Thank you Netgalley and Sourcebooks fire for approved request inexchange of my honest review.
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It's early for me to read a thriller and suspense book, but this book will keep you up at night! I'm seriously in love with the twist and turn of the story.
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Having a rough life from his mother's previous boyfriends, didn't really settle anything good at all for both of them. Not until his mom met Jay and lived the "dream house" that his mom and Jay wanted. But the only problem is the doors are from the outside. Tom wants to know what's the story behind his family's house and wants to know what happened to the previous family that lives there first.
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This book is fast paced and even though there are a lot of chapters, it's a short chapter for each and that didn't bore me to continue reading this book. The twist and horror of the house keeps getting into my nerves and knowing the story gave me chills until this day. I'm such a sucker of multiple POVs and it was so perfect for this book. The switching of stories for Tom and Amy is really good. I love this when it comes to horror books knowing different sides of the stories.
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I love the writing style of the author and this is my first book from him, this got me excited to read more of his works!

Thank you Netgalley and Sourcebooks Fire for an e-arc in exchange for an honest review.

I found the premise of this book to be so intriguing, I was immediately hooked. I really liked that we got the point of view of male character, I thought that was really cool. Tom and his family move into a new house and tom quickly realizes things aren't what they seem, when he notices that the doors of his and his sisters rooms have holes on them, almost like some people were locked inside.

This book was intriguing, and good, but I do felt that it dragged on, and in my opinion it could have been shorter. I also feel like although normally I enjoy short chapters, in this book, it made it hard to connect to the characters so I struggled with that. I do think if I was a younger teen thought would probably like this more, It just didn't work for me .

*Thank you to Netgalley and Sourcebooks Fire for the e-arc in exchange for an honest review*

This book was such a ride and I really enjoyed every second of it!🤯

When Tom and his family move to a new house and he finds his room has weird messages on the walls and holes on the door (like there was a lock on them) he becomes obsessed with it, convinced something bad happened there.

Then he meets Amy, who just moved across the street. Amy seems perfect. But is she? Or is she hiding something? As Tom discovers Amy used to live in his house, he's set to find out the story behind his new house's doors.

This story's short chapters make you want to keep flipping pages and build up the suspense so well! There's really not a dull moment.

The twist, even though I managed to guess around halfway through, is satisfying and I really liked it! It's definitely different from other stories and it's fun to see how things unfold and how Tom is going to solve them. The hints of the mystery are cleverly inserted too. And that's something I personally found great because I love trying to solve the mystery along with the main character!

My only complaints would be that I would have liked a bit more to the motive, and that sometimes the main character did seem a bit childish. But that didn't take away from my enjoyment.

Overall, an addictive, fast-paced, and well-structured story that's worth checking out with great OCD rep!

LOCK THE DOORS - VINCENT RALPH
⭐⭐⭐.5/5

Thank you @netgalley, @sourcebooksfire & @vincentralphwriter for the ARC of this book.

I thoroughly enjoyed this read and blitzed through it especially from the second half - I couldn't put it down.

"Tom's family have moved into their dream home. But pretty soon he starts to notice that something is very wrong - there are strange messages written on the wall and locks on the bedroom doors. On the OUTSIDE" (source netgallery)

I loved the pace in this book and felt there wasn't a dull moment. The chapters were short which kept things interesting.

Having the book written in both Tom and Amy's (who lived in Tom's house previously) POV meant that the readers got to enjoy the journey of solving the mystery through Tom's eyes but also the experience of hearing the true story through Amy's perspective.

A good YA Thriller with twists for those that want a quick and entertaining read.

Thank you NetGalley and Sourcefire Books for this Advanced Readers Copy.

Hmmm. I really wanted to love this book as it sounded right up my street but it just didn't hit the mark for me. One of the main reasons for this was its length. I felt it was extremely drawn out and because of that the story dragged on and on. I love a slow burn if it delivers but that wasn't the case here. It could've easily been 200 pages less making it a faster paced book and a more engaging story. The plot was, in my opinion, predictable. I didn't really feel anything towards the characters. After the first quarter of the book, I wasn't overly invested in them or what was happening in their lives. Just wasn't a book for me I'm afraid.

I thoroughly enjoyed this story. It didn't even cross my mind that it was a YA. The plot was a little far fetched at times but it didn't take away from the suspenseful atmosphere. I gobbled it up fast and loved the process.

Thank you Netgalley for this arc

The story is starting with Thomas and his mother, and their domestic abuse from his father and all of her mother's boyfriends. Everything change when his mother is remarrying with Jay, and they live together with his daughter, Nia. And everything it's ok in their new house, they are ready for a new beginning.
Until Tom sees the holes in his and his sister's door.

