Reviews with content warning for Infidelity - The House Across the Lake

If I ever have to read the word "bourbon" again it will be too soon ! I swear 2/3 of this book is simply talking about how many drinks this woman has had. It gets tiring very quickly, and if alcoholism is a needed content warning for you, then I would not pick this one up.

This book is a lot. The first 2/3 are very generic, and full of stereotypes that are bizzarely self aware. It gets pretty boring, feels slow, and is honestly just a whole lot of nothing. Then for the last third everything shifts into an entirely different story, and even the pacing completely changes. It feels like this has three different endings with how it just keeps going and going at the end.

I think at least 50 pages could have easily been shaved off. It feels so drawn out, and I even grew to hate the main character. As usual, if you pay attention to what people say in the beginning you can see where this is going early on.

I do feel like the final third of this book almost invalidates the previous part. We see things through the main character, Casey's, eyes so there is information we should have known from the get go, but is purposely withheld from us to make the twists more impactful. You cannot tell me that there was no point where she was thinking about these things. It just feels like lying by omission, and is weird with the point of view we are given.

Even though there are things I majorly disliked in this book, I still think it comes out as an average read. It's quick and easy to get through, kept me intrigued enough to want to know the ending, and gives us a proper, albeit not very believable, ending. The last third is what bumps it up to 3 for me though, as the first 2/3 is sadly just a 2.

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writtenbydnicole's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix

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dalmavatai's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

I'm so sad that this was such a miss, and with Survive the Night last year being 3.5🌟, I feel like Riley Sager's books just keep getting worse for me 😭

First of all, this book is very repetitive and boring. Casey drinks and she spies on her neighbors from across the lake. This is pretty much all we get until the 70% mark and you might enjoy it if you're into domestic drama in thrillers, but I really didn't care for it. I thought the atmosphere was great but that's about it.

And then, the twists. To be honest the first 2-3 twists that we get around the 70% mark were GREAT in my opinion, but then towards the end it just gets extremely convoluted and it feels like the author is trying to pull off 32556 different twists and endings. I think the twists could have been spaced out a bit better and also this book should've been a lot shorter. I also thought it would've been SO epic and impactful if the book had just ended like 30 pages before its actual ending. A much less convoluted but much more memorable and impactful ending in my opinion.

I think Sager needs to be given more time to write his books (which within the confines of the publishing industry is obviously difficult to manage) to regain his spark that was absolutely there in his previous books, especially Home Before Dark which is my favorite from him.

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kylieqrada's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

I feel like thrillers are so hard to rate! But honestly who even knows what my ratings even mean anymore. This was good, I liked it about in the middle of the pack for a Riley Sager. I think he made the right move just leaning into the vibe that he's been flirting with for the past few books. I was shook, ngl.

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ohhthehorrors's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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amandas_bookshelf's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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librariangeorgia's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

I am a big fan of Sager’s books that I was so honoured to receive an advanced copy of his latest book.

And wow what a book it was!

I thoroughly enjoyed it. It had me enraptured from the opening chapter.

Though, I did think that Casey was an absolute weirdo - I mean, who sits watching inside peoples houses? Add to that the fact that she's an unreliable narrator, I would usually be put off by this. However, combine that with the atmospheric descriptions of the lake, it surprisingly went really well together.

It flickers between past and present day, all in Casey's perspective. The first half of the book has a more in depth past perspective, with a few pages for the present sandwiched inbetween at various points. As you find out more about what's happened in the past, it makes you think that you understand what's happening in the brief glimpses in the present. That's not actually the case. Being kept in the dark about the true present helps with the twists in the story. The twist that I did not see coming, it was completely unexpected, yet it fit in so well with the eeriness of the story.

Sager is well know for the horror elements in his books so keep that in mind when reading this one, expect the unexpected!

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