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

➽ I have to admit that this is probably my favorite Riley Sager book as it's so entertaining!! The House Across the Lake is about Casey, a recently widowed actress who owns a lake house in Vermont. She's trying to escape the press and is struggling with her mental health. Casey's an alcoholic and lives alone at the house, without much outside contact. When a couple moves into the house across the lake from her, she quickly gets obsessed with them and starts watching them through her binoculars.

➽ I loved the premise and how Casey couldn't help but keep watching her new neighbors Katherine and Tom. She's getting invested in their lives but finds herself questioning how perfect their life truly is. When Katherine disappears, she's convinced that Tom might have done it and goes to investigate despite the dangers. I found the story very compelling and was actually shocked by some of the twists! We get chapters set in different times and they do a good job of letting you make assumptions. The more we get to know Casey, the more we unravel the secrets of the lake. I liked her friendship with Katherine and how she was dedicated to helping her! The story was suspenseful from start to finish and I couldn't put it down!

The reveal that Casey's husband was a serial killer and she killed him when she found out was SO good! The possession trope won't be for anyone, but I thought it was a sinister twist on what happened to Katherine. In the end, we're meant to believe that Tom's actually innocent unlike Casey suspected ... only for him to turn out to be the villain after all!

Content Warnings

lifeofchrstnlvly's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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

3.0

Outside of it being completely beyond all laws of science and logic, there's the simple fact that people's brains are capable of strange things. They split and mutate and create all kinds of trouble.

As with any Riley Sager book, this was a page-turner. However, I found it to be just okay. The twist wasn't very satisfying for me because I had read a similar one earlier this year, making it less unique. Nonetheless, the book was still decent.

Content Warnings

patricia99's review against another edition

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mysterious tense fast-paced

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

3.5

Content Warnings

literally_mint's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.5

Content Warnings

cheeseandsausages's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

Content Warnings

blondieabrams's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.0

Content Warnings

kasia_k_'s review against another edition

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dark medium-paced

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

3.0

Content Warnings

meeklovestoread's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-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

3.75

I liked the pacing of this book. It kept me entertained. And I like how the author handled the huge twist.

HOWEVER, my goodness! This book was messy and the big plot twists was outlandish and ludicrous. It was so out of left field and although I didn't mind it and it didn't make me angry I can completely understand why people would rate this low and/or dislike this book because of it.

I felt like the twist would've been awesome if the author actually forwarded/gave the reader hints throughout the book then maybe the twist would've been more effective.

I didn't mind the female character, however, the withholding of information until the end made no sense considering we're already in her head anyways. And she was also picking another big secret from everyone else anyways so the author withholding said information from the reader made no sense.

The book just felt unorganized towards the middle-end because it felt like the author was jumbling multiple ideas at once and never wanted to just stick to one so he chose them all. Overall its not a bad book, but if you like thrillers that make sense and are symbolic through and through then you can skip this one. I did find it entertaining though so I'll give the author that.

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