Lock Every Door | Riley Sager | Book Review

Never take anything you haven’t earned, my father used to say. You always end up paying for it one way or another.

If closed door mysteries and potential haunted houses with dark pasts are your kinda tropes in thrillers, then you’ll love Lock Every Door. Barring certain parts where I felt the writing sort of slowed down, it was a great thriller, pretty gripping and full of nail-biting suspense. The story is narrated by our main character Jules, who is in both a financial and personal crisis right after she broke up with her boyfriend. One fine day she comes across an ad claiming the need for an apartment sitter at the Bartholomew, one of Manhattan’s most gigantic, splendid and mysterious residency buildings, housing the most high-profile personalities of the city. But there are these bizarre rules about not having visitors and not bothering other residents. Soon she discovers that apartment sitters from the Bartholomew are disappearing long before she moved in and Jules is determined to find the truth about the building’s dark past and residents, who don’t seem what they are.

The gothic setting and eerie atmosphere really worked for me. The huge burgundy walls, black and white tiled floor, the extravagantly luxurious apartments with the vintage gargoyles, everything helped level up the thrill. Talking about the writing style, its immensely detailed. Not that I don’t like detailed writing, but at times I felt unnecessary descriptions could have been avoided. For instance, in the scene where Greta takes Jules out to lunch and suggests that she must look in the homeless shelters for her friend Ingrid, right upto Jules getting there, I feel like a lot of the lunch details and details about the people in the shelter could have been avoided to get to the point.

Coming to the twist, I had not at all expected it! It completely blew my mind. My heart was racing to fast I could actually hear my heartbeat in those last few pages. The last few scenes of the climax were so visually provocative that I could see them in front of my eyes bold and clear, as if I were watching a film (In similar context, the book seemed like it could definitely be made into a film with some brilliant screenplay). The characters were really mysterious and borderline creepy at first. I am saying ‘at first’ because by the time you find out what exactly is going on, you’ll realize they’re all psychopaths. Also, I would have liked a little resolution about Jules’ sister’s disappearance by the end (at least some hint as to what became of her). Nevertheless, the book was a great thriller for me and has definitely convinced me to read more books by Riley Sager.

Rating – 4.5/5

Happy Reading!😇

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