Scan barcode
A review by singalana
Lock Every Door by Riley Sager
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.
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.
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