What can I say, Riley Sager NEVER disappoints. From the very first page, I was fully invested in the plot. The worst thing a thriller can be is predictable and boy oh boy this one was NOT. I literally couldn’t put it down once it started.

This was my first Riley Sager book and I enjoyed it. I'm not generally a huge reader of mystery or thriller type books, but this one kept me interested to see what was going to happen next. I think the pacing of this book was better than similar books I've read. The personality of Ethan, the main character, was kind of flat, like his whole identity was what had happened to his best friend as a child. It says that he'd gone to therapy, but I'd think that 30 years of therapy would help him process or come to terms better than he had. But it's also something I've never experienced, so who am I to say how someone would react after their best friend disappearing from right next to them one night. Overall, I rated this book 3 stars and would recommend to readers who enjoy this genre.

Middle of the Night
by Riley Sager
Pub Date: Jun 18 2024
When Ethan was 10 years old, his best friend Billy disappeared from the tent they were sharing in his back yard in a quiet, safe, close-knit cul-de-sac. No one saw what happened and no one has heard from him since. Ethan has had nightmares for 30 years about that night, always waking up right before he sees who cuts the hole in their tent to take Billy. He blames himself for not waking up, and now he rarely sleeps.
Ethan comes back to live in his childhood home after his parents decide to retire elsewhere. He discovers the old neighborhood hasn't changed much in his absence. He can even still feel Billy's presence....truly. A baseball mysteriously shows up in his back yard, which was Billy's calling card when he wanted to play. Shadow forms are caught on camera. Motion lights turning on when no one is there. Then news: Billy's 10 year old body has been found in the falls by the creepy institution just 2 miles away. He was so close all this time. But what happened to him? Is he trying to tell Ethan? Or is he looking for revenge?

Riley Sager has one it again! I plowed through this one! I love me a good creepy ghost story with twists and more twists.
#netgalley #rileysager #middleofthenight

This is my first Riley Sager book and happy to say this was a really amazing book (now I know why people love his books) Middle of the Night was amazing in plot and characters, especially telling in a way that absolutely no one is perfect.

Finally a Riley Sager book with a ending I think we can all agree was better then his last two books. Loved all the characters in the book which reminded me of my friends growing up...except our woods didn't have an instituted situated just miles away. I laughed, I cried, and I gasped at the end which I didn't see coming.

I"ve enjoyed many of Riley Sager's books, Final Girls and Home before Dark are two of my favorites. I liked Middle of the Night, but I felt that it wasn't as suspenseful as the plot indicated - I never really felt that spine tingling feeling that I associated with the before mentioned books.

I enjoyed this one, as I do most of Riley Sager's books. The twist was a little predictable but that is ok because the book and characters were still well written. A solid read.

Thank you so much to Penguin Group Dutton and NetGalley for this eARC of "Middle of the Night" by Riley Sager! I haven't read all of Sager's books, but this one is definitely my favorite! Sager launches us into Ethan Marsh's childhood home in Hemlock Circle and sets a scene that will sit with me for quite some time. When they were ten, Ethan and his best friend Billy fell asleep for what would be their last backyard campout. In the morning, Billy is gone, and it takes Ethan and the Hemlock Circle community thirty years to discover the grim truth. I was not prepared for Sager's excellent plot twists and in-depth character development! My jaw was on the floor several times throughout this book and nothing could've prepared me for the ending - or the tears I shed at the emotional bits at the end! I was expecting a full-on thriller but Sager delicately weaved an emotional story about childhood and growing up into a plot that's likely to get your heart racing at times. I've been recommending this to everyone!

Ethan Marsh returns to Hemlock Circle decades after the disappearance of his childhood best friend Billy while camping in the backyard. After years of recurring dreams and a series of strange occurrences upon his return, Ethan is determined to at last piece together what happened to Billy that night. Was Billy taken? Was he killed? And what was really going on at the nearby mysterious Hawthorne Institute? With his usual abundance of plot twists, Riley Sager's latest page-turning thriller will keep readers guessing until its shocking, yet satisfying conclusion.

