A review by dalmavatai
The House Across the Lake by Riley Sager

dark mysterious tense 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? Yes

2.0

I'm so sad that this was such a miss, and with Survive the Night last year being 3.5🌟, I feel like Riley Sager's books just keep getting worse for me 😭

First of all, this book is very repetitive and boring. Casey drinks and she spies on her neighbors from across the lake. This is pretty much all we get until the 70% mark and you might enjoy it if you're into domestic drama in thrillers, but I really didn't care for it. I thought the atmosphere was great but that's about it. 

And then, the twists. To be honest the first 2-3 twists that we get around the 70% mark were GREAT in my opinion, but then towards the end it just gets extremely convoluted and it feels like the author is trying to pull off 32556 different twists and endings. I think the twists could have been spaced out a bit better and also this book should've been a lot shorter. I also thought it would've been SO epic and impactful if the book had just ended like 30 pages before its actual ending. A much less convoluted but much more memorable and impactful ending in my opinion. 

I think Sager needs to be given more time to write his books (which within the confines of the publishing industry is obviously difficult to manage) to regain his spark that was absolutely there in his previous books, especially Home Before Dark which is my favorite from him. 
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