Casey's got real problems, the least of which should her missing neighbor, Katherine. Despite common sense and pleas from her family to stay out of it, Casey manages to get herself together long enough to investigate Katherine's disappearance. The obvious signs point to some type of domestic disturbance, but can she trust what she sees through the lenses of her binoculars, particularly after she's had a bottle of wine with a bourbon chaser? ⁠
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In theory, I should love this book. It's loosely based on one of the greatest films in cinema history: Rear Window, which is typically right up my alley. But no amount of Hitchcock-innuendos could save this for me. This book should be called "How to Develop a Drinking Problem: a Step by Step Guide." I kid, but all jokes aside, this one was triggering for me. I'm a former liver transplant social worker, so I've seen first-hand the impact that alcoholism can have on people and their families. I felt like the first part of this book glamorizes alcoholism. It was very off-putting. There are entire chapters dedicated to the consumption of alcohol, which felt distracting from the story rather than supportive.

I will say the mystery at the center of the book was decent, at least until the twist at the end. It felt really far out there, a little too far for my taste. ⁠

Overall, if you're a die-hard Sager fan, you might enjoy this one. But if you've not read any of his work, I'd definitely suggest some of his other work over this one. I personally loved Survive the Night.

4.5 stars. I enjoyed this much more than Sager’s previous book, but still found the twists somewhat easy to figure out. I will definitely be ordering this for our library catalogue.

[Thank you to Netgalley and PENGUIN GROUP Dutton for my gifted e-ARC copy, in exchange for my honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.]

I am most definitely a Riley Sager fan and consider him an auto-buy author. That being said, even an auto-buy author for me has to make "lightning strike" again, and boy oh boy does this book ever zing!

There isn't too much to say, and I want to keep it spoiler-free, but I'll say this book is giving. The plots are twisting. And the pages are a-turning. I read this book on vacation, and read on the plane, pre-concert during the opener, in the hotel, and constantly until I finished. I devoured and ate it up, finishing in two days.

I gave it 5 stars, I enjoyed the plot twists and the right amount of creepiness involved. I think this one would adapt really well for the big screen as well, so fingers crossed that happens one day.

Most definitely recommend, snag your copy!

I had predictions every step of the way throughout this entire book – but I most definitely didn’t expect it to turn into a paranormal thriller. If I had known, my guesses would have gone in an entirely different direction…

Casey is a famous actress who is residing in her family’s lake house as she seems to drink her life away (TW: alcoholism). Grieving the loss of her husband who died a year earlier on this very lake, Casey becomes obsessed with her neighbors – the Royces who live directly across the lake in a glass mansion (I got some serious Gatsby vibes with this one).

Of course, during her watching (she has binoculars, you guys), she witnesses some unsettling things. Granted, this is also after Casey saves Katherine Fletcher from drowning in the lake that separates their houses. A bit of life saving, a bit of stalking… it’s all for the greater good, right?

This book takes a lot of turns and definitely made me question who the true culprit was – as there are numerous girls who have gone missing over the years near local lakes, and Katherine’s near-death experience is one to question as well. But no one is who they seem on this lake – and everyone seems to be holding onto their secrets. But it’s only a matter of time before they all rise to the surface, because nothing can stay hidden forever beneath the lake’s surface.

Voyeuristic Mystery Coming Your Way! 👀 || Thank you, Dutton Books, for the gifted copy of The House Across the Lake by Riley Sager! {partner}

Genre: Psychological Suspense
Format: 📖
Pub Date: 6.21.2022
Star Rating: ☆☆☆

Sigh… I honestly don't know where to begin with this review. Riley Sager is one of my first "bookstagram made me do it," I loved Home Before Dark, Final Girls, and The Last Time I Lied. But I've been thoroughly let down by his latest books, and I can't quite put my finger on why.

