A tale that will absolutely keep you flipping the book until it's over, Lock The Doors tells us a story of the long lasting effects of trauma, of PTSD and of learned helplessness in the form of a gripping thriller.

Tom is rattled about the disturbing and the odd things in his new house. There are holes outside the door frames, possibly being a lock from the outside, keeping something in. The walls contain a hidden message, that the rest of the family seems to shrug off. But the most disturbing of all was probably when the previous owners of the house, moves just near the corner of the street. Although they seem amiable and nice, Tom's sure they've got something to hide.

Suitable for middle grade and YA audiences, this book was innocent enough at the beginning and turned real dark real fast towards the middle when everything came unraveling apart. Even though I am usually not a fan of short choppy chapters, I feel like it really helped with the fast pacing of the book. It was deceptive, it was brilliant and it kept me hooked right to the last sentence.

Although the twists seemed quite unrealistic, the writer compels you to think about the aftermath of a traumatic incident, especially in the case of a death of a loved one. Not all people react in the same way and this book spins a tale of the grief that changes you completely and turns you into a ruthless person simply acting out due to grief.

Definitely recommend this bone chilling read and I hope you do check this one out. Thank you to Sourcebooks Fire and Netgalley for this eARC in exchange for an honest review!

It was a page turner from the very first page for me! I got so involved in the mystery behind those holes in the doors.
Loved Tom, he acted the same way I would have, since we are both shy but curious. However,I found him a little bit unconcious some times, but in the end it was worthy.
I found Amy to be a very complex character, and really liked that. Trying to understand what was she hiding and why.
I must say I didn’t expected that ending at all, I’m delighted with it.
Thank you so much for giving me the opportunity to read and review this amazing book!
(I will post a review in Spanish on my Instagram account @lamonalectora very soon!)

What would you do if your new house suddenly became unsettling with the echoes of secrets it held?

After Tom’s father abandoned him and his mother, their life has not been easy with the abusive men that his mother ended up with. So when they finally found a man, Jay, who took genuine care of them, Tom was slowly coping with the fresh start on their new house with his blended family, including his stepsister Nia. But when he noticed that something was not right with the holes outside their rooms, Tom became suspicious. However, none of them believed him and so Tom worked it out on his own.

This book is a young adult mystery novel that would keep a reader up at night with the twisted things that kept on happening from the appearance of the silent and shy Amy on the first day of school and suddenly became hyper the next ones. Tom had been suspicious of her until he found out that her family was the previous owner of their new house and he knew he needed to dig deeper on the mystery that was lurking around. The suspense factor was consistent from the first page up to the last one.

Personally, I had some theories of who the villain was but none of them was right and that was what made this novel gripping for me that I could not put it down. The narration was compelling on the perspective of an OCD young adult Tom. But was it his OCD that made him notice that something in their new house and on the previous owners was not right? Or was it because evidences were everywhere and his family just chose to neglect them?

❝When you watch, you see things other people don’t, like a girl leaving behind clues she’s too scared to admit to and telling lies for reasons you can’t quite understand.❞

I really adored Tom’s character because despite developing feelings toward Amy, he was not blinded by it and still pursued uncovering the mystery behind her and her family.

Going over the characters, I loved the friendship of Zak and Tom and how far they could go to help each other. The platonic love between them was so genuine and it was a reminder that once in a while, we should be telling our friends how much we loved them.

In addition, Tom’s mom and his stepfather, Jay, was commendable with the love and effort they exerted on the blended family that they had. I thought Jay was just like the previous boyfriends of Tom’s mom until I realized that he was way better than the other men characters in the novel.

Moreover, Nia’s character was exceptional. She did not hate Tom but did not love him as a stepbrother either. But when it came to her biological brother, Aaron, hell would break loose because Nia would do whatever it would take and I loved her for that. Eventually, she helped Tom unfold the mystery of Pearce family.

Speaking of the Pearce family, they would stir the readers so much that one would be wondering who was the victim of whom? because the author, Vincent Ralph, would not make the guessing easy.

Highly recommending this book to those who are a sucker of mystery novels. You might not want to read this at night if you do not want to stay late as this will keep you so awake.

Huge thanks to NetGalley and the publisher, Sourcebooks Fire, for sending me an eARC.

Lock the Doors follows Tom, a troubled teenage boy who moves into an incredibly suspicious new house and decides that he cannot rest until he’s discovered the truth. There are pleas for help on the walls, locks on the outside of the doors… and to make matters worse, the girl who used to live there has just transferred to his school, and her suspicious behaviour seems a lot like a cry for help.

But the closer Tom gets to the truth, the more bizarre things get, and Tom begins to realise that it isn’t quite the straightforward case he initially thought it could be.

