Book Review: "Something I Keep Upstairs," by J.D. Barker

 

    J.D. Barker's new mystery/thriller Something I Keep Upstairs is a fast and pleasant read, but one that I found ultimately lacked the focus necessary to elevate it to the next level. It's a story of a group of teenage friends who are spending time at one of their group's newly inherited island home where nothing is as it initially seems. The story's narrator is Billy (perhaps the least interesting of the group, but that I think was a smart decision to ground the tale), a relatively average kid who plays sports and is dating Kira. His best friend, Spivey, learns that his seldom-seen grandmother has passed and left him her estate. The island and the house on it are the stuff of legend; there are tales of discovered skeletons, an old coast guard station, and, most interestingly, the fact that sometimes the house seems to be much newer looking than it should be... or perhaps much older than you thought it was, depending on the character's perspective. 

    Spivey is the book's most compelling character. He's been dealing with leukemia off and on, he's not athletic like his best friend Billy, and he's not the most popular kid around. Having a secluded house away from everyone's parents and various other authority figures seems like a real blessing. But his late grandmother's attorney is always hanging around, and he keeps reminding Spivey that the house and island have a set of very specific rules. Those rules and their origins are the book's most intriguing mystery, of course, but the relatively lengthy novel unfortunately waits until vary late in the game to start dishing out answers, and at that point they come at a rapid clip that really diminishes the sense of joyous revelation that I tend to hope for in stories of this sort. 

    Another issue I found was that the book sidelined Spivey himself more and more in its back half, instead starting to focus on a relatively generic police chief and his investigation. There's a lackluster missing girl element in the mix that never feels as important as one assumes it was supposed to be, giving off major red herring vibes from the moment the concept is introduced. It's clear why Spivey is sidelined in favor of two of the other kids (Alesia and Matty, who have their own ideas for what to do with the island and its secrets) when the book's final outpouring of answers begins, but it lessened the impact of what J.D. Barker was trying to accomplish. There's a handful of twists that aren't effective because the groundwork to set them up was either too rarely implied or was handed out mere pages before the reveal. 

    That being said, Barker's a strong writer, and the pages fly by. There's a bit of an over-reliance on teenage love pains that don't quite ring true, but the suspenseful and more action packed elements and scarier chapters are handled very well. I found myself doing the classic "just one more chapter" routine throughout my time with the book, which should tell you that despite my complaints there's still a lot to recommend. While I personally think another few drafts could have shortened and shaped this into something stronger, I still would recommend any horror and mystery fans give it a shot.

 
3.5/5