Lock Every Door

Riley Sager is one of my auto-buy authors. He's mesmerized me before, but he hit it out of the ballpark with his latest release.

Jules has had a string of bad luck, starting with getting laid off from her job, followed by discovering her live-in boyfriend banging another woman. She ends up near penniless, sleeping on her BFF's sofa until she finds a classified ad for an apartment sitter. $12,000 to occupy a luxury apartment in the Bartholomew—a New York high society landmark—for three months. It sounds too good to be true, especially given the building is the fairy-tale setting of a novel that bound Jules and her sister as teens.

The rules are bizarre. Among other things, no visitors and no sharing any information about the residents show more who live in the Bartholomew, but Jules is too desperate to give them a second thought. Not long after she's in the apartment, more luxurious than she could have imagined, she realizes something is not quite right. Previous "apartment sitters" have gone missing, one of the current sitters hints all is not as it seems, and the woman who wrote the novel she and her sister loved as teens is—surprise!—a resident.

The "big reveal" is a blind-side from left field, nothing I would have ever seen coming. Sager uses history, both fake and real to weave a tale that feels urgent and present-day as well as dusty with the footprints of a faded yesteryear. An intoxicating tapestry every bit as formidable as the bizarre wallpaper in Jules apartment in the Bartholomew. Extra points for the atmospheric use of the building's gargoyles. Superb! show less

I had previously read Home Before Dark and thought it was just OK, so I was expecting about the same from this book and... I really, really liked it? The main character, Jules, is actually pretty competent. I didn't call her a dumb bitch once and was fully expecting to do that multiple times considering how often I did that while reading Home Before Dark. The story, both the present day and the flashbacks, were equally engrossing. It was a bit creepy, but not overly so. I just think it's a very well-done thriller. I'm a little more excited to read the rest of Riley Sager's books but I think this one will probably stay my favorite. I don't know why, but it checked off everything on a list that I didn't know I had.

Also, I am LIVING for show more Jules sending Evelyn a list of rules in jail. Just...OMG the hardcore pettiness of it had me screaming. show less

[b:Lock Every Door|41837243|Lock Every Door|Riley Sager|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1540938359l/41837243._SY75_.jpg|65308942]

If something seems too good to be true....
I am constantly behind the curve ball with things. I know this book came out in July of this year. I didn’t get my hands on it until August and that was only because I ran across it on Scribed. I have to my eyes open for the next book by Riley Sager books.
Jules has had a string of bad luck, starting with getting laid off from her job, followed by discovering her live-in boyfriend banging another woman. She ends up near penniless, sleeping on her BFF's sofa until she finds a classified ad for an apartment sitter. $12,000 to show more occupy a luxury apartment in the Bartholomew—a New York high society landmark—for three months. It sounds too good to be true, especially given the building is the fairy-tale setting of a novel that bound Jules and her sister as teens. The job comes with severe rules. No visitors allowed, no social media, no conversation with the rich and famous residents. She must leave the apartment in the condition she found it, and stay in the apartment every night.

Jules had my sympathy throughout the book, and I felt she was a worthy protagonist. She had a lot of grief in her early background and was in an unenviable state as the well-plotted story begins. She gets comfortable and soon starts to make friends with another apartment sitter, Ingrid. Jules learns that the Bartholomew has a dark, creepy and scandalous history and reputation and that Ingrid is becoming unnerved staying there, but like Jules needs the money. When Ingrid disappears without warning in the middle of the night, Jules becomes suspicious and frightened that her surroundings hold threatening and eerie secrets. I won’t give up too much more information on the story because I want you all to pick it up and give it a read for yourself. I loved that listening to it added so much more of a spooky factor for me. Well rounded thriller solid 4 stars. show less

Right off the bat I knew this was going to be a trippy book; it was dedicated to Ira Levin (Rosemary's Baby) which is also set in an old Gothic apartment building in the city. Jules has just agreed to be an apartment sitter for one of the oldest and prestigious apartment buildings in the world. As a child she adored the building since it was the setting of her favorite book and she can't believe she was lucky enough to land such a cushiony job. She's going to get paid $12K for staying in the most luxurious apartment looking over central park. And it's only a 3 month commitment! What could wrong?! For starters there seem to be an awful lot of rules. She can't have guests over, she can't talk to or "bother" the residents (many of whom are show more mega rich celebrities), she can't stay the night anywhere else and she can't post any pictures of the place online. Jules soon discovers that there are three other apartment sitters in the building and just when they start to bond, one of them goes missing. Even though no one is convinced that anything is wrong, Jules feels in her gut that something happened. On top of that some very mysterious thing happening around the building starts to put her on edge. It's a slow build thriller that will keep you guessing and when you get to the end and are convinced you finally figured it out... you'll realize just how wrong you were. Creepy and fun, definitely for fans of Rosemary's Baby. show less

Jules has hit rock bottom and has run out of options. She's been crashing at a friend's place ever since she caught her boyfriend cheating on her. No boyfriend, no home, and also no job. It's desperation that prompts her to respond to an ad for an apartment sitter, and once she sees the building she's sure she'll be turned down. The place is in the Bartholomew, one of Manhattan's most famous buildings and the setting for Jules' absolute favorite book.

