Pain equals clarity. Clarity equals survival.
Lock Every Door
by Riley Sager
Genre: Thriller
About: Jules is jobless, boyfriend-less and sleeping on her best friend's sofa. When she's offered a job to apartment sit in one of New York city's most luxurious buildings, she thinks her luck has finally changed. But the building has a dark history and when a fellow apartment sitter goes missing, Jules makes a discover that proves things can always, always get worse...
The Good
This had a gripping start. I was hooked immediately and the momentum kept on going. This was a very fast read. I enjoyed the gothic vibes and I could really visualise this being a movie or a tv show, there was great atmosphere to it.
Jules was also an easy character to side with - she had a complicated history, given slowly and in ways that were very interesting to uncover side-by-side to the main story.
The Bad
The dialogue was probably the weakest part of the novel for me. The way the characters talked to Jules was as though they'd known her for a long time, when in reality she didn't even spend a full week at the Bartholomew. Relationships were just very rushed, making the connections feel forced at times. Nick's dialogue in particular got progressively worse. He was a cut out villain by the end, and as he never quite rang true, the reveal was not a surprise. I also found it hard to believe that he or his great-grandfather would commit suicide since their whole purpose was to prolong life: to be superior.
I wish there had been some kind of supernatural element to the story as I was a little disappointed that it was about organ harvesting. The gothic tone and satanic hints felt like they were leading somewhere a bit more interesting. With stories like Never Let Me Go and Get Out, this reveal needed something a little extra to be as memorable as those stories were.
The Somewhat Iffy
I don't understand how Jules was a match for so many of the residents. Both Jules and Ingrid were apparently a match to Greta, and on top of that Jules was a match for the soap opera actress and Charlie's daughter? It just seemed unlikely.
Then there was the fact that, at the start of the novel, Jules ran out onto the street and was hit by a car. I don't see how the driver and the crowd that witnessed this would be okay with the Bartholomew people carrying Jules back into the building instead of waiting for an ambulance. Or why one wouldn't have been called by any random person on the street.
Rules were also made a huge thing about but they didn't really seem such a big deal to me. There were no checks or penalties for not following the rules and it didn't seem like there were a lot of them - it felt like they were referenced far more than they affected anything.
Overall
A fast and gripping read with great gothic tones. I wish the relationships had been played out a little better and for a more surprising twist, but it was genuinely entertaining.
Comments