Then, everything changes. I don't really read YA Mysteries anymore, cause i feel that some of them are not done well, full of cliches and bad plots. But this was was so good. I had no idea what this book is about, i like going in without knowing. And i was so surprised. I loved that the story perspective it's from a teenage's boy, i think it's the first time i'm reading a thriller with this. I liked how he described Tom's OCD and how hard was sometimes.

I loved the siblings relation, and the dynamic of the family. After i found out how many monsters his mother met, i did not trust Jay in the beginning. But i'm glad he is a good guy. I loved the friendship between Zak and Tom, i'm glad Tom wasn't made a lonely character without friends.

I went through this book so fast, the chapters are really short and i adored how the author wrote the victim's chapters. I'm glad we can see the victim's past as well (i'm trying to say little as i can without giving a spoiler). You'll think you know what's going on, but you don't. At one point, i stopped breathing because something interesting was happening. I was really intrigued in the plot, and the pages were flying through. The author did a great thing in keeping his readers hooked.

I tried to understand what the villain did, but in the end, i could not. Amy and her family were so creepy and i did not trust anyone. The atmosphere was so well-done, the pacing was great and this was a thriller i really enjoyed!

This wasn’t at all what I was expecting and I was more than pleasantly surprised.

Tom and his family move into a new house and it doesn’t take him long to find things that unnerve him. Like holes in the bedroom doors where it appears locks used to be… on the outside, as if someone were locked in.

Tom pays more attention to detail than most and when his brain has something to chew on like this, he is like a dog with a bone. And he wants to know what went on in the house before they moved in. Even more so when it involves the new girl at school.

I really loved how well this book paired his and her family dynamics. I thought this was fun and riveting. And from the second half of the book on I could not put this book down if I wanted to. The mystery and the twists were well written and kept me guessing. I loved Tom and his tenacity. And I look forward to reading more from this author.

A strange young adult novel about some strange young adults. Tom is a weird kid living in the weird house once lived in by the weird kid Amy. Then they become close. Tom is convinced either Amy or her brother have been victims of abuse. It may be Tom just transferring. But something is really wrong. I found Tom confusing and difficult to like. He is creepily obsessive. No young person would ever think this is appropriate behavior. The book, though, overall, is disturbing in both subtle and not so subtle ways.

This is one creepy read that will have you wondering wtf is going on. The chapters (there are 98 of them!) are super short so I easily breezed through it.

I enjoyed the buildup and sense of foreboding. The story also gave me gothic horror vibes and kept me guessing. Everyone seemed sinister and shady, which is another plus in my book. I also liked how the author intertwined the protagonist's backstory with the main plot.

The book was lacking a bit of the emotional punch and wow factor that I tend to look for, but was a fun and enjoyable read overall.

Lock the Doors had an interesting concept. Tom moves into a house where the doors are locked from the outside and the previous family who lived there seem to be hiding something. Amy, the daughter of the previous family, goes to the same school as Tom and is a bit of an oddball.

“Do I scare you?” she asks, and I lie. “No.” She sighs, looks one last time at the head-start line and says, “I will.”

This book felt really disjointed and the issue wasn’t with the content, it was the format. I kid you not, just about every single chapter was around 2-3 pages long. Imagine that being an ongoing thing for a book that is almost 400 pages. I would just start to get settled with what is happening in a chapter and it would end on the next page. Not only this, at the close of every chapter was a new scene with new characters and a time jump. That is extremely disjointing to have that for every 3 pages because before anything even becomes established, you’re already jumping to a different scene and a different part of the day with different characters. Trust me, this gets old reeeeeally fast. I was SO over it before even getting to 10% of this book. I don’t know what would possess someone to write an entire novel in this format and for a publishing company to approve of it and to think it’s a good idea, but here we are.

Certain parts also didn’t make sense. Such as the lack of a reaction when creepy stuff would happen. If you were removing wallpaper and saw “HELP ME HELP ME HELP ME” written over and over again underneath it, would your reaction be to just nonchalantly say “oh we’ll paint over that” ?????? I can’t go into detail about the other things that didn’t make sense without going into spoiler detail, but it made zero sense that no one people would be able to get away with something like this for that long. The way that certain characters handled things was completely convoluted.

I was so sure this was going to be a two star read but when I got to the latter half, despite how nonsensical and unrealistic the characters behaved, I actually did enjoy the latter half. If you are willing to suspend disbelief for a bit, then it’s a decent enough read.

