Tuesday, November 26, 2019

Lock Every Door by Riley Sager (thoughts)

Summary from Goodreads:

"No visitors. No nights spent away from the apartment. No disturbing the other residents, all of whom are rich or famous or both. These are the only rules for Jules Larsen's new job as an apartment sitter at the Bartholomew, one of Manhattan's most high-profile and mysterious buildings. Recently heartbroken and just plain broke, Jules is taken in by the splendor of her surroundings and accepts the terms, ready to leave her past life behind.

As she gets to know the residents and staff of the Bartholomew, Jules finds herself drawn to fellow apartment sitter Ingrid, who comfortingly, disturbingly reminds her of the sister she lost eight years ago. When Ingrid confides that the Bartholomew is not what it seems and the dark history hidden beneath its gleaming facade is starting to frighten her, Jules brushes it off as a harmless ghost story—until the next day, when Ingrid disappears.

Searching for the truth about Ingrid's disappearance, Jules digs deeper into the Bartholomew's dark past and into the secrets kept within its walls. Her discovery that Ingrid is not the first apartment sitter to go missing at the Bartholomew pits Jules against the clock as she races to unmask a killer, expose the building's hidden past, and escape the Bartholomew before her temporary status becomes permanent."

My Thoughts:

This book well and truly creeped me out!  Like I was reading it at night in bed and had to stop because it was making me anxious type of creepy.  It has this feeling of dread from almost the very first page that I absolutely loved.  I found myself reading in short bursts and then setting it down because I just knew bad things were going to happen (and I wasn't sure if I was ready for it yet).  It was just so darn creepy!  I'm going to get into slightly spoiler-ey territory so if you aren't here for that skip on ahead to the next paragraph and my final thoughts on this one.  I feel like I went into this book knowing that bad things were happening at the Bartholomew.  The reader is probably meant to guess more on if bad things are happening or if it was all in Jules' mind.  I just was certain that there were dark things going on and was intent on figuring out what.  I spent a lot of the beginning half of the book just trying to guess what was going on.  Let me tell you that we hit that second half though and the danger Jules was in got real!  By this point in the book I was already thoroughly creeped out by this book in general.  And then something that happened that I didn't see coming from a mile away.  I honestly have no idea if I should have seen this coming or not but I definitely didn't!  I finished this book while my youngest was practicing basketball, in a noisy gym, with the threat of being hit with a basketball in the head present the entire time.  Do you think I looked up once to ensure my safety because of this ending?  Heck no!  Also, who knew that you could be terrified while reading a book in a gym full of nine and ten year olds?  Lesson learned there because this book and that ending was truly terrifying!  Holy cow!  This author is officially on my must read everything he writes list! What a book!  If you've read this one, let's discuss because I am truly curious if I'm the only one who was blown away by this book and the answers behind everything or if other readers were able to guess the answers beforehand.

Overall, I enjoyed this book immensely and will be reading everything this author writes at this point!  It was just so darn good!  I loved the horror type vibes that Sager uses in his books.  They were present in Final Girls and they were definitely present in this one as well!  I love a dark and creepy thriller which is exactly what this book is!  I'm so glad that I listened to the hype on this one because it deserves every single word of praise in my opinion.  I would recommend this book to fans of thrillers, mysteries, and suspense!  Highly recommended!

Bottom Line:  One of the creepiest books I have read this year!  Five stars!

Disclosure:  I received a copy of this book originally from NetGalley but ended up checking out a copy from my local library.  Honest thoughts are my own.

2 comments:

  1. This sounds like a thrilling thriller! I'm glad you enjoyed reading it, Sam. Happy Thanksgiving to you and your family.

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    Replies
    1. Suko - I hope that you and your family had a wonderful Thanksgiving!! This was a really great read for me - I have a feeling it will end up on my top reads list for this year!

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