I think I'm just bored with the whole female protagonist with a drinking problem theme that so often goes with this genre. I also understand that Sager typically has some sort of theatrically influence on his books — for The House Across the Lake, it was Rear Window. He even references it in the novel, which is fine. I can deal with that, I don’t love it, but I’ll deal with it. At one point, Sager is writing from the perspective of the female MC and has her say something along the lines of "this is what being a man must feel like." And, I don't know, that whole line rubbed me the wrong way. It just felt icky coming from him. Again, just my opinion.

Now that I have reviewed what didn't work for me, let's move on to what I did enjoy about this story. I love a good story that doesn't leave me feeling like the wool had been pulled over my eyes for 75% of the book (I call it the Scooby-Doo effect. Sometimes it's nice to be appropriately scared without the author providing an easy explanation.

If you were wondering, here's a breakdown of my ranking on each Sager book.

Home Before Dark
Final Girls
Last Time I Lied
House Across the Lake
Lock Every Door
Survive the Night

Which Riley Sager book is your favorite??



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#duttonbooks #psychologicalthriller #suspense #newbook #bookreview #Homelibrary #goodreads #booksbooksbooks #bookworm

Thank you to Dutton/NetGalley for an advanced copy of this book.

This was my first Riley Sager book, and it will probably also be my last. At once, The House Across the Lake is eager to prove itself and also unsure of how to step outside of its own shadow. The novel plays into a familiar trope: the woman who sees something she shouldn't have. Its premise beckons back to Rear Window and Sager namedrops the film multiple times in the novel; I still don't know if it's tongue-in-cheek or an admission of thematic similarities. Either way, yes, this is a story we've read before -- and largely, it's just another entry to domestic surveillance thrillers. And at the story's centre, protagonist Casey Fletcher is an outline of a character, not a persona in herself. After the death of her husband last year, she turned to alcohol as an answer, forming a dependency which cost her a Broadway job and forced her mother's hand to send her up to a secluded cabin to sober. Again, there is no inversion of expectations here. Casey's attachment to alcohol is often written off as a joke. She has no desire to stop drinking and instead takes drinks with every meal, diluting her character down to being untrustworthy because of her dependency—and any relationships we see on the outside world (her mother, her friends) only exist to serve the plot, never Casey herself. She's an outline of a character, and had Sager done more to counteract or in some way subvert reader expectations, maybe this could've been a different story. Instead, Casey is always on the surface. She can only be taken at face value, because we're never given much more.

Every single character in this book is written like a teenager and I wish I were making that up. Otherwise, you wouldn't have passages like this --

Boone notices my obvious distaste. Holding out his half-eaten Drumstick, he says, 'You don't seem to like yours. Want to try some of mine?'
I shake my head. 'I'm good.'
'I don't mind. I'm pretty sure you don't have cooties.'

I understand writing casual thrillers so that you can have the audiobook playing in the background, half paying attention, or letting your eyes fly over the pages on the train. The writing here, however, is not breezy. It's stilted and hollow—because, again, Sager doesn't have characters here; he has archetypes, and you can't give dialogue to archetypes. This is exactly the quality of writing I'd expect from procrastinating a story for your Creative Writing class until the night before the midterm's workshop critique. A book can be casual and still be built strategically—but here, it feels as though Sager is stringing the reader from one idea to the next, whenever he finds it. Too much of this book feels like we're living the same day over and again. Wake up, take a drink, say hello to the stuffed moose head over the mantle (honestly the only reoccurrence that felt like character-building and was decently funny), look at the neighbour's house, fall asleep, repeat. The first half of the book felt exactly like sitting at a lake house in summer: time moving slowly, if at all, and some days it's like a sanctuary, and others, like you wished something would happen already.

The entire third act of the novel left me with strong whiplash. The plot twist is unforgivably bad and veers the remaining story into territory that feels truly unhinged and wildly unstructured. If feels impossible to even touch on the plot inconsistencies in the earlier half of the book because the final act loses all credibility with the reader. It comes way out of left field and refuses to let go, and I do think a bonkers ending not only could have worked but benefitted the story had Sager done his due diligence is crafting nuanced characters and a plot we haven't seen replayed countless time. Because the beginning of the book falls short, there is nowhere near enough structure and reader investment set up to justify the truly inane ending that Sager tries to pull.

