Ok, this is a weird one for my to review and definitely not my favorite Sager book of all time. I mostly have it 3 starts since there were definitely some plot twists I didn’t see coming. But that’s where the strangeness comes in lol. This felt like two different plot lines mashed together and just felt really weird to me.

If you’re into books that will throw you through a loop then this is definitely it. There were even plot twists until the very end which is why I gave it a higher rating but I did feel like it went on longer than it needed to lol. Like parts of it definitely dragged but it still was entertaining enough to finish!

I received a free ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I don’t even know quite how to describe this book. Let me start by saying I really enjoyed it. It had great characters, a fun setting, and was easy to follow. I expected it to continue in a certain way, but boy did it prove me wrong. There was such a huge twist that I didn’t see coming! It took the story in such a unique direction. It tied up pretty nicely at the end, but that didn’t take away from my enjoyment.

Another great book by Riley Sager!

As we are introduced to Casey, we question how reliable she may be, due to her excessive drinking and her spiraling behavior. She is staying at her lakehouse after some recent problems in her acting career.

While at the lake, she saves famous model, Katherine Royce, from drowning. After this incident, she watches Katherines house from her porch and notices strange behavior from her and her husband. When Katherine goes missing, she gets help from the man staying next door and she investigates on her own.

Little did she know the lake held more secrets than she was prepares to acknowledge; including secrets of her own.

This is one of my favorite thrillers of all time! I love Riley Sager and this book has my head spinning so fast with all of the twists and turns! I will never forget this lake or house! The characters in this book were so interesting to follow and had my mouth hanging open throughout half of the book! 5/5 must read!!!!!

Reminiscent of The Woman in the Window by AJ Finn, this takes a new spin on the genre by taking us into the life of a former actress whose husband drowned and she's recovering--or pretending to recover while drinking herself into oblivion--at her lake house. When a neighbor she's been spying on suddenly disappears with no clear answers, she feels obliged to investigate for herself. Driven by grief over her loss, she slips into obsession as she searches for answers about what's real and what's in her head.

Thank you to the publisher and Net Galley for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for my honest, personal review. Casey Fletcher is having issues. Her husband has died and she has started binge drinking which has cost her everything. She retreats to her mothers cabin for to try sobriety but she finds a mystery instead. What is really going on with the neighbors across the lake? The twists and turns are decent enough, but the ending wasn't what I was hoping for with this story.

Short summary -
Casey is looking for retreat and perhaps closure at her family’s lake house in Vermont after recently becoming widowed after her husband drowned in the same lake. She takes solace in watching the rich couple across the lake through binoculars and “drowning” her sorrows with tons of alcohol. She strikes up a bit of a friendship after a chance encounter saving former model (and neighbor from across the lake) Katherine from drowning. As the two chat, Katherine reveals that perhaps her marriage isn’t what it seems to be and something is amiss. She also doesn’t feel quite like herself and she can’t pinpoint what’s wrong. Not long after their chance encounter, Katherine goes missing and Casey begins to dig to try to find out what’s really going on.

Overall review -
I’m usually a pretty big fan of Riley Sanger’s thrillers, but without saying too much, this one was a l little out there there for me! I’ve read all of his books and this one prob ranks at the bottom of the list for me. It did keep me entertained though, and I was eager to see how it ended. Still worth a read, IMO.


Overall rating - 3.5 ⭐️, rounded up to 4 ⭐️ for Goodreads

This book saved Riley Sager for me! My first Sager book was Survive the Night, and I hated it due to its predictability and silly character choices. Going into The House Across the Lake, I thought I knew what all of the twists were going to be. Even as I read, I thought I had it figured out.

N O P E. I couldn’t have been further from wrong! There were several audible gasps along the way! I can’t wait to pick up more of Sagers books!

Out of all of Riley Sager's books, this is definitely my least favourite so far, which actually says something because I didn't particularly enjoy any of them.

In The House Across the Lake recently widowed actress Casey Fletcher moves into her family's lake house after a streak of bad press. At the beginning of the book Casey saves her neighbour, former model Katherine, from drowning in the lake. They become friends.
One day, out of boredom Casey takes her late husband's binoculars and starts spying on Katherine and her husband, Tom - as one does. Please note the sarcasm. It turns out that Katherine and Tom might not actually have the picture perfect marriage everyone seems to believe they have, and when Katherine disappears Casey is alarmed and starts investigating.

