After Final Girls & The Last Time I Lied and now Lock Every Door, I have learned two things. One: Never think you know what's going on and never assume you've figured out the ending in Riley Sager's books. Two: I will gladly and willingly stay up until 4 am, home alone with every door in my house locked, to read whatever Riley Sager writes next. Lock Every Door is purely CREEPY. The setting of The Bartholomew and the residents within it's walls are both very atmospheric and very insidious and I swear I can picture every detail of the old building down to it's ancient elevator. I flew through this in two sittings and was initially underwhelmed at what I had convinced myself was the ending. I was super proud I successfully guessed one of the "bad guys" and then not proud of myself at all that the ending was NOTHING like I had guessed. Well played, Riley Sager, well played.

Not as much of a thrilling page-turner as Sager's previous novels, but still highly enjoyable. The setting of The Bartholomew provides a rich, mysterious backdrop for the characters and gives the book an intriguing throwback feel. Although the pace is a little slower than expected during the first half, it thankfully picks up shortly afterward through the wild climax and closing. I like how Sager has stepped away from his usual book format this time around even if he didn't pull off the story quite as gracefully.

Riley Sager does it again! This book does not disappoint and will have you tearing through it so quickly. Jules’s story will have you at the edge of your seat through this wild ride.

This was the first book I read by Riley Sager and I really enjoyed it! I honestly thought I would go to bed with nightmares, because it was intense and a little scary because killing and stealing people’s organs is a real thing. No one talks about it, but it’s real. I never read what this book was about, I typically like to be surprised so I don’t have any theories starting out. I honestly had no idea what was going to happen! I really believed these people were in a cult, not that what they turned out to be doing was any better, but at least those people died for a reason, not just a sacrifice. I really hoped that Nick was not in on it, but he seemed like the only possible suspect that we had met so far so I would have been shocked if it was someone else honestly. I loved that it was a quick read. The chapters were short, leaving cliff hangers so you wanted more. Well done Riley Sager! I can’t wait to read your other books!

I posted this same review on Goodreads. Thank you so much for approving me and letting me read this early!

When you’re at a low point in your life, just lost your job and your boyfriend is caught cheating on you, it might be best to watch out for deals that sound too good to be true.

Jules finds herself in just such a position. When she applies for the job of a lifetime: apartment sitting at the luxurious Bartholemew in New York, she’s wondering if her life might be taking a turn. To make it even more exciting, the Bartholemew is an old building she admires and the salary is $1,000 a week. Since she has a sister who disappeared years ago and her parents perished in a fire, she’s definitely in need of a place to stay and money.

She’s delighted to learn that the position is hers but then learns there are a few rules. Even though the rules seem a bit restrictive and odd, she agrees to them. How can she not?

In a short time, she begins to notice strange things. When she agrees to meet and talk to another apartment sitter, her suspensions and concerns only heighten. She begins to research the Bartholemew on the Internet.

Is it possible this beautiful building holds secrets that put Jules in danger?

Thanks so much to #NetGalley and #DuttonBooks for the opportunity to read and review the ARC of #LockEveryDoor.

My Thoughts

What Concerned Me: This is a fairly hard book for me to rate and comment on. I was excited to read it because of the title and plot line, but most of the story had me waiting for the real suspense to begin. Don’t get me wrong, it wasn’t hard at all to keep turning the pages, but for me, it wasn’t exactly a suspenseful/thriller/page turner. It was a good, somewhat creepy, mystery.

And yet, when the book did get suspenseful and fast-paced, it also became a bit too unbelievable.

What I Liked Best: The descriptions are excellent. I could easily visualize the place without having so much description that the story ceases to move forward.

The book feels original and the characters are well-developed. This book is exciting and even (probably due to the excellent descriptions) a bit creepy. Why not mark your calendar or preorder it now! I don’t think you’ll be disappointed.

A creeptastic un-put- down-able page turning thriller that keeps you riveted to your cozy reading spot until the final jaw dropping, gasping end! What a thrill!
Jules is a fantastic heroine. The characters rich with substance and secrets. The gothic apartment building- a character in itself!

Mr. Sager also touches on sensitive topics such as loneliness, loss, grief and there's so much story here.
Dare I say a perfect psychological tea cup spinning ride to totally unexpected-ville? Yes!
Bravo, Riley Sager! That was a really good time.
5 stars. *Thank you to the publisher and @netgalley for my early reader copy

This might be my favorite Riley Sager book yet. The writing is incredible. The Bartholomew felt so damn creepy that I could hardly read this book at night. The author almost lost me when Jules and Ingrid started going off on the Satanic cult tangent, but then he tied it all together in a way that was just perfect. This one is definitely the best thriller/mystery I have read in ages.

Entertaining book with a unique premise. Kept me guessing throughout most of the book and I liked the jumps in time, which kept things paced very well.