<very Stefan voice> This book has everything: the occult, backyard sleepovers, Lion King references, sexually confused teens, ancient Druid ceremonies, ghosts, drugs, and, of course, the unexplained activation of motion detector lights.

Seriously though, I’ve read all of Sager’s books and I think this is among his best. 30 years after a kid disappears from a backyard sleepover, all of the now adult children from the cul-de-sac where the disappeared occurred return home, thus forcing one hell of a conclusion. You won’t be disappointed. Sager remains the master of surprise.

Big thank you to the publisher for providing me with an ARC through Netgalley!

I’m prefacing this by saying I’ll read anything Sager writes. His books always either hit really hard for me, or leave me a little disappointed.

Middle of the Night has a great premise! Ethan was just ten years old when his best friend Billy mysteriously vanished. Even more traumatizing is that Billy disappeared from the tent they were both camped out in, in Ethan’s yard. The only evidence left behind is a large gash in the side of the tent. Ethan can’t remember anything from that night, but it’s plagued his entire life ever since. Why Billy and not him?

The story takes place in dual timelines. We have Ethan’s POV 30 years later, and then we get snippets of scenes from the eyes of other characters in the days leading up to Billy’s disappearance. In the present day timeline, all the neighborhood kids who lived on the block back then are reunited and find themselves back in Hemlock Circle in their childhood homes.

See? It’s a great premise! But it falls flat. So much of this book felt like nothing was happening. The first 90% dragged and then the last 10% was a sprint. For me there were too many red herrings and too many plot devices that ended up going nowhere and being unnecessary. I feel like this would’ve been better if the friendships between the kids had been explored over the entire summer instead of just getting a blip of a day or two from dozens of perspectives. Also the Institute was such a cool idea and ended up being pointless. Ugh!

Not my favorite Sager novel but cool cover and cool premise. I’ll still read whatever he puts out next because you never know when one of his ideas will hit.

I have read MANY of Riley Sager's previous books and Middle of the Night is a great addition to his library of works. Sager's books are usually so twisty and leaves me wishing he ended the book about one twist before he does. But they are enjoyable to read and I always enjoy the big reveals. Last year's The Only One Left is my favorite of his books but Middle of the Night is in my top three. The story centers on Ethan and what happened to him when he was ten years old and his best friend, Billy, was kidnapped from the tent they were sharing in Ethan's backyard. In a classic thriller narrative, Ethan returns to his hometown 30 years later and begins to investigate what really happened the night of Billy's disappearance. The past comes full circle amid supernatural elements and more twists that you can count.

Returning to live in his parents' home in the neighborhood where he grew up, Ethan Marsh is immediately inundated with memories of the night when his best friend, Billy, was kidnapped from the tent where the boys were spending the night. When Ethan, an insomniac, starts sensing an outside presence, he initially tells himself that it's because of a lack of sleep and a wealth of stress after the move and the loss of his wife. But the signs keep bombarding him, and then Billy's body is discovered ... after thirty years. The timing is too strange to be ignored, so Ethan digs into a past that has haunted him for decades.

Riley Sager is a hit or miss read for me, and unfortunately, I just could not get into Middle of the Night. Ethan was weird, and his responses to a lot of situations seemed a little off; I never fell in love with any of the present-day characters except for one neighborhood boy. The flashbacks to the days leading up to Billy's kidnapping were the highlights of the novel.

I've read all of Riley Sager's work, but unfortunately haven't loved anything qutie as much as his early work (i.e. Final Girls and The Last Time I Lied). This was fine, but pretty trite.

This was one of my most anticipated books of 2024 and it met my expectations. This is perhaps one of my favorites of Riley Sager's novels. I don't want to give any spoilers, but I will say that it was easy to read and settle into. Once I picked it up, it seems like the time flew by as I finished it within a day. The star of this book isn't the main character, but the atmosphere. There is something about an idyllic, upper-middle class, suburban, 90's cul-de-sac that can seem so familiar and yet so sinister at the same time. Pair it with the mysterious Institute in the woods (what are the researching and hiding?) and you get a double-whammy of uneasy settings and generally creepy vibes. The twists and turns are solid, the cast of characters a little predictable but developed enough. Still a thriller, but with just enough of a sense of dread that builds into light horror.

