequel to The Family Upstairs that I would not do one. But as the weeks and months passed and the pleas kept coming, I started to wonder about Henry and Phin and what might be happening in Botswana and then I wondered about Michael Rimmer’s wife, Rachel and then I wondered what might happen if someone found Birdie’s remains and then I thought, you know what, let’s give the people what they want, but make it something that I will really have fun writing. So I did.
Q: The Lamb family home plays a large role in the first novel, but it’s being sold off in this one and we barely spend any time in it. Why did you decide you wanted to set THE FAMILY REMAINS outside of the home, and what did it allow you to explore by not being as tied to one location? This is the sequel to Lisa Jewell's chilling The Family Upstairs, a top notch multilayered and intricate psychological thriller with its old and new characters. Jewell weaves her magic with her disturbed and unsettling storytelling, in which there are mysteries and surprising connections are made. In London, a mudlark discovers a washed up bag of bones on the banks of the River Thames. The bones are those of a young woman who had suffered blunt force trauma, DCI Samuel Owusu investigates as forensic evidence leads him to a Chelsea mansion in Cheyne Walk where 3 decades ago, three dead bodies were found in the kitchen. We become reacquainted with the Lamb family, Lucy, with her two children, Marco and Stella, her brother, Henry, and Libby, haunted by the trauma of their past. The novel is relayed through the perspectives of the various characters. Overall: I love the conclusion and I enjoyed to revisit the characters of the book who are middle aged in the new book and I am so happy Michael got what he deserved. From the #1 New York Times bestselling author Lisa Jewell comes an intricate and affecting novel about twisted marriages, fractured families, and deadly obsessions in this standalone sequel to The Family Upstairs. Bonjour, good morning. This is Detective Avril Loubet from the Police Municipale in Nice. Is this Mrs. Rachel Rimmer?”
Lisa Jewell
This reading group guide for The Family Remains includes an introduction, discussion questions, ideas for enhancing your book club, and a Q&A with author Lisa Jewell. The suggested questions are intended to help your reading group find new and interesting angles and topics for your discussion. We hope that these ideas will enrich your conversation and increase your enjoyment of the book.
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