I read that Sager's earliest books are his strongest, which I think speaks to the turnout rate that we expect thriller authors to undertake. A new book every year or two? It's not enough time to write something that feels rewarding and well-plotted and like it can exist in our literary conversations beyond the few months it spends on the frontlist. Ultimately, The House Across the Lake isn't sure of itself because it was never given the requisite time to understand where it stands in relation to the surveillance thrillers it tries to emulate. As a result, its story feels flat and largely forgettable. It isn't enough to throw in something unexpected into the mix and think it will stick the landing. The case of The House Across the Lake is not one of a singular missed opportunity; it is all of its necessary parts out of communication with one another. If we understood Casey Fletcher with depth and her obsessions flipped our expectations of this subgenre in some way, maybe this would all be different. On the other hand, maybe this isn't a story that wants to reinvent something, and like its characters, it is imperfect. I don't know entirely. Not yet. I do know that I'm not ready to go swimming in a lake. It'll take a little bit of time.

The House Across the Lake is a thriller. It is my fifth book by this author.

The narrator is Casey (1st person POV). The story has both the NOW and BEFORE timelines. Although we mostly get BEFORE.

Casey is an actress who is going through a very difficult time. She is drinking a lot. She is banished to her family's lake house in Vermont where she meets Tom and Katherine.

The beginning was okay. It took me a while to really become invested in the story. But the book was interesting enough that I wanted to see what happened. The drinking was excessive. And honestly I did not enjoy that aspect of the book.

There were definitely things that I did like. There is a voyeurism aspect to the story. And I absolutely loved everything to do with this part of the book!

The title is so good. And honestly the lake freaked me out. It was so dark and creepy!

There are so few characters. Yet somehow the author managed to surprise me multiple times. There was a lot happening towards the end of this book. And I loved it! I love chapters that end with fun reveals. I love being shocked. I love saying "what just happened!?!" And I definitely said that a lot in this book. Overall this was a fun thriller that is a great summer read!

I had too much fun reading this book. I was expecting typical Riley Sager, thriller/suspense, and there we go, but this book literally kept me up at night, I needed to finish it, and the twist?? Riley seriously flipped this whole story around towards the end, I LOVED IT!!!!!. I started to really feel bad for Casey, she went through a lot and I love how the author made us feel and understand this character, she was at her weakest, but Casey came out HELLA strong and seeing her evolve in this book was awesome to read. But for a while she was the crazy woman who was spying on her new visitors and accusing the husband of killing his wife. This was the wildest Riley Sager ride I have ever been on.

Thanks Netgalley and the publishers for giving me the opportunity to read this book.

Casey Fletcher is a recently windowed actress who is living in her family's lake house in Vermont to hide from the press. Casey had a troubled childhood and has a rocky relationship with her famous actress mother. Like she took to drugs in her teenage years, Casey has taken to alcohol after her husband unexpectedly drowned in the very lake where she is currently living. Casey rescue's her famous model neighbor from drowning and is obsessed with Katherine's house across the lake. She starts spying on Katherine and her husband with a pair of binoculars and becomes obsessed when she finds Katherine is missing and her husband has secrets.

This was my first Riley Sager book and must say this was an unexpected thriller with some great twists and turns. There are so many shades of grey in all the characters which makes it pretty cool for a thriller. The book did give me the feels of The Woman in the Window initially but I enjoyed reading this one quiet a bit. This book is amazing material for a movie or a short TV series and I really hope it gets made.

Thank you Dutton for sending me an eARC of this book.

I went into this book rather blind and it was my first book by Riley Sager. I was told that Sager is known for twists, and I can absolutely see that in this book! I really enjoyed this thriller and gave it 4 out of 5 stars.

