Reviews tagging 'Cursing'

Lock Every Door by Riley Sager

17 reviews

vivisms_82's review against another edition

dark sad tense

3.0

I can handle a far fetched, convoluted story - but only if it's written well and the protagonist we are rooting for is at least somewhat believable. How can you go on a journey with her when you already think her backstory is ridiculous? Wayyyyy too many hardships to be realistic. Maybe if she was 45 and not 25 to have gone through so much I may have bought it better. And I get that in order for the plot to work, Riley needed someone with "no ties' but flippin hell Jules' past reads like Dickensesque tragedy one thing after the other;

we have a dying mother, a father that decides to suicide with her and sets the house on fire for insurance, Jules finds out parents had a lot of debt and she had to pay for two funerals so pretty much her parents f**ked themselves because after all that she wasn't left a penny, a missing sister - which I'm hoping Mr Sager aint setting up for a sequel - in any case I will not be reading it, a cheating, loser ex, and lastly Jules being one of the 10% to be cut at her workplace.... for real?? She is like 25/26?! This is A LOT of backstory to buy, especially someone so young. Yes, I know it can happen but it was for me too much.

Parts of this book were indeed thrilling but others were just eyeroll dull or problematic - I mean the part where

Jules escapes from the hospital and Greta sees her - the same person that has her kidney inside her and has benefited and colluded with this scheme and she just lets her escape because Jules mimes "please"... c'mon. That type of snakey character would have screamed out. Just bogus and frankly lazy storytelling because it then made it easy for Riley to have Jules be able to get away.

I would have liked more exploration of class, wealth and inequality; wealthy people being able to

jump the transplant queue and buy a heart, kidney, liver - whatever they need or to simply have access to proper healthcare. This already happens in the real world and I think it's a missed opportunity to have not teased out a little.

Btw finding out what was really going on that building was actually a relief compared to the weird path it was taking

I was like "nooooooo, not freakn satanic cult rubbish"... so when I read it was an organ stealing scheme I was like "phew" ;)

 the narrator is excellent - cannot fault her. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Cancer, Confinement, Cursing, Gun violence, Suicide, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Medical content, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

guzmanmg01's review against another edition

dark mysterious medium-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement and Cursing

Moderate: Gun violence, Blood, and Medical trauma

meeklovestoread's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense slow-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? No

4.25

I'm so glad I read this when I did. I've been CRAVING a thriller for the longest time and this definitely delivered for me. It gave me all the vibes that reading a thriller would give me. I was engaged. I was curious. I was theorizing in my head. I was even a little anxious at times. I totally understand why someone wouldn't like this one though. I thought I wouldn't like the slow-burn style considering those don't tend to be my favorite form of storytelling when it comes to a thriller, but it worked for me in this case. And I really enjoyed the writing in this one.

I was enjoying my time with this book, but when the twist of the satanic cult was introduced I was "annoyed" so to speak. I thought this was going to be another "House Across The Lake" situation where this author takes a mundane plot and then turns it supernatural with no build-up to suggest that it was paranormal. I'm sooooo happy that didn't end up being the case and that what went on was set in reality. It was giving major "Get Out" vibes.

I did enjoy the whole commentary on classism and the things people will do for money. I enjoyed Jules, although I agree she could be quite dense sometimes

I wanted to shake her a few times in the book. Like girl, collect your check and leave things be. But ofc, it wouldn't be a book if she just sat down and did nothing.

. I enjoyed the story and was pretty satisfied with the ending. However, I was struggling with a rating for this book for a bit. I was in between a 3.75 to a 4.5 and decided to settle on a 4.25/5. It did what it had to do and I overall really enjoyed it and the turn it took.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Body horror, Forced institutionalization, Grief, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Cursing, Suicide, Blood, Medical content, Medical trauma, Car accident, and Death of parent

tabea1409's review

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Self harm, Sexual content, Suicide, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Trafficking, Stalking, Car accident, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

kiwichill's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Self harm, Violence, Kidnapping, Medical trauma, Stalking, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Cursing, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gore, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Terminal illness, Medical content, Grief, Car accident, Death of parent, Toxic friendship, and Pandemic/Epidemic

woahemjo's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.75

The ending kind of fell flat. There was this huge build up of supernatural elements and cult vibes only for the big reveal to be that rich people were doing unethical things and they thought they deserved to do so just because they're rich. If I wanted to read something with that kind of ending, I'd read the news.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief and Murder

Moderate: Cursing, Blood, Medical content, Kidnapping, Death of parent, and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Cancer and Cannibalism

Surgeries/medical procedures without consent

jessspeake's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Kidnapping, Medical trauma, Car accident, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Abandonment, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Minor: Cursing, Gun violence, and Sexual content

singalana's review against another edition

emotional 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? It's complicated

2.75

Things are not going well for our main character, Jules. She lost her job AND her boyfriend on the same day, and she has no money and no family she could reach out to. When she’s offered a job as a housesitter in the famous Bartholomew-building, she accepts, even though the job seems too good to be true. 

Despite the strict rules, she gets acquainted with the other housesitters and a few of the residents. She has started to feel uneasy about the building, and when one of the other housesitters disappears, she is determined to find some answers: is she in danger too?

Despite the fact that her sister has disappeared, Jules seems to get very quickly involved in the other housesitters' disappearance. It's hard for the reader to get emotionally invested in the character's disappearance or understand why Jules is so invested in it.

This book has gothic undertones, but I wish that the uneasiness would have been explored more slowly. There are a few moments the book captures the Gothic feeling, but it passes way too quickly. Maybe this book could have done with a little less investigative twists and turns and a little more atmospheric horror. And I wasn’t a huge fan of how we are shown glimpses of how things are now and working our way to find out how Jules ended up there. 

For New Yorkers, everyone seems to be surprisingly friendly and helpful in this book. 

Things seem to move both too fast and too slow in this book. It certainly is a page turner and I was interested enough to see how it ends, but… More on that in the spoilers. 

Spoilers!

The characters feel a bit archetypical and shallow, and like I said, as I was not very invested in the characters, I wasn't as invested in the story as I would have liked. Especially towards the end we get some very clichéd villain monologue.

And of course she manages to throw herself into one of the villain’s (Nick) arms, who is shady from the beginning. The character’s description takes an interesting turn when she finds out he’s involved in the strangeness of Bartholomew: at first he’s depicted as attractive, and then almost nerdy and creepy. Initially the role of a sketchy male suspect is played by Dylan, whose description changes in a similar manner, but to the opposite direction. Even though I have to admit that I kind of liked Nick's ending.

 

I didn't guess the mystery behind Bartholomew, even though I probably should have. I guess I liked it more when it was Satanic sacrifice. Organ harvesting for the rich seems cheap and boring. In hindsight, the twists were predictable and the book doesn't do much that feels original.

Also I kept expecting to get something out of Jules' sister's disappearance, but apparently it was there only to provide a tragic backstory.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical content and Kidnapping

Moderate: Forced institutionalization, Trafficking, Car accident, Fire/Fire injury, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Minor: Body horror, Chronic illness, Cursing, Death, Infidelity, Sexual content, Suicide, Violence, Blood, Death of parent, Alcohol, and Classism

daringreader13's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Cancer, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Misogyny, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Terminal illness, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Police brutality, Medical content, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Grief, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

chasingpages1's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-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? It's complicated

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Suicide, Forced institutionalization, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, and Classism

Moderate: Confinement, Cursing, Gore, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Gun violence, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, Kidnapping, Stalking, Car accident, and Alcohol