Reviews tagging 'Drug use'

The House across the Lake by Riley Sager

23 reviews

joshi_the_pumpkin's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Violence, Grief, Murder, and Alcohol

annabulkowski's review against another edition

challenging dark funny hopeful mysterious sad medium-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Murder, and Alcohol

eilseleslie's review against another edition

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Child abuse, Death, Drug use, Infidelity, Self harm, Suicide, Violence, Stalking, and Murder

holly_rey's review against another edition

dark 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Self harm, Suicide, Blood, Kidnapping, Murder, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

polpolpolulu's review against another edition

dark emotional 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

Plot twist on plot twist on plot twist! Perfect thriller for the spooky season, that won’t leave you unable to sleep. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Death, Drug use, Physical abuse, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Grief, Murder, and Alcohol

shannananahey's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Riley Sager hits it out of the park again. I usually predict the “twist” or large event before I’m halfway through most books. This one came out of left field and I never saw it coming. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Death, Grief, Murder, and Alcohol

Moderate: Kidnapping and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Infidelity, Physical abuse, Blood, and Abandonment

arthur_ant18's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Cursing, Death, Violence, Grief, Stalking, Murder, and Alcohol

Moderate: Drug use, Blood, Vomit, and Injury/Injury detail

mallory10100's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad 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

5.0

this was so insanely twisty i had absolutely no idea where it was going 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Toxic relationship, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Kidnapping, Grief, Stalking, Murder, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Confinement, Cursing, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Suicide attempt, and Sexual harassment

Minor: Infidelity, Blood, and Vomit

toofondofbooks_'s review against another edition

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

2.5

The stars I give this book are for the following: the creepy atmosphere, the writing that at times made me feel like I myself was on Lake Greene, the reference to "Lock Every Door," the fact that there were some pieces of this story that sent a couple of chills down my spine, and the decent pacing.

Other than that, things get a little dicey...

I wrote down in my journal around page 100 that the star rating of this book was very much going to depend on the twist(s)...and friends, I just thought that all of these twists were weak at best and goofy at worst. There was one twist that made me actually LOL and I really don't think that was Sager's intent.

When I wasn't rolling my eyes out of confusion or snort laughing at how dumb that one twist was, I was just...bored. I dunno, Riley. We'll try again next time.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Grief, Stalking, Murder, and Alcohol

Moderate: Child abuse, Suicide, and Abandonment

Minor: Racism, Sexual content, and Colonisation

magis1105's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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

2.0

It's a fast read and I read it in a single day. You have a female MC, you get the whole story from her POV and she's an unreliable narrator because she's an alcoholic. To start off that is 50-50, because it has been overly done in mystery/thrillers.
You get a woman who is idling her sorrow by turning to booze and has nothing better to do than to spy on her neighbors across the lake and the couple seems to have problems. Sound familiar?
Then throw a very handsome next-door neighbor who is creepy but good looking so she's interested in a way. That didn't make sense to me. 

Katherine hints that her husband might want to kill her. When she fights with her husband it looks like she knows the neighbor is watching; in a conversation, she implies that she would spy on them. The story does curve and realign several times, you're lead to believe Tom is the main culprit and possible serial killer.
My main issue was that the MC knew this piece of information, who the serial killer is since the start. Yet she acts like she thinks the serial killer is actually Tom and in another part, she practically accuses Boone, the hunky neighbor of being the serial killer. Why does she blame them, in her head, she already knows it's not them. She knows who did it, so why does she act as if it might be them? It can be well done but the fact that the reveal was just made for the reader and that she knew all along means that she was lying to herself in her mind the 3/4 of the story.

There is a paranormal part of the story, which I didn't see coming, that foreshadowing of scary stories around a campfire doesn't count. It seemed like the big reveal, but it just kept going downhill. 
It felt over the top because we find that Tom did have a nefarious plan but that section felt rushed. The book could have easily ended in the paranormal section and them making up a story to feed to the cops. 

So it wasn't my favorite but it might be a not-for-me type of story.

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Content Warnings

Minor: Alcoholism, Domestic abuse, and Drug use