This book is unusual, to say the least. The characters – particularly Amy and her family – are incredibly troubled, and their bizarre behaviour is at times difficult to process. It took me a long time to get invested in their family even though I had a few guesses as to what might have happened in the house, and it wasn’t until the brief period of the book that is told from her perspective that I really got into it. From there, the book went from suspicious to creepy to downright strange as the characters dealt with a traumatic incident from their past and came up with a very troubling solution.

The majority of the book is told in first-person from Tom’s perspective, in chapters that are only a page or two in length, so it was a very quick and easy read in that regard. It was slightly more difficult to read in terms of how troubled Tom was as a narrator, and it was upsetting at times to read about his OCD and PTSD as he recounted the traumatic incidents from his own past. He has only good intentions but is at times a little unreliable as a narrator, as well as coming across as much younger than his age, so he was a very easy character to feel sorry for but a slightly difficult protagonist to justify the actions of.

As mentioned above, this book discusses a lot of troubling subjects, including domestic abuse, OCD, PTSD, depression and a couple of other issues that I may accidentally spoil the story by mentioning…

Lock the Doors is overall an interesting read with a unique plot and a lot of plot twists and suspicious characters. Despite the difficult subject matter, it does read like it’s more suitable for the younger end of YA, but I think it’s worth a read for any YA suspense lover if you find yourself as gripped by the description as I was.

Teens may like the pace of this book, but when I hit chapter 68 and I wasn't even at 50% on my kindle, I got frustrated. Like, frustrated to the point that I didn't want to read the book anymore at all. Because, it is ungodly long. Or it seems that way. SOOOOOO long. And way too many chapters. I didn't care for the set-up. I didn't care for the characters. or really anything. The story was interesting at first. When Tom and his family move into their new house, he thinks it's strange that there are holes on the outside of the doors. Almost like there were locks on the outsides, to keep people in those rooms. And then he starts finding "help me" messages in the house. What went on there before they moved in? I couldn't tell you. I was so absolutely bored out of my head trying to read this book that I blanked on probably the last 30 chapters. I mean, really, there are almost 150 chapters in this book. And I just couldn't.

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.

The previous owners have moved just across the road and they seem like the perfect family. Their daughter Amy is beautiful and enigmatic but Tom is sure she's got something to hide. And he isn't going to stop until he finds the truth behind those locked doors. . .

Will their dream home become a nightmare?

Ooooohhhh this one was a mind melt and a page turner. Left me right until the end trying to figure out what was going on and who the ‘bad guy’ was!

This had me creeped out and in total detective mode from the very beginning. Leaving me at times feeling super disturbed this was an entertaining read for over the half term break. With similar veins to movies like Disturbia and House at the End of the Street this book definitely had me questioning… do we really know our neighbours? And do we really know what goes on behind closed doors? Eeekkkk!

Generally YA is not for me but I loved this book. Tom and his mother have had quite a rough life but when she meets a new partner and things have been going well for quite a while they move to a new house. Little do they know what they are walking into. Tom will make friends with a girl named Amy who has connections to the house and all hell will break loose in Tom's life. Great support characters and the pace of the book kept me totally engaged. I read this book in one sitting and will now definitely put this author on my list. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for a copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this book. All of the opinions given are my own and have been given nothing for my review.

Things are not always as they seem.

This story is about Tom and Amy. One of them has a big secret and the other will stop at nothing to figure it out.

You move into your forever home only to discover there’s something majorly wrong and no one will listen to you. Your family is finally happy but is the previous family unhappy?

This story will keep you reading well into the wee hours. I recommend it to those who like a good suspenseful mystery.

I was really excited for this book because I thought it had a cool premise. However, I found it to be way over the length that needed to be, and really repetitive. I know some of that was maybe supposed to represent the OCD of the main character, but it just felt repetitive not really a character driven strategy. I figured out pretty early on what was going on in the book, so it felt even more annoying that it took so long to get to the end. The attempt at kind of a plot twist at the end was good, it just came too late.

Imagine moving into a house with locks on the outside of all the bedroom doors. Would you be intrigued? Scared? Or would you just let it go? Tom's family don't seem bothered by it. After all, his mother has finally found happiness after being the victim of abandonment and abuse from all the other men in her life. She is now married to a wonderful man, has stepchildren that she adores and a beautiful new home. This is their fresh start-they're new lease on life. Tom doesn't want to ruin that. But after a childhood riddled with mistreatment and uncertainty, he can't let go of his paranoia. He feels unsafe in his own house, and he's determined to find out all he can about its history and the people who lived there before him.

