I'm a huge fan of Riley Sager and I was completely mind-blown by the creepiness of this one. Jules is in a very vulnerable, lonely position and I could sense that she was in real danger within the first few chapters. As the pages kept turning, it seemed that almost all of the residents were 'hunting' her, as she came closer to the truth. Fast-paced and gripping, I raced through it and was thoroughly disturbed when the ending unravelled. Incredibly claustrophobic and twisty, it's a must-read for anyone looking for a quick, heart-stopping summer thriller.

FINALLY! A really shocking thriller than made me squirm. The setting made this book haunting and I genuinely had no idea where it would go. The flashes forwards and backwards in time give you more questions than answers and I have felt on edge ever since finishing the book.

Really enjoyed this book initially, interesting , fun plot with promise of a really great novel , but I found at the end the storyline became very far fetched and unrealistic which spoilt it somewhat , but still a good read .

Lock Every Door was the first book I’d read by Riley Sager and I was really pleased that I enjoyed it so much. It makes me want to go read everything else by this author!

This book was so creepy and foreboding throughout and it made me very unsettled as I read it (in a good way!). The premise of the book was very interesting and it really keeps the reader gripped the entire time. It’s definitely a page turner as you find yourself desperate to finish it and see what happens.

The only reason I rated this book four stars and not five was due to the pacing. Although it’s a page turner, every now and again I found that it got a little slow and I was eager for it to pick up again.

I’d definitely recommend this book to anybody looking for a creepy thriller.

Riley Sager puts a new spin on the trope of elegant buildings with a serious creep factor, made famous by novels like Rosemary’s Baby and The Shining. Lock Every Door not only pays homage to past horror novels that feature scary buildings, it also shines a light on something more immediate: the horror of millennial financial insecurity.

The main protagonist Jules must face the demons in the woodwork and in the world around her if she is to have any hope of a future, locked away in this looming high rise. The author, writing under a pen name, relates ominous events and spooky developments with skill, adding an element of social commentary and a surprise twist ending. However, parts of this seemed beyond imagination and it becomes a bit of a cliche by the end. Exciting, but not innovative.

Deffo reminded me of Rosemary’s Baby (classic) as others have said. I expected our protagonist Jules to be in the apartment longer before things started to go awry but it all happened rather quickly. A good spooky read which had me googling buildings with gargoyles lol. Riley Sager is fast joining my ever expanding list of favourite authors.
My thanks to Penguin and NetGalley for my ARC in return for an honest review.

A book of two halves. The first section had me gripped and was quite passed as She moves into house sit and other sitters start going missing and then things seem to go slowly.

I really enjoyed Riley Sagar’s previous two books but sadly have to report that this one didn’t stand up to them. I was irritated by the main female, Jules, but also by many of the supporting female characters. I felt they were all two dimensional and frankly quite stupid. Their motivations and inability to keep their mouths shut was annoying and unrealistic. What female would put themselves in such danger while blithely telling anyone who would listen all about it! The arc was formatted so badly that almost every chapter started in the middle, continued for a while then indiscriminately rewound to the start of the chapter. I hope when the book is available for the public that this has been rectified.

Having really enjoyed the other two books I’ve read by Riley Sager (Final Girls and The Last Time I Lied), I was excited to read Lock Every Door – and was not disappointed. This is a crazy, fun and entertaining story which has a lingering sense of eeriness woven throughout its pages.

We start the story with a bang and are then taken back in time to Jules’ first day as an apartment sitter in a block of incredibly wealthy flats, right in the centre of New York City. There’s a strange list of rules for this ‘job’, but Jules isn’t too bothered – she needs the $12,000 (!) she’ll receive for the 3 month stint. Until she starts to notice that things aren’t quite as they seem…

I love the way Riley Sager plays with the classic locked room tale, updating it and creating a real sense of fun amongst the weird occurrences – I don’t know how he does it, but I really liked this element of fun as it lifts some of the tension, creating a really fun read.

The way the story is structured – jumping back and forwards in time – can be a little confusing at times, when it’s not completely clear where the narrative has jumped to. At times I also felt that the story got a little unbelievable, but I find that’s often the case with many of Sager’s books – you have to suspend your disbelief a little – so it didn’t ultimately affect my enjoyment.

I really enjoyed this rollercoaster of a thriller. It’s atmospheric, entertaining and well-plotted!

