Reviews with content warning for Suicide - The House Across the Lake

This could have been an interesting thriller but the supernatural twist that comes out of nowhere really threw me off. I think if I had been expecting it a little more I would have gone along with it but the rest of the book is so rooted in realism that the twist just feels half assed and underdeveloped.

Ken’s spirit coming and possessing Katherine was not built up AT ALL and just felt like it came out of nowhere. I also hated that the book started out with telling us one version of events and then went “gotcha we lied to you! It’s actually this!” It just feels like lazy writing.

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kelseybonello's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.5

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mthomas393's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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boba_nbooks's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.75

What is it with male thriller authors writing about nosey alcoholic women? The House Across the Lake follows a main character who is quite similar to the one in The Woman in the Window.

Casey is an actress born into a famous family who owns a beautiful lake house on Lake Green. Ever since her husband, Len, passed away, Casey has been spiraling and turning to alcohol. An embarrassing press stunt leads her mother to send Casey away to the lake house in the fall for some time alone. Lake Green is quite popular during the summer, but once the offseason hits, anything goes. With nothing better to do, Casey starts to spy on her neighbors who live in a glass house across the lake, and what she finds disturbs her. Her neighbor goes missing, and Casey decides to take the investigation into her disappearance into her own hands.

This was the slowest of slow burns. Riley Sager books are hit or miss for me, but this one fell in the middle. I enjoyed the twists but will not be praising it til the end of time. It was a fun thriller, though!

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