Thank you to Netgalley and Penguin for sending me and advance copy in return for my honest review.

3/5 Stars

Thank you so much to NetGalley and the publishers for providing me with an advanced copy of this title in exchange for an honest and unbiased review

One of Vincent Ralph's books was actually a monthly pick for my work sometime in 2021 and I had added it to my list because it sounded intriguing. I saw that his newest novel would be releasing in the states in March and really wanted to jump on that just in case anyone came in wondering if he had been able to continue his success.

This book has an interesting concept, especially as I have moved into houses that other people have lived in and it makes you wonder what they got up to once the doors were closed and what secrets your shared walls keep.

I will say that the plot twist was something I wasn't expecting in the slightest and the part of the book from another perspective I couldn't put down. Getting into that mindset was so exhilarating, especially compared to the rest of the book.

I think the major reason I really didn't like this book was because of the romance. It felt unnecessary as a plot point, I truly think the two characters could've had a solid connection as friends and the story would have been the same.

Rating 3.5
Author: Vincent Ralph
Publication Date: 3/1/2022

This book had me from the title, cover, and the synopsis. I instantly wanted to read and find out what was truly going on. I had trouble connecting to the main character and their voice. I wasn’t really able to get in their headspace and honestly, if their name wasn’t Tom and referred to as a “son” I wouldn’t have known the backstory/identity of the character. I actually had to reread the synopsis again to make sure I was picturing the right thing in my head because nothing was really described for the reader at least not right away. One thing I did love and appreciated about Tom’s character was that he had OCD. I feel like we don’t see enough books where this is represented. My fiance has OCD and struggles with many of the same things Tom does. He has to ask multiple questions even if he already knows the answer and he will check everything several times before bed. Luckily, we have been able to get it under control but when he is stressed it definitely worsens. So thank you so much Vincent Ralph for writing a character like Tom.

While this book did keep me interested in my opinion, it was just way too long. I liked that the second part of the story followed the perspective of Amy but still it almost wasn’t enough to keep me going. I don’t even think this book is long page wise but when a book has almost 100 chapters the reader really feels like it won’t end. Especially when some of those chapters are only 2-3 pages. I didn’t see a point in the short chapters because as soon as it started it would be over and nothing would be explained or developed deeper.

Overall, this was a good mystery/thriller about family secrets and not knowing who you should trust. I would recommend this one and hope you enjoy it if you read it!

**Thank you so much @sourcebooksfire for the #gifted copy on #NetGalley in return for my honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own. **

What a rollercoaster!

I don't read as much mystery/thriller books as I should. I have a very specific taste when it comes to this genre and I tend to get bored easily, but I'm glad it was not the case with Lock the Doors. I'm going to be honest, when I read the number of chapters in the index I was a little scared because, for me, that usually means the story gets dragged and I lose interest. That fear went away when I saw how short the chapters were (hence the high number), and let me tell you: every time I finished each one of them I was eager to keep reading. Vincent Ralph knows how to keep you on the edge of your seat and to keep you interested, giving you clues without being too obvious. Even when we found out what was going on, we still had to figure out out new pieces of the story that culminated in a very well written book. One aspect I also enjoyed were the family dynamics of navigating a new reality with a step-father and step-siblings. I read this book in under a day, and I'm curious to read Ralph's other works. If you are looking for a quick, very interesting read, this is your book - keeping in mind that this book also features mental illness (anxiety and OCD), domestic violence and pathological grief.

The first part of the book is from Tom's POV. Tom and his family, which consists of his mom, his stepsister Nia, and his stepdad Jay, have moved into a new home. This is his mom's dream home since she has just settled down into a life of domestic bliss with Jay, after having been through some pretty rough relationships that involved domestic abuse.

Tom immediately notices something strange, namely that there are little holes on the outside of the doors as if it was meant to keep SOMETHING INSIDE, but everyone writes it off as his overactive imagination and his suspicious nature.

Then the previous owners of the house move into the house opposite them, but there's something not quite right about them. It's more like a fortress than a home, and nobody visits them. He watches their interactions from the window and there's just something weird about all of them. He makes friends with Amy, the daughter of that family, who goes to the same school as him, and he's confident that she's hiding something, even though she denies all his observations.

He's even invited to their home, which he knows is a ploy to convince him that there's nothing wrong with her family, but the little brother, Will, is very quiet and sullen. He knows, he JUST KNOWS, that something is wrong, but he can't get Will/Logan to admit it.

The next part of the story is from Amy's POV, where she describes the circumstances surrounding the kidnapping of Logan and why they needed to do that to replace Will. The family dynamic is pretty effed up in this story, and I just couldn't justify why Amy and her Dad went along with the Mom's crazy plan.