Lock Every Door is about a young woman in New York City who gets a dream job in an apartment building where things are not as they seem. I received an ARC copy from NetGalley.

I found the book very compelling, and the characters interesting. The structure worked very well for the subject matter, and most of all, I liked that the twist surprised me. It’s getting harder and harder for anything to surprise me these days so that was really welcome.

This book truly had it all! An intriguing title. A fierce protagonist. A sinister setting— the Bartholomew, a historical apartment building in Manhattan. An original storyline.

Jules hasn’t been dealt the best cards in life— she has no family, recently lost her job, and discovered her live-in boyfriend was cheating on her in the same day. With no place to live, no money, and no job, she applies to be an apartment sitter in the opulent Bartholomew in exchange for an ample salary. It almost seems too good to be true, despite the stringent rules that go along with the job. Jules, in desperate need of money and jaded by the luxuriousness of the apartment building, can not believe her luck and graciously accepts the position.

Almost immediately, Jules uncovers stories about the dark history surrounding the building. She begins hearing mysterious noises in the night. Then some of the other apartment sitters disappear, including Ingrid, a girl befriended by Jules on her first day. Jules begins to question whether some things really are too good to be true and wonders how safe she really is at the Bartholomew.

I literally could not put this book down. It was fast-paced, full of twists and turns, and completely addicting. It had just the right amount of creepy, and always left me on the edge of my seat, dying to know what happens next. The only problem is now I am left trying to find my next read that will leave me feeling as satisfied as Lock Every Door!

The suspense and atmosphere are here in spades but at the end of the day the story just isn't. There's a lot to like in Sager's sophomore effort and quite a bit that puts it way above the super lackluster "Final Girls." Unfortunately the "big reveal" isn't one of those things.

I liked heroine Jules Larsen quite a bit. There's an air of mystery and sadness around her that sets her apart from the typical lonely girl making a dumb choice in a horror novel. Sager very wisely never reveals too much about her past beyond the barest essentials and whether or not we get answers is less important than what her past has turned her into as a person. You get why she would take such an obviously ridiculous opportunity, apartment sitting in the world's most prestigious building and being paid a stupid amount of money for basically nothing as long as you follow a series of insane sounding rules.

The characters are probably the strongest part of what amounts to a Scooby Doo level plot with equally cartoonish villains who sole motivation for the icky stuff they're doing is "because poor people don't matter."

There's just something so damn silly about this story. Jules develops a bonkers theory about whats really going on when a series of former tenants are revealed to have mysteriously disappeared which is of course wrong, but the reality is just as dopey and predictable.

Whats so weird is that its all book ended with some really deep insights into loneliness and the struggle for closure in the face of senseless tragedy. Sagers writes with genuine grace about the crippling effects of grief, how it can freeze your life at that moment of tragedy and make it almost impossible to dig yourself out again. He gives Jules a surprisingly lovely and deeply sad connection to the hotel that really resonates, there's a connection between person and place that he returns to again and again so that this strange, lonely building starts to become a character in its own right.

In a way its like reading two totally different books. One is the tragedy of a girl left alone in the world with only her grief for company becoming increasingly frightened and unhinged as the one link she has left to a beloved family member starts to become increasingly terrifying. The other is a Grind House horror film that went right to DVD. There's nothing "heart pounding" or thrilling there because its all been done before and it was cheesy as hell then too!

Jules takes a job as an apartment sitter in a fancy and swank building in NYC.  There are rules - no visitors, no nights spent away from the apartment, no disturbing other residents.  BUT IT PAYS GOOD $$$$$.  

She finds herself growing closer to Ingrid, another sitter.  Jules has her own past.  Her parents are dead and her sister disappeared years ago. Then Ingrid disappears.  Something isn't quite right about this building.  Jules digs deeper into the history of the building and begins to uncover secrets...

This is a decent enough thriller.  It is a little slow, and I'm not sure how I feel about the ~*~*plot twist*~*~.  Really, I'm not sure how I feel about the whole book, but I did finish it.  Some of it was a little far fetched for me.  



Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin Group/ Dutton

This was a great atmospheric read. It builds a good creep factor but without being too far out there or unbelievable.

Jules is broke - no job and no apartment, thanks to a cheating boyfriend. She answers an ad to be an apartment sitter and is shocked to find out the address is for The Bartholomew, a prestigious and very private building overlooking Central Perk. It seems too good to be true, but Jules jumps at the chance to live in this building, the setting of her favorite novel. Soon after moving in, she discovers that not everything is as it should be. When another apartment sitter goes missing, Jules begins to investigate and as she digs deeper she finds something sinister may be happening at this swanky address.