Wowzers this was a great book! It tells the story of Jules who is a little down on her luck after having lost her job, her boyfriend and her apartment on the same day, so when she is offered an apartment sitting job at a luxury building called The Bartholomew in Manhattan, she jumps at the chance. What follows is a heart pounding and very creepy tale with some fabulous twists and turns. I thought the pacing of this book was absolutely pitch perfect... I literally couldn't put it down and read it in one sitting. I thought the characters were well done and felt authentic and whilst this was an incredibly elaborate and over the top plot, it worked so well. I loved The Bartholomew as a setting - it was very Gothic in terms of the atmosphere and the gargoyles were fab. There is a really supernatural vibe to the narrative, which I really enjoyed and I thought the reveal was brilliant, made even more so because I completely didn't see it coming. Overall, this is definitely my favourite Riley Sager book and I will definitely pick up whatever he comes up with next. Loved it!
I received a free copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for a fair and honest review.

I'm such a fan of this author and this is an OK read, just didn't grip me in the way his other books have done.

I found it unstructured and frustrating, although, I kept going and as I say, for me this was just an OK read, just, too slow for me.

2*

I do appreciate being given the opportunity to preview and thanks to NetGalley and the publishers.

Jules has recently split from her cheating boyfriend and lost her job - living on her friends sofa she answers an advert for an "apartment sitter". The Bartholomew is famous but mysterious and there are strict rules that Jules must follow such as she has to spend every night in the apartment and absolutely no visitors amongst others. She makes friends with Ingrid, another apartment sitter but when she suddenly disappears in the middle of the night - Jules set out to find her. The more she digs, the more she finds out that others have also gone missing and the permanent residents are not quite what they seem.

The storyline itself is good but a pity that the majority of the book is slow, little connections between the characters and fails to grab the readers attention. It is only in the last few chapters that the story picks up but then rushes to the conclusion and the time afterwards.

Wow, I really enjoyed this book a lot and loved the idea behind the story and don't want to say too much so I don't spoil the book for you.

But I really enjoyed the book being set in an old fashioned new york building and the characters inside were well written and interesting ... really enjoyed this so thankyou .

And this book reminds me of the old saying if its too good to be true it probably is

Another mysterious and intriguing story from Riley Sager, this book had me gripped throughout.

Each of Riley’s books have had a very different style, this this feels like an update on a classic thriller. The setting of an iconic old-fashioned building in New York is paired with many modern twists and turns.

The characters are fascinating, and everyone in this building is clearly hiding something. You may figure out some of what happening, but there are so many unexpected moments it will still keep you guessing until the end.

An exciting, thrilling read. And remember, some things are too good to be true.

Ironically I was in New York when I read this book which seemed to give t an extra layer of the hairs on the back of your neck standing on end.
Riley Sager has done it again. A psychological and frightening thriller with the most unexpected twist.
A real page turner that has you thinking you have cracked it and then it twists another way.
would you apartment sit for a phenomenal amount of cash? Would you smell a rat, too good to be true or would you be grateful for the opportunity.
Check in to the Bartholomew and find out
5 easy stars

A very fresh and exciting premise, I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book. Jules, our protagonist, is down on her luck, heartbroken and homeless- when she is offered the job of apartment sitting.in an exclusive apartment. Of course if it looks too good to be true it often is. There follows many twists and turns, and an ever creeping sense of fear. A fantastic read.

A great read-fabulous page turner-atmospheric well-plotted well-written. An intriguing read. Didn't like it quite as much as Final girls, but a must-read nonetheless. Recommended.

This was a fun, twisty, trippy thrill ride, dripping with atmosphere. Sometimes I find myself irritated by thrillers with obscure twists - and this one definitely has that - but I'll let it slide for this one because it was just so entertaining. Is it a little ridiculous? Yes, definitely - but it's fun!

"Every so often, life offers you a reset button. When it does, you need to press it as hard as you can."

We meet the protagonist Jules at a low point in her life; she's lost her job, home and boyfriend - so when a dream apartment sitting job comes along, she jumps at it. And this isn't just any apartment; it's an apartment in the Bartholomew - "the Manhattan version of a palace, inhabited by the city's elite"; a prestigious, imposing and extremely elitist building in the heart of New York City. There's a few strange rules, but nothing Jules can't handle.

The vulnerable protagonist, the striking, pristine building and to-good-to-be-true job offer all felt very reminiscent of The Girl Before to me to start with, but this novel has a life all of its own. I loved how New York was bought to life and the history of the building itself gave it character. The protagonist is well-developed so I was invested in her story, and we learn a little about her past which touches on themes of grief and loneliness.