So let me begin by talking a little about the main character, Casey. She's a former drug addict turned alcoholic and I found her extremely unlikable. It was hard to root for her and it didn't help that Sager just doesn't write women well. More on that later.
Anyways, Casey doesn't want to stay at the lakehouse because she used to spend a lot of time there with her husband, therefore there are too many memories of him attached to it. She compensates by drinking too much. The astute reader might start wondering now: why doesn't Casey leave the lakehouse if she's so miserable there? Well, it's because her mother told her to stay there. It makes no sense.
Okay, back to Sager and the way he writes women badly. Imagine the scenario: you - a woman - are completely alone at a lakehouse, outside, spying on your neighbours with your binoculars. It's dark. A stranger shows up and startles you. What do you do? If your answer is "I'm checking the stranger out, then we make casual conversation", you're going with Casey's decision. Sorry, but this is so unrealistic. What woman would react that way? And in case you were wondering: Casey decides he's hookup material.
Later in the book it gets more and more obvious that Casey is in danger. Still, she doesn't leave. Why? I don't know.
Casey's character is written in a rather inconsistent way overall.
Then there's that plot twist. It was so ridiculous and terrible. It felt like a joke.
In the end the only reason I’m not rating this 1 star is that the ending was so bad that I actually found it hilarious to read, but as a thriller I can't take this book seriously.

This was a great book. I love how Riley Sager can mix mystery with horror. In this book, you don't even really see the true paranormal aspects till near the end of the book. I liked seeing the noisy neighbor who thought she was helping to find out that it wasn't exactly what she thought was happening. I have recommended this book to several people along with his others but have had a hard time trying to explain what it is about without giving things away. I can't wait for the next book that comes out by Riley Sager.

I’m going to be honest this was definitely not my favorite Sager but will I keep reading his books? Of course. I’m just over the alcoholic woman unreliable narrator trope and I felt it was just too similar to other books that were better executed so it was hard to read it without comparing. I’d love to see a more original premise in his next one.

Ooh time goes by and if i don't write the review right away...sigh. I'm trying to be better. The best i can do right now is give a star count...

I loved that Sager went with a full-on supernatural twist. He's been leading to it with the other stories and this one was just *chef's kiss of perfection.* I thought it dealt with Casey's alcoholism in a believable way and I loved that we weren't totally sure if she was a reliable narrator right off the bat.

Riley Sager thrillers are just my favorite. As improbable as the actual story is, once you get past that, it's a great plot. And that's what a good thriller is in my opinion -- too far fetched to happen in real life, but crazy enough that you don't see the ending coming! I thought I had the mystery figured out, and I was thrown through a loop not once, but twice!! This was a great read that I highly recommend.

riley sager is always a must. he knows suspense like i know to read his books always. very interesting concept with these women's relationship. i also really loved the timeline jumping.

3/5

I’m normally one to race through any Riley Sager novel but I’ve got to say this one left me pretty dissatisfied. It felt a lot like the odd aspects of “Lock Every Door” but not in a good way.

Without giving too much away, a lot of the plot felt heavy and repetitive. And some of the twists (while surprising) did NOT make sense and there was no way for readers to guess them. I’m all for twists and turns no one sees coming but there has to be some level of foundation for it and this one felt like it was the ending to a different book.

Potential SPOILERS:
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(I’m really not a fan of when thriller or mystery authors use paranormal elements to drive plot twists in their novels. I’ve seen it done well but this wasn’t one of those cases. The mythology of the “paranormal activity” wasn’t established well enough and so felt particularly jarring and out of place. There are plenty of “human” ways to create plot twists in a mystery thriller novel and I felt like I was reading a paranormal thriller which would be cool if I had signed up for that. It was just very disappointing.)

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All this being said, I’ll continue to read every and anything Sager releases but this one goes in the miss pile for me.

Thank you to Netgalley and Dutton Publishers for the advanced read of “The House Across the Lake” in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to netgalley for providing an e-galley for review. The House Across the Lake starts out like the Girl on the Train but it takes one of the best twists that you don't see coming. This is definitely dark magical realism. Riley Sager just keeps getting better and better.

Here we have a fairly well used trope of an isolated/alcoholic/unstable woman spying on her neighbours. The first half was quite gripping. Taking a break from her acting career after her husband dies, Cee returns to her family home by the lake and becomes obsessed with the celebrity couple in the house with glass walls across the lake. Then the last third just changed into a different genre entirely and became a bit ridiculous in my opinion. Unfortunately it’s just one of those thrillers where they throw so many twists in that by the time you reach yet another twist you’re just rolling your eyes and waiting for it to be over as it’s lost all plausibility and tension. Then the formulaic and lazy style of ending - wrapping everything up all nice and tidy with a summary chapter of ‘two months later’. For me it was painfully obvious that the female character was written by a male and I found her inner dialogue quite repetitive too. Disappointing.

One never knows what to expect from Riley Sager as there are always some twisted endings to the story. This one was very twisted, I had to read the last few chapters twice. Not sure I liked how it ended. I thought there was way to much. drinking by Casey that I skipped paragraphs describing it. She also seemed much, much older like in her 50s. Also the references to Rear Window and Woman in the Window have been done enough, I’m tired of it.

Riley Sager did it again. I was on the edge of my seat every page and twists came out of nowhere. When I thought I knew what would happen in the end, something out of left field would come out and I was once again left wondering. I also loved the setting, Sager had some beautiful writing describing the lake and it’s features.

I will always read Sager’s books.