Here's what I liked:
1. The pace. I read a few reviews that said the first part of this book was paced too slowly, but I disagree. I prefer a thriller that lets me think I have it all figured out in the first 50% of the book before it begins pummeling me with twists and turns and unexpected plotlines. This is part of what I find fun about reading thrillers, so the pace of this book really worked for me. The final 25%ish of the book is paced very quickly which I also loved!

2. Sense of doom. I knew twists were coming and I was... scared? I physically felt the build-up in this one, and I have to give authors kudos when they're able to make me feel that way while reading. SO - kudos, Riley Sager! I had to read this one with the lights on.

3. The twists and turns did NOT let me down. There were SO many throughout this book. I had a few figured out, but certainly not the entire story. There were twists and turns to the very last few pages and I liked that I was kept on my toes while reading the full story. Each time I thought I knew EVERYTHING, something else surprised me.

Overall, an excellent book and I'll certainly read more by this author. Thank you for the ARC, NetGalley and Dutton!

I don't have many positive things to say about this one. I have been a Sager fan for a while now and with every new release I have been more and more disappointed. The setting was the best part, everything else fell flat.

While reading this one, I found my mind wandering, wishing it would end already so I can move onto my next read. When the final reveal came to light it felt mediocre and lazy, not from a best selling author.

I'm going to start this review by saying this: Whenever you think you have this book figured out - no you don't.

This is my first Riley Sager book and I did not know what to expect. All I knew is that I was going to read a thriller. And, oh boy - I definitely did not know what I was getting myself into. And I'm conflicted. Did I enjoy this? I cannot tell. (This review will be very vague because every plot point is a spoiler.)

The first half of the book is pretty slow, I was waiting for the story to pick up the pace, for something more interesting to happen. We spend a great deal of this book spying on the main character neighbours and trying to understand what's going on. Who do we trust? Who should we avoid? Who's lying? Which could be interesting, but I think this part drags for way too long and I was desperate for more action. But, be careful what you wish for because the action and the pace do come through and, ironically, everything feels way too fast. My head was spinning at the 65% mark and I could not put the book down. I needed a break to process what I had read up to that point, but my eyes were glued to the pages and I kept turning page after page.
I had no time to wrap my head around the many plot twists that kept hitting my brain. Whenever I thought "that's it, no more plot twists, I understand now" I was proven wrong by the other plot twist on the next page. This book is not even a rollercoaster, it's a slow climb that becomes faster and steeper the longer you read. There is no break, not until you reach the end.

Whether you'll end up liking this book or not, the plot twists will hit you and you won't be able to escape them. Whether you think they're ridiculous or smart (honestly, I'm still trying to decide this myself) the plot twists will mess with your head.
Overall, this was intriguing and I would read his other books as I'm now very curious about Riley other works.

Riley Sager has done it again! The premise of this book seems like it’s been done before, but then he adds in twists and turns that I did not see coming! This was such an entertaining read and it might be my favorite Sager book to date. His creativity always blows me away.

This was my first by Riley but won’t be my last. I loved his writing and the huge twists towards the end.

I will say that I thought the repetitiveness of her drinking got to be 😒 but I also understand that it helped with making her a great unreliable narrator and made the ending great.

Which btw, The ending was great!

This gave me Woman in the Window vibes.

I received an eARC from NetGalley for review.
I'm always excited when I learn a new Riley Sager novel is on the way. I wasn't quite sure what to make of The House Across the Lake at first. It had all the elements I've come to expect from Sager - atmospheric setting, lots of secrets hinted at, an unreliable narrator, and a growing sense of trouble brewing. But at the same time, I was waiting for that it factor that Sager always brings and not finding it. Then the twist came (and oh what a twist it was - so out of left field and yet, it works)! I stayed up way too late last night/early this morning because I had to finish the book, had to know what was going to happen next!