Eventually, the myster(ies) are solved, and everything reaches its logical conclusion (sort of).

What I liked about this book was that just when I thought the mystery had been solved, there was a new twist in the tale that took us down another rabbit hole.

I also liked Tom as a character. He reminded me a little of Christopher Boone from 'The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time'. Just a little bit, though.

Tom's family is 'normal' (I know, that's a relative term) but Amy's family is four kinds of effed up! I could not STAND the mother, and the father was just a wuss, IMO.

However, a few things didn't sit well with me.

Why would a family that has taken such pains to conceal their crime, be so careless as to leave the home with scratches on the walls and holes in the doors? Wouldn't it be more plausible for them to examine every inch of the house and cover their tracks before selling it to someone new, and risking them finding out?

I didn't understand why Amy tries to kidnap another kid when she already has replaced Will with Logan?

The end of the book was a bit of a mess, with loose ends tied up hurriedly and conveniently. Quite a few actions and motives of some of the characters seemed unrealistic and, well, unsatisfactory.

Since it's a YA mystery, it's not intricate and heavy or the mystery/thriller elements, and it had some holes in it (just like the doors) but I enjoyed it.

I would like to thank Netgalley and Sourcebooks Fire for this digital ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

There's something off about the home that Tom and his mother gave moved into. Small holes drilled into doors indicate that--at one time--there were locks, on the *outside*. Ooooo. This book was so fast-paced and intense. The pacing of the reveals was amazing and kept you immersed in the story. The twists and turns were honestly shocking and I definitely gasped out loud a few times while reading! About halfway through I thought that the main mystery was over but then events followed which just proved the mysterious and un-pin-downable nature of the story. I also thought that, while the story was a pretty solid thriller, there were some other themes present like mental illness, domestic abuse and PTSD. I thought that these were well-handled and had a good place in the story rather than feeling shoehorned in--which is what I was worried would happen.
Going into this I was a bit wary as I had never read anything by this author before, and I have not always had the best of luck with YA thrillers, but this was absolutely worth the read!

Tom, his mum, new step-father Jay and step-sister Nia have just moved into a new house. The past thought Tom to be careful and untrusting, and his life isn't being easy with suffering from anxiety and OCD. So when he starts noticing weird things around the house, he realizes something bad must have happened to the previous owners and he tries his best to figure it out.


The premise of the story is what drove me to request this story. I can see (younger) teens enjoying it but for me this wasn't a good read.


The story is separated into 4 major parts- first two are in Tom's perspective, the third one is switched to Amy's and then the fourth one is back to Tom's POV.
What bothered me was the short chapters- there is a new chapter like every 3 or 4 pages, something is happening and then we are into a new chapter, with new things, without proceeding till the end of stuff from the previous one. With rushed break-through moments and quick ends the chapters weren't intriguing.
Overall I didn't get the vibe of the mystery in the story, it felt pretty obvious what was going on, and with unliked characters and writing that was repetitive this was a disappointing read.


If you decide to read it I hope you will enjoy it.

Thank you NetGalley, Sourcebooks Fire and Vincent Ralph for a chance to read a free copy.

This book is all a young adult thriller should be! It kept me up late at night since I couldn't put it down and the characters had me completely engrossed. I'm excited to see what Vincent Ralph has in store for us next. 4 out of 5 stars

Lock the Doors is so dark, creepy and completely took me by surprise! I would have loved this so much as a teenager and can see my younger self telling all about it and trying to recommend this to all my friends.

Imagine moving into a new home, but nothing is as it seems. You start to find disturbing things in the house and a secret hidden by the people who lived there before you. There are strange, sinister messages behind wallpapers and holes for locks on the outside of doors. You start to think maybe moving here was a mistake, but you also need to uncover to truth in order to protect your new life.

I flew through this book in one sitting because I couldn't get enough. The chapters are very short and the book is divided into 4 parts. This kept me engaged and kept me flipping pages like a mad woman to find out what happens next.

I love that there were amazing and realistic mental health representations like OCD and anxiety. It's a very thoughtful and sensitive portrayal of what's its like to live with these conditions and normalizing it. Tom is smart, empathetic, compassionate and endearing. I was rooting for him the entire time!

Thank you Netgalley for this gifted arc in exchange for an honest review. I thoroughly enjoyed this so much.

This book was amazing! It was so suspenseful and kept me turning the page eagerly! Every time I finished a chapter, I couldn't put the book down, I had to keep reading on and on!