I thought this book had a great creepy setting, the details about The Bartholomew were perfect. It went somewhere I didn't see coming and I really appreciated that. I would recommend this to Riley Sager fans definitely. I also noticed that the book didn't rely on gratuitous language or sex scenes (neither of which particularly bother me, but it was nice that they weren't thrown in just for shock value) and I would be comfortable recommending this to high school neighbors as well as my grandmother.

I guess no one ever told the protagonist of this book that if things are too good to be true, they probably are. . .

Lock Every Door was a quick, easy, mildly entertaining read, but it was also predictable and weirdly slow for a thriller. If you are looking for an undemanding read, look no further. If you are looking for a thought-provoking mystery, this might not be the book for you.

This nefarious story is about Jules, a struggling loner who finds a job as an apartment sitter in a posh building in New York. It starts off with a creepy, haunted house kind of vibe (my very favorite kind of tale), but it quickly turns even more sinister with every turn of the page. And just when you think it’s as chilling as it can possibly be, it gets positively evil!

Coincidences become nightmares and a “too good to be true” plot turns out to be exactly that.

This is one of those books you can’t stop reading! In my opinion, it’s Sager’s best work, yet! HIGHLY RECOMMEND!!

Mother of God, this book was good. I was all in on reading Jules' adventure in apartment babysitting. It sounded too good to be true- $4000 a month to house sit?- but I'd buy lying if I said I'd never agree to it. If you're desperate enough... You think you can handle anything for the right price. This was gothic and tense. It was one of those thrillers I couldn't put down- and I did not guess the ending. Everything was tied up in a neat bow- no quirky endings here. I thought this was Sagers best effort yet. Recommend!

Lock Every Door is a wild and suspenseful ride Just when you think you know every classic thriller trope, Riley Sager comes along and blows them all away. Reminiscent of Rosemary's Baby with Hitchcockian overturns, fans of a good suspense won't be disappointed.

The novel follows Jules as she takes on the role of apartment sitter in the swanky Bartholomew. With its high pay and celebrity residents, it seems like a dream come true, until the dark side of the building's history is revealed. Sager delivers on the twists and suspense you expect from his previous books without using the same tricks of the trade. Look your doors because you will want to devour this book when it comes out

Thanks to @netgalley for the ARC

The newest from Riley Sager is a wonderful whirlwind of an adventure. I loved every moment of this book. Where to even begin?

Jules is an enlightening and somewhat charming modern-day loner. Her family has a dark past and she’s done everything to overcome it and live somewhat normally in New York. Upon taking a house sitting job, she discovers that young people without families seem to go missing from this building at an alarmingly high rate.

There were lots of ups and very few downs in this story. First was the plot. Sager has never struggled in the plot department, and he had me literally shivering from under the covers of my nice warm bed at 3am by the time I finished. There truly was not a dull moment to be found in this book. Second, the way Sager tells stories is insanely good. The reader feels so connected to these scenes it feels like you’re actually there.

The only downsides that I can name are a general lack of main character development (Who IS Jules? What makes her unique? She was a bit boring, or too typical) and some plot points I didn’t find particularly believable (i.e. Jules taking immediate action and starting to Nancy Drew the situation before she even thought of anything else. Yes I understand she had killer instincts after what she went through with her sister but it seems like a convenient “way out” for the plot).

Overall, a 5 star read. Highly recommend and I honestly do not know what i’d do if i’d had to wait another several months for this title 😂.

Reliable. That is what Riley Sager's writing is for me. "Reliable Riley" is his name from here on out. So far he is 3 for 3 with me, and this may be my favorite yet. He could write an appliance instruction manual and I would read it all, and still probably enjoy it. His writing style never ceases to capture and hold my attention which is so greatly appreciated when I've been finding myself in a lot of ruts lately.

This novel is about a girl named Jules who was just laid off from her job. Desperate to get off her pal Chloe's couch and make some money, she comes across a listing for an "apartment sitter" at an infamous NY building called The Bartholomew.

At first I thought the whole plot was a bit preposterous, with apartment sitters only being there for 3-month terms, not to mention the absurd rules they have to follow. The whole set up just seemed a little unbelievable- who would agree to that, broke or not? But hang in there. This book had the most deliciously creepy vibe, that kept me on edge the entire time. The final twist even got me a little, which doesn't often happen.

Plain and simple this is a creepy and fun book. I enjoyed the entire ride. It's best not knowing too much going into it because it's that much more fun figuring what's up with The Bartholomew along with Jules.

Thanks to the publisher for providing my review copy.

I love Riley Sager. His writing feels effortless and like entering a dream. I get enveloped by the story, usually from the get go. His newest novel, Lock Every Door, was no different.
The story begins with an interesting premise. A luxury apartment in a famous building needs a sitter. Follow the rules, get paid. It sounds easy and quite possibly too good to be true, but no one seems last until the end of the agreement.

The ending surprised me. I would definitely recommend this or any book by the author.