This book will be a great summer recommendation for a beach/vacation read, book club pick and I know it will have a solid wait list at our library. We have a growing number of patrons where Sager is now an automatic pick for them.

Thirty years after his best friend goes missing, Ethan returns home to the neighborhood where it happened. All is not as it seems in the quiet cul-de-sac and weird things begin to occur. Ethan embarks on a quest to solve the mystery while trying to keep his life from unraveling. Another engrossing story by Mr. Sager.

Thanks to Dutton Books and Riley Sager for the chance to read ‘Middle of the Night’! The cover and description immediately grabbed my attention, but honestly I’ll read anything Riley Sager puts out. Some of his previous books can be hit or miss to some patrons at my library due to the bits of weirdness (which are usually the parts I love the most). I think this one will have a wider appeal to the mystery/thriller crowd. It’s out there but not as much as some of his previous work (I’m looking at you, ‘The House Across the Lake’). I’m generally very good at guessing plot twists but this one got me!

I will say that the flashbacks seemed stronger emotionally than present day sections- Ethan of today is basically a cardboard cutout with insomnia. I wish we had more emotional growth throughout the book rather than just the ending. He was just constantly scared and that’s it. Some plot reveals could’ve happened a little sooner to help readers connect more with Ethan as an adult.

All in all, an enjoyable read! So happy I got to experience it early and I’ll definitely order a copy for our collection.

This is my first Riley Sager novel; I've heard wonderful things about the author and was excited for the opportunity to read it. I enjoyed the premise of the novel, and it was full of twists and turns. I was a little skeptical in regard to the supernatural twists, but it actually flowed and made sense. I will definitely recommend this to everyone.

Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin Group Dutton for my arc in exchange for my unbiased opinion.

"Middle of the Night" by Riley Sager follows Ethan Marsh as he returns to his childhood home and to the memories of when his childhood best friend and neighbor, Billy, was taken right from their tent as they slept in his backyard. Now, thirty years later, Ethan is back in his childhood home and noticing that things are not quite right.

I was really looking forward to this one. For the most part, Sager's books have been consistently enjoyable, but this one was really difficult for me to get through. There is A LOT of info dumping on the multiple neighbors on Ethan's street which I guess would be somewhat acceptable if the characters had anything major to do with the plot...but they don't. It's literally pages and paragraphs of waste on characters that don't affect the story and honestly, it's pretty typical of this book. A lot of useless information for things that end up have absolutely no relevance. On top of that, there were just a lot of things that made no sense like the police were sharing information about Billy's kidnapping with Ethan before Billy's parents? That's one instance but it drove me insane because in what world does that make any sense? Even in a horror universe it's just dumb. I mean, Sager did this so much with this book where he would choose the simplest and yet most stupid and confusing route to tell the story. After how consistent he is with his stories, I'm just so disappointed with this one.

On top of everything, the main character, Ethan, just sucked. I was intrigued by Sager writing a male protagonist and man, I kind of wish he went back to writing women cause Ethan fell so flat. There was so much telling with Ethan that I found it difficult to really connect with him and he honestly just felt like an NPC (non-player character). I think there should have been more time spent developing him as a character rather than info dumping on other crap in this.

Overall, I wouldn't recommend this. I can see others enjoying this, but I think I just think too much when I'm reading so it just doesn't work for me.

The first half was a solid 5 star read. It had the perfect creepy atmosphere and I screamed a few times. The ghost and jump scared were top notch. Unfortunately the boo took a turn in the 2nd half and I just found myself let down. The killer is revealed and it wasn’t bad or anything. It wasn’t so out of left field that it didn’t make sense. I’m not sure why I feel like I’m let down. I LOVED the foreshadowing with the road and when everyone is exploring. Very well done and well flushed out. Claudia actually being dead was a surprise I didn’t see coming, but it also felt unfinished. Like just a minor part of the story. It didn’t add or anything or take anything away.