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

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.

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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

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zachxxy's review against another edition

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mysterious tense medium-paced

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

5.0

Omg this book was so dang good! tere were like 15 plot twists and i loved every single one of them. basically this woman is a celebrity and she finds a woman in the lake limp motionless, whom she saves and befriends her after reviving her. after then dhe finds out the girl lives woth her husband in the glass house across the lake. she then uses her binoculars to spy their house because she felt that something was off. soon the woman she saved from the lake goes missing and shady stuff starts happeninf and you’ll have to find out yourself!! literally so good. also, this book skips back and forth from “before” and “now” and they finally crescendo into the same time line which is super fun to read. might sound confusing right now but the “now” parts are super short so don’t worry. also they are to keep you wondering and wanting more. so good!! such a fun read i read it in 2 days.

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elthewallflower's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.25

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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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espressoreader's review against another edition

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tense slow-paced

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

1.0

This is what happens when an author has a bunch of ideas on sticky notes and then decides to chose which one to use by playing pin the tail on the donkey. Unfortunately, the reader is the donkey in this scenario. The plot of this book was about 3 different mismatched and then mangled story arcs that were never spliced.

The alcoholism of the main character took too much time. Does it happen? Absolutely, but functional alcoholics are functional not constantly at the booze at the cost of other things, and dysfunctional alcoholics don’t make good narrators. Too much of the main character’s personality was obfuscated by the addiction. I am aware that it happens in life, but that does not render it a good person to select to guide the whole book.

Fail.

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karensbookcorner's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-paced

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

4.0

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