I did not realize that this psychological thriller had a supernatural element to it. If I knew that, I wouldn't have read it. So I'm being generous giving it 2 stars instead of 1 because that was my fault. However, even without the supernatural element, I'm done with men writing psychological thrillers that are centered around an alcoholic woman. That strikes me as being lazy with the plot line more than anything else. There are other ways to write unreliable narrators and from now on I will avoid the drunk woman trope when I choose to read a psychological thriller.

Casey has gone to stay at her family lake house after her very public fall from Grace in the public eye. Showing up to a live show drunk doesn’t bode well for an actor. Casey’s mother sends her to the lake to dry out and get her life together. This is a hard ask for Casey as this is the location of the death of her husband the summer before. In her spare time at the house Casey finds herself drinking more than ever and spying on her new neighbors, a supermodel and tech mogul. Casey convinced herself that the husband has killed his wife and is free ones to find out what has happened at the house across the lake.
Sager is always a solid read for me. I enjoyed the twisty turns this books offered. There always a paranormal aspect I certainly didn’t see coming. Go check this one out!

Get out your binoculars and make sure to secure your life vests - we've got a new Riley Sager book out today. It's certainly going to be an adventure. Sage is a master of twists, so I can never be too certain what to expect with his books, but I know one thing for sure: This one will be the talk of the summer.

The summary of this book draws from a familiar trope, self-referencing Rear Window: a woman stuck at her family lake house spends her time spying on the neighbors, only to suspect the golden couple across the lake maybe isn't so perfect after all, especially when the wife, Katherine, suddenly goes missing.

That is where the familiar tropes end though. If I can say one thing about this book, it's go in with an open mind and get ready for the unexpected! I binge read this on a rainy day, falling in love with the setting (autumn on a Vermont lake), the hodgepodge of characters who lived there, and the wild twist on a common thriller trope. I'm not going to spoil anything or even give you any hints, but I'll say that even my knack for guessing endings didn't prepare me for what this book had in store. The House Across the Lake left me unsure how to feel about anyone and also completely freaked out about the idea of going into water this summer.

I also want to note that while the spying-on-neighbors isn't my favorite thriller trope (nor is a character made unreliable by substance abuse), I have to hand it to Sager for keeping me engaged the whole time and taking the time to address the issue of addiction in the storyline. Also if my neighbors had a fancy glass house, I'd be looking too!

WHEW.

Look, we know I am a massive Riley Sager fan, MASSIVE people MASSIVE. Like where are the thriller writer stans hanging out? Do we have a convention I am missing? Anyway, prior to discovering Sager, I wouldn’t have picked up a thriller, but he’s got me. He's now an instant add to cart/beg for an ARC author on my list.

I got lucky and received an ARC of House Across the Lake, from Dutton and loved it.

I was immediately intrigued with the Rear Window, and The Woman on the Train vibes. And while usually as an actor I usually get the ick when author’s write about actors, Sager does it well and keeps her from being utterly unlikable.


I did not expect the twist on the twist at all, which is my favorite thriller moment when you’re reading and want to gasp aloud or look around the room for someone, anyone else to say CAN YOU BELIEVE THAT, and you absolutely will in The House Across the Lake. There’s plenty of red herrings to be found in this one, and the misdirects start happening at breakneck speed about mid-way thru. I know devout thriller readers will potentially not dig the left turn *NO SPOILERS* that really hit ya towards the end, but I loved it!



My only negative note, I will say I am bored of drunk unreliable female narrators in thrillers, switch it up. That said I loved this one and I highly recommend you add it to your summer reading list!

Sager is the master of taking the story you think you know and twisting it. In this latest offering, Casey, an alcoholic reeling from husband's death, spies on the glamorous couple in the large glass house across the lake. When the wife disappears, Casey suspects foul play...but can she trust herself? Everyone is a suspect and, of course, nothing is what it seems. This fast paced thriller will not disappoint Sager fans.