Reviews tagging 'Medical content'

Lock Every Door by Riley Sager

89 reviews

beckyremillard's review against another edition

dark mysterious medium-paced

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

4.0

Jules, newly unemployed and in need of a place to leave, finds an ad looking for an apartment sitter at the famous Bartholomew. However, she doesn’t know if it’s as great a job as she was expecting. 

I wasn’t quite as captivated by this book as I have by other Riley Sager books. It was interesting and I was definitely planning on finishing, but it was slow at first. 

I did not expect the major twist, which I always appreciate in this kind of story. Some smaller aspects were a bit predictable but overall it wasn’t. 

I wish there was some sort of resolution with Jane. She was such a major plot device and there’s still no hint of what happened.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical content, Blood, Fire/Fire injury, Kidnapping, Death, and Murder

emilykayvsthelibrary's review against another edition

adventurous dark 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? It's complicated

5.0

okay at first i thought the

satanism to organ trafficking pipeline was kinda weird

but despite that i thought this book was so intensely interesting

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Classism, Medical trauma, Grief, Death of parent, Blood, Medical content, and Suicide

Moderate: Sexual content

astrid421's review

adventurous dark mysterious reflective sad 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? It's complicated

4.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Self harm, Trafficking, Medical trauma, Murder, Death, Medical content, Blood, Confinement, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, Classism, and Forced institutionalization

jrharris's review

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

4.5

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical trauma, Suicide, Trafficking, and Medical content

bookishgoob's review

dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

3.5

this was very entertaining. i have some problems with the way sager writes and the pacing of his stories but he has good stories. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Cursing, Death of parent, Grief, Kidnapping, Alcohol, Emotional abuse, Medical trauma, Trafficking, Blood, Chronic illness, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Forced institutionalization, Gaslighting, Gore, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Murder, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Torture, and Violence

jamiejanae_6's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.5

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Alcohol, Blood, Body horror, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Medical content, Murder, Suicide, Trafficking, and Cancer

toofondofbooks_'s review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

3.5

Y'all, this one was a ride.

I put my physical TBR in a randomizer and let it choose for me, and it chose spooky apparently - and in terms of spookiness, this book delivers on all fronts. I loved the gothic apartment building setting. To me, it felt extremely vivid and claustrophobic. The gargoyles, the colors, the faces in the wallpaper, I felt like I could see it all. I loved that every single person in the book was suspicious as hell. There wasn't just one person I was side eye-ing - I was side eye-ing them all, even the MC's parents who were dead when the book began. I would compare this to American Horror Story: Hotel, but less unhinged because the writing is better. As a whole, the story was compelling and kept me guessing what direction it was going in.

There are parts, however, that had me scratching my head or made me uncomfortable - and not in the way that you hope to be uncomfortable when reading a thriller. There was some casual homophobia within the inner monologue of the main character that really took me aback, it didn't serve the story at all and it was the kind of casual homophobia that queer people like myself pick up on very easily. Additionally, there is some queer "rep" in the history of the Bartholomew, but it is all negative rep that does not serve the story. Speaking of the MC, Jules, she was incredibly annoying, and not to be mean, but she was dumb as rocks. I didn't care about her breakup, I barely cared about her life, I wanted to know more about the Bartholomew building and its history. This next critique is petty, but I'm wondering if Sager really needed to use the word "meager" as many times as he did while writing this book. It got to a point where I had to roll my eyes every time I saw it. Please open a thesaurus, for the love of God.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Chronic illness, Death, Death of parent, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Gun violence, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Medical content, Medical trauma, Self harm, Stalking, Suicide, Terminal illness, and Toxic relationship

Minor: Homophobia and Lesbophobia

luminescent's review

dark mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No

4.25

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Trafficking, Medical content, and Kidnapping

Moderate: Death of parent

Minor: Suicide

dannybrown59's review

dark mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

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

3.75

I'm just going to put this whole review in a spoiler warning because I have a lot of feelings about it.

Wow this book was insane. I was expecting it to be ghosts and then eventually I thought it was a serial killer. All those red flags in the beginning made sense when it was actually a cover for stealing peoples organs. I really thought the main character in this while loveable was just kinda dumb. I know she was desperate but there were hints from the very beginning that something was wrong with that place. The whole stealing organs thing was pretty sad honestly because I can see how people actually feeling that way towards poor or less successful people. Overall this book was good but definitely dragged a little.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Kidnapping, Medical content, and Confinement

howl's review

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Diverse cast of characters? No

3.5

I figured out exactly what was going on by page 130

(apartment sitters paid under the table in cash + sitters selected based on their lack of family + sitters determined to be in good health + supporting character who’s the latest in a dynasty of resident surgeons + servant girl found murdered with several vital organs missing = organ harvesting scheme obviously. Therefore the twist that she’s still in the building wasn’t surprising either)

and it was frustrating that the protagonist figured it out so slowly in comparison but then again I had the benefit of knowing I was reading a thriller novel I guess. Regardless, it was still creepy and suspenseful and kept me turning the pages.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical content and Medical trauma

Moderate: Death of parent and Self harm

Minor: Fire/Fire injury