Take a photo of a barcode or cover
chriissy 's review for:
Middle of the Night
by Riley Sager
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-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
I love Riley Sager and this is the last book of his I haven’t read, in anticipation of his new release later this year. This story has the hallmarks of a great Sager story - interesting setting, twisty turns, beautiful language/well written, and the right balance of darkness without being gory or sickening.
One way this does stand out from other Sager novels is the beautiful and heartbreaking depictions of grief. Multiple characters are experiencing grief in their own ways from various losses and life changes. Each was poignant
With all that said, I felt the story dragged on a little in the middle and almost lost me. This was not the case for some of Sager’s other stories.
I also could not stand the audiobook narrator. It was painful. The voices he used for certain characters, especially “bad guys” or essentially any woman character, hurt my ears. Think gravely Batman voice or shrill accented lady voices.
If I didn’t love Sager’s writing so much, this audiobook would’ve been turned off the first time the narrator switched into one of his personas. It felt like every character besides the main character had an obnoxious voice, even when it didn’t fit their character and distracted from the story.
Edited to add: I just learned who the narrator was and now I’m sad because I love him as an actor. Oops.
One way this does stand out from other Sager novels is the beautiful and heartbreaking depictions of grief. Multiple characters are experiencing grief in their own ways from various losses and life changes. Each was poignant
With all that said, I felt the story dragged on a little in the middle and almost lost me. This was not the case for some of Sager’s other stories.
I also could not stand the audiobook narrator. It was painful. The voices he used for certain characters, especially “bad guys” or essentially any woman character, hurt my ears. Think gravely Batman voice or shrill accented lady voices.
If I didn’t love Sager’s writing so much, this audiobook would’ve been turned off the first time the narrator switched into one of his personas. It felt like every character besides the main character had an obnoxious voice, even when it didn’t fit their character and distracted from the story.
Edited to add: I just learned who the narrator was and now I’m sad because I love him as an actor. Oops.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Death, Dementia, Kidnapping, Grief, Death of parent
Moderate: Addiction, Bullying, Drug abuse, Car accident
Minor: Vomit