It's like a dream come true. For three months she'll be making $4,000 a month to live in an amazing apartment. The only catch seems to be the rules that all apartment sitters are required to follow: no spending the night away from the apartment, no visitors (not even family members, not show more that Jules has any anymore), no talking to the residents unless they say something first, and no mentioning the Bartholomew on social media. Okay, so maybe the setup seems a little fishy, but rich people are weird and it's not inconceivable that they'd be willing to pay someone to watch out for an apartment and their stuff. Plus, that $12,000 would really help Jules out.

Unfortunately, the building has secrets, and it doesn't take long for it to turn into Jules' worst nightmare.

No, it was not the smartest decision in the world to take this "too good to be true" job. That said, I could understand Jules' desperation. There comes a point when you say to yourself "Yes, this is probably a bad idea, but doing something is better than doing nothing, and surely I can make this work out." Famous last words.

Jules had no family. Her sister disappeared years ago and was never found. Her parents died in a fire. Her only safety net was her friend Chloe, and she wanted to avoid outstaying her welcome. Accepting the apartment sitting job at the Bartholomew seemed like a relatively painless way to get a fresh start, and it didn't hurt that Jules had a bit of a personal connection to the building. It also reassured her to learn that she wasn't the only apartment sitter working there.

Of course, things quickly got creepy, and I spent some time wondering just how supernatural the revelations would be. I had a pretty solid guess as to what was going on when I was only two thirds of the way through. As it turned out, my guess was pretty close, although things didn't get quite as bonkers as I'd expected.

Overall, I loved the atmosphere, and I'm glad that Sager somehow managed to end things on a satisfying note (although I'd understand if some readers considered the ending to be too neat and tidy). I will say, however, that Jules did more than a few things that frustrated me. Again, some of it was understandable - she'd spent a huge chunk of her life thinking about her sister's disappearance, so it wasn't surprising that she'd obsess over an apartment sitter's sudden disappearance. But the message she left on one character's phone was a horrible idea, especially considering what she'd learned up to that point.

I think I'm going to have to try another one of Sager's books sometime.

(Original review posted on A Library Girl's Familiar Diversions.) show less

Still reeling from a bad breakup and finding herself with no place to live, Jules Larsen lands the dream apartment sitting job. She gets to live in the The Bartholomew, a stately and very expensive Manhattan apartment building. There are rules though ..... no guests, no spending the night away from the apartment, and absolutely no bothering the other tenants. The payment offered to her for living in the building will solve her current financial crisis, so she agrees. Befriending a fellow apartment sitter named Ingrid, she settles into life at The Bartholomew. But the longer she stays, the more she begins to notice that things might not be as they seem. In fact, she discovers a dark secret. One that will put her life in danger......

I got show more totally sucked into this story from the beginning. Jules is so excited about landing a dream job...and getting to live at such a posh address, even temporarily. The story starts out slowly....building up to the moments when she discovers it isn't a dream job....but a nightmare. Such a good story! I love a good, suspenseful thriller -- and this book definitely fits the bill!

This is the first book I've read by Riley Sager. I'm definitely going to read his other books! I really enjoyed Lock Every Door!

I listened to the audio version of this story. Narrated by Dylan Moore, the audio (Penguin Random House Audio) is just shy of 10.5 hours long. Moore gives a superb performance. Excellent listening experience! show less

Riley Sager's new thriller. Lock Every Door. is dedicated to Ira Levin, and as I read this twisty, dark novel of questionable neighbors in a too-good-to-be-true NYC apartment building, I suddenly remembered who that is. Ira Levin wrote Rosemary's Baby.

Just like in Rosemary's Baby, the suspense in Lock Every Door comes from who you can trust, not from any gore or violence. Jules lands a dream job as a housesitter in a gorgeous Manhattan co-op, although there are some kinda weird rules, she agrees to them for the sake of free rent and income. Skyhigh rents and the very real instant opportunities in New York make this a reasonable opening. It's also the setting of Jules' favorite novel, and I'd definitely take a strange temp job to live show more rent-free at, say, the Dakota. (Actually, I would take all kinds of weird temp jobs, so I might not be a good example.)

But things start to turn strange and upsetting almost as soon as she moves in. The cavernous apartment full of expensive furniture starts to feel strange at night, a realistic reaction for Jules, who's been sleeping on a friend's couch. But some of the sounds don't make any sense... There are other transient young people house-sitting for other absent owners, and there are strict rules about never speaking to the resident owners and never inviting any guests to the building.

Without revealing any of the layered, suspenseful plot, I'll say that I bought every part of the setting, no questions asked. Of course the co-op members all inherited their apartments from wealthy grandparents, who were naturally all part of the same social circles, and of course there are endless new arrivals in New York, with no friends or family, delighted to find a house-sitting position.

While there's murder and injuries, any real grossness happens off-camera, so this is another readable gore-free thriller for me. If you like this book, then check out The Girl Before for another too-good-to-be-true apartment, or just read Rosemary's Baby again. show less