This is a tonally dark story. It deals with some very heavy issues including domestic violence, OCD, PTSD and grief. And the creepy house really helps to enhance the atmosphere of dread.
Most YA books don't tackle such tragic subject matter. I have a lot of respect for Vincent Ralph for doing so and doing so in such a respectful and authentic way.

There were a few things, however, that I didn't like.
The chapters were really short. It made a for a quick read, but they ended so abruptly that it took me out of the story. IMO, longer chapters would have added more depth to the narrative.
I also thought the ending was OTT and didn't provide me with the closure I wanted.

Overall, though, this wasn't a bad read.
If in you're looking for a YA novel with more profundity than most or enjoy Gothic mysteries and creepy houses, I recommend this book.

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

String story, but the hyper-short chapters made it feel...I don't know, like the author wasn't confident in my ability to hold more than one thought in my head at once? I think the whole thing would have read as more nuanced if it wasn't so broken up.

thank you netgalley for sending me this arc
this is one of the books where i am actually mad i didn't like it. i loved the story and how interesting it was and it gripped me but i felt so disconnected like it didn't help me escape. i picked it up and read it just to finish it not to actually know what happened. i feel like so many other people could enjoy this but i just didn't vibe with it.

Thank you Netgalley and SourceBooks Fire for allowing me to read and review this book! All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Lock the Doors is new YA thriller about Tom who lives in a house with a terrible past. A new family lives next door and there are more questions and secrets arising.

I really liked the twists and thrills of the story. With the short chapters, I was kept on my toes and read through the book pretty fast. It was an addictive thrill ride and the writing is reminiscent of Karen McManus.

4 stars

I really enjoyed this title. I liked the twists and turns and the writing style is nice and smooth. The story flows well and kept my attention. Thank you for the opportunity to read this title. I will be recommending this one to friends.

Being very honest, not the best thriller I already read but I enjoyed very much the story. It’s a super fast read that gets your attention.
Maybe It was too long, some parts were very repetitive always the same thing so it got a little bit boring in some parts. The idea is super nice, the mystery too but still I missed the explanation for some things that happened.
In general I recommend this book because it’s a very enjoyable experience written by a really good author.

Thank you to Netgalley and the Publishers for the review copy in exchange for an honest review. The plot of the book is simple yet very detailed. This is the story of a boy called Tom who shifts to a new house with his Mom, his Stepfather and his daughter. When everything was normal, the new house and some details from Tom’s room creates suspicion and he decides to further investigate the truth.

I liked how a teenager decides to unravel the mystery surrounding his room wherein it could be ignored. Tom’s character and his friendship with Zack was admirable and something to really look forward to and the way both of them solve this mystery is really interesting.

Even though I like how the plot was written, it went flat at some parts. I felt it a bit dragging when compared to other thrillers in the first half of the book. But then the second half took its pace and it was good but again the climax was a little too predictable and effortless. I wished the climax was a bit more dramatic when compared to the entire plot line.

Overall a good thriller.

Thank you to Netgalley and Publisher for this e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Thomas has faced so much domestic abuse after his father left him and his mother. All the boyfriend of her mother turned out a monster until she met Jay. Her mother has found her dream house where they’ve moved with Jay and Nia, there new blended family. Everything seems to get better until Tom found holes in bedrooms door.

Amy is a new student at Tom’s school and turned out she is the former resident of Tom’s new house. Amy and her family have moved to the corner house of the same street. Amy is strange and Tom can’t stop thinking that she is hiding something. Is it Tom’s paranoia from his past life or there is something really strange going on?

I am sucked for YA Mystery and I am glad, I found this one. I really enjoyed the story from a teenage boy’s perspective. The way writer handles Tom’s OCD is so realistic, I also have OCD for like 12 years so It was really great to read the realistic representation. The author didn’t forget about Tom’s OCD when everything was getting too much, I loved the way he highlighted the OCD cycle and the way his family has accepted it and support Tom.

I really love the family dynamics of a blended family, step-siblings relation. The way everyone tries to bond to each other without forcing anything. The friendship between Zach and Tom was also refreshing and portrayed beautifully.

The pace was perfect and the story kept me hooked throughout the book. I didn’t see that twist coming so it was perfect. Though I felt that the history of Amy’s family could be better like there could be one or two chapters from other perspective but still I liked the format of the book and The ending was also realistic.

I’ll recommend this book to everyone🖤

I blitzed through this book over the weekend as I just could not get enough. Light and witty I enjoyed every second. Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This book is absolutely so creepy and scary. I would classify it as a thriller but there’s also a mystery element. I was on the edge of my seat to the end of this book. I highly recommend it.