But Jules isn't isolated in this novel, there's a colourful cast as she's surrounded by other residents, some the rich and elite tenants who live there and some other apartment sitters like herself. It's when her new apartment sitting friend Ingrid disappears mysteriously in the night that Jules becomes determined to get to the bottom of what really goes on in the Bartholomew. And it's so left-field, I doubt you'd guess in a million years.

Sager spends time building a slowly creeping atmosphere in the first half of the novel, so when the second half begins to throw in plot turns and twists at every corner, I was gripped following Jules along on her journey to find the truth. And it's true edge-of-your-self stuff; even when the tale strayed into the bizarre and ridiculous, I couldn't stop reading. This is a blockbuster of the book world - insightful literary fiction it's not, but it is an entertaining, thrilling ride.

A very warm welcome to the blog today and to my review of Lock Every Door by Riley Sager.  Lock Every Door was published by Ebury Publishing on 25th July 2019 and is available in hardcover, audio and ebook formats.  I received a free eARC via NetGalley but that has in no way influenced my review.

I felt anxious about reading Lock Every Door.  Let me give you a little of the backstory.  Riley Sager's Final Girls is one of the most INCREDIBLE books I have EVER read.  Here's my review of Final Girls (https://damppebbles.com/2017/10/19/bookreview-final-girls-by-riley-sager-riley_sager-eburypublishing/) so you can see how much I loved it. I still recommend it to everyone today and it's one of the few books I would pick up and read again (and again!).  So I was excited to read this author's second novel (under his nom de plume), Last Time I Lied (https://damppebbles.com/2018/07/17/bookreview-last-time-i-lied-by-riley-sager-eburypublishing-lasttimeilied-20booksofsummer/).  With hindsight, I think my expectations were too high when I started LTIL which led me to be a *little* harsh in my critique of it. I'm sorry Mr Sager.  There are so many readers out there who prefer Last Time I Lied to Final Girls but isn't that the beauty of reading - it's subjective.  So knowing I was going to be reading the third novel by this author (which I was excited about, by the way, but also a little anxious), I was keen to separate my feelings about the first two novels from Lock Every Door and read it as though it was written by a brand new author to me (does that make sense?).  Anyway, to cut a long, dwindling story short, I really enjoyed Lock Every Door. But I'm not going to compare it to either of this author's first two books.

Jules Larsen has landed on her feet after splitting up with her boyfriend and losing her job.  She's going to be an apartment sitter at an exclusive New York apartment building for 3 months, where the rich and famous spend their days.  Not only will she live the life of luxury, but they are also going to pay her four thousand dollars a month!  It's a win-win situation.  But there are rules she must stick to; no visitors, don't talk to or discuss the other residents and no nights away from the apartment.  Jules understandably feels the rules are a little strict but this is an opportunity not to be missed.  Particularly as her favourite book, which she often shared with her missing sister, Heart of a Dreamer, was set at the Bartholomew.  But the Bartholomew is rumoured to have many dark secrets and the longer Jules spends living there, the more concerned she becomes.  And when a friend and fellow apartment sitter goes missing, Jules knows that not everything is as it first seemed...

This a wonderful gothic thriller which sends shivers down the reader's spine.  Poor Jules.  I really felt for her as she seemed to have the worst luck.  First, you're dumped, then you lose your job and then you move into the apartment from hell thinking it's the answer to your prayers. Oh, and there's a strong chance you won't survive the ordeal.  I was immediately intrigued by the plot and was trying to plan in my own mind where the story was going to go.  The Batholomew is a character all by itself with it's creaky barred elevator and the demonic-looking gargoyles on every corner.  The eeriness of the setting really added to an already creepy story and I found myself totally immersed in the author's tale.

Would I recommend this book? I would, yes.  It's a compelling gothic chiller which I struggled to put down.  I strongly suggest you give this author's other books a go too (whoops, wasn't going to mention them!) as they're worth reading.  I loved the ending which was very satisfying and a lot of fun. I would have been disappointed if this book had finished any other way.  Chilling, dark and hard to put down. Recommended.

I chose to read and review an eARC of Lock Every Door The above review is my own unbiased opinion.

Your home is no longer safe! Jules’ story is unique and chilling. The juxtaposed life of luxury is twisted with darkness and the ghosts of those before her. A unique and thrilling narrative! It’ll make you think twice about house sitting!