lessthelonely
Written on Jun 27, 2023
Did I enjoy this book? Yes, I did. It's my second Riley Sager book, however, it is the one I would rate the lowest.
Knowing this is the author's second book, a big comparison comes to mind: Paula Hawkins. Which is a name that keeps appearing in my reviews. But the truth is, after the smash hit that was The Girl on The Train, Riley Sager himself had to follow-up Final Girls, which I've heard was very well received as a debut novel.
My problem with this book is that it's very clearly a slow-burn but then when its time to get through a lot of layers to the plot, I must admit I became a little exhausted. This book has twists upon twists upon twists, all concentrated from 60-70% onward. While with Lock Every Door I predicted a twist that felt like was put there to be predictable and I was ultimately surprised about the rest, here I predicted a few twists and was ultimately underwhelmed. This book wasn't nearly as dramatic as I hoped it would be, but it somehow was melodramatic - too much going around, the characters moved too much and it felt like it was just to get a few more pages worth of reading.
At the same time, I don't feel the big twists (mostly, THE final twist) didn't have as much heft as I hoped for. People hyped this book up a lot, and make no mistake, I enjoyed this! Just not as much as the first book by the author I read. I feel like some of my theories maybe would've been predictable but could've been worth it in execution. I feel like the twists themselves don't hold themselves as solid in this one because they weren't as well executed. Either way, I do intend to read as many Riley Sager books as I can. I'm thinking of reading Home Before Dark next.