A review by savvyrosereads
Lock Every Door by Riley Sager

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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