Reviews with content warning for Violence - Lock Every Door

Lock Every Door is my first Riley Sager book and it's probably not my last.
I kept rotating on my rating for this book between a 3 and a 4. In StoryGraph I have the real rating, but here I chose to bump it up to 4.
Lock Every Door is about a girl named Jewels, who is down on her luck, but somehow lands this sweet house/apartment-sitting job at a famous building called the Bartholomew. She's dreamed of this place since she read a book about it when she was a child. It seemed like luck was on her side, until a new friend at the Bartholomew disappears. She finds there's a lot more to the building than an oppulent dream.
It's hard to say too much in this review without ruining anything, so I don't know if I will say too much.
The book is a standard thriller/mystery with some basic characters and semi-predictable plot. I wish there was more to the characters and Sager really settled into them. The book is a lot about the setting, which is fun, but at some point there's a theme brought up that could have been explored better with some extra character development.
The theme being-something viewed as such a rich thing (the Bartholomew), held a lot of evil; but the poorest viewed thing held the real value (Jewels--kind of on the nose right?)
Anyways, fantastic narrator and a fun overall story. I recommend if you are into those type of books with a very plot-driven story.

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hauntedantiqueshop's review against another edition

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mysterious 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? No

1.5

My downfall will be that I’ll read anything with Riley Sager’s name on the cover just because I’ve liked a couple of his books. But good god, that doesn’t mean he should be allowed to write just anything.

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romorel's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional 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? No

4.0

Another Sager title under my belt, this story was another compelling and suspenseful experience.

The hints build comfortably, but unlike other Sager thrillers my experience was simply “being along for the ride”. This book took twists and turns I absolutely did not see coming, but once uncovered made me nod appreciatively at the well paced “Chekhov’s Guns”. The execution was fantastic.

So much so that I’m writing this at 1:50AM on a Thursday and given myself a headache from staying up too late.

Sager’s characters are easy to connect with, though one thing I often notice with his protagonists is that I have no idea what they look like besides being “unremarkable” brunettes.

Overall a very satisfying story.

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savvyrosereads's review

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dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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

3.0

Rating: 3/5 stars

Jules is facing rock bottom when she agrees to move into a luxury apartment building as a paid house sitter. But when another sitter goes missing, Jules quickly realizes all is not what it seems…

I want to preface this by saying I’m a huge Riley Sager fan, and count some of his other books among my favorite thrillers. I think he’s super talented and he’ll always be an auto-buy author for me on the strength of some of his other work. Unfortunately, this one absolutely did not land for me.
 I was bored for 99% of this book (the 1% was basically the very beginning, when I was waiting for the premise to set up, and my enthusiasm didn’t even return for the ending and final reveals). The FMC made some absolutely ridiculous choices and decisions, and I didn’t really like any of the other characters. I also never felt super invested in the mystery aspect of the plot, and I thought the big reveal was pretty bonkers and didn’t have great foundation laid to suggest it throughout.

I know a lot of people do love this one, so it may well have been a “me” problem…but the bottom line is if you’re reaching for a Riley Sager I personally think there are much better ones to grab.

CW: Death/death of parent/suicide; fire; blood/injury/violence

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dizpig's review

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dark mysterious sad slow-paced

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

3.5

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