Buckle up, buttercup. This is one wild ride! It just isn't summer without a new spine-tingler from Riley Sager, but never fear; The House Across the Lake brings the thrills and chills in spades!

In the fourteen months since her husband's death, actress Casey Fletcher has fallen apart in spectacular fashion. After her drunken escapades end up on the front pages of every tabloid, Casey is banished to her family's secluded lake house in Vermont. Boredom and drunkenness do not generally mix, leading Casey to develop a less-than-healthy habit of watching her neighbors through high-powered binoculars. Her favorite subjects? Tom and Katherine Royce, a tech guru and his former supermodel wife. After Katherine nearly drowns in the lake, and Casey saves her life, the two women develop an unlikely friendship. As they get to know one another better, cracks appear in the Royce's storybook romance. Casey begins to suspect that the shiny facade of the glass castle Katherine and Tom share is hiding something dark. Something dangerous.

As the late night spying sessions go on, her misgivings grow even stronger. Then Katherine disappears. Casey just knows Tom has done something to her friend, but she can't tell anyone HOW she knows. What Casey doesn't realize is that there is always more than one side to the story, and secrets never stay submerged for long.

I loved this book so hard! I had immense empathy for Casey, having my own experience with self destruction, and I just wanted to hug her. Her loneliness was stark and striking. All of the characters were suspect: I didn't trust any of them, but I definitely wanted to know more about them. I was so tense reading this, my fingernails are bitten to stubs! And there are twists and turns so sharp, I'm amazed i don't have whiplash. Sager has a wicked way with words, and The House Across the Lake is dripping with menace and suspense. Just make sure you lock every door, (see what I did there?) close all the curtains, and turn off all the lights before you turn the first page. You never know who might be watching.
Thank you to Netgalley and Dutton Books for the chance to review this advance copy. The House Across the Lake is available 6/21/2022.

The House Across the Lake is quick read - thank goodness. The plot was good, until it wasn't. The later part of the book was a little too far-fetched. Some good surprise twists but in the end, like I said, too far-fetched.

Casey Fletcher is a recent widow trying to escape some bad press. Also trying to escape some demons of her own as well. She starts by innocently peeking at the house across the lake, the one with big huge glass walls. And she gets an eyeful!
It's safe to say at this point I'd read a phone book if Riley Sager wrote it. That being said, this book was so good. It started as a bit of a slow burn, but then I was literally picking my jaw up off the floor. Love, love loved it! Thank you!!!

I love Riley Sager as a person and as a writer. He's the type you protect at all costs. I want him to live his best life, lapping up the love from fans, listening to T Swift, doing the cool shit he does on Insta. I'm here for all of it. That's why I want to be as gentle as possible when I say that this book didn't meet expectations. It's good, but not Riley-Sager-level-good. (This took me eleven days to read, so that tells you what you need to know.) I'm still rooting for him and will gladly pick up the next one.

Casey Fletcher, a widow and former actress, finds herself banned to her family lake house in Vermont by her mother to help with her troubling drinking problem and getting her out of the public eye while she deals with the grief of losing her husband who drowned in the very lake where she is currently residing only a few months before.

She drinks away her days at Lake Greene and when she's not getting drunk and lying to her mother about being sober she's spying on her neighbours, a popular supermodel and her tech guru husband, across the lake with her binoculars. At first its out of curiosity and boredom, but one day her while she drinks away another day on her balcony she sees a body floating in the water. She instantly attempts to help and discovers it is the very neighbour she has been spying on, Katherine Royce. The two strike up a casual friendship and things seem to be almost fine until suddenly Katherine disappears and her husband Tom starts acting very suspicious about her disappearance. With not much else to do with her time other than get very drunk (which the author lets us know, constantly and almost annoyingly so) she takes it upon herself to investigate where Katherine has gone and if she is in fact still alive - even if Katherine's husband insists his wife is fine and nothing suspicious has gone on.

From that moment on the story hits overdrive plot wise and you are put on a very long drawn out journey of Detective Casey and friends in her quest to uncover the strange secrets of Lake Greene and all the eerie and dark mysteries that surround the place and its residents.

Now, I would like to say I enjoyed this book but alas I found myself often feeling very disinterested in the overall story which has seem to become a typical thing for when I've read Riley Sager's works. There were a few moments that I did enjoy, but overall it was kind of a hot mess plot wise. There are so many holes and unbelievable moments that had me just waiting for it all to be done so I could try to make sense of what is actually going on. The story felt very rushed and riddled with moments that either lingered too long or not long enough to actually explain what it needed to and the story desperately needed better fleshing out of the plot and characters in order for it actually work the narrative.

I was asked to not dive too much into spoilers when I received the arc and I won't go into too much detail, but I have to talk briefly about the ending. I am endlessly confused as to what the heck even happened? This book for almost the entire book could be classified as a thriller and in the last few chapters it suddenly changes to a supernatural thriller that appears to have come out of nowhere with some poor integration into the overall story. Twist endings are fine, but at least make them make sort of sense and not completely railroad the entire story. I felt like I was reading a completely different story when it was winding down to the end and left me feeling like the previous hundreds of pages I read were in fact useless and didn't matter. It was poorly executed and was definitely added just for the shock factor of giving you the unreliable narrator trope and genre shift - meant to shock you and keep you guessing, but all it did for me was make me aggravated, confused and bored. I do not understand why the author always decides to add several twist endings with almost no explanations at the very bitter end and expect the story to wrap up with a satisfying conclusion? It felt so sloppy to what was already a pretty haphazard story to begin with.

I was yearning for more consistency in the writing of Casey's character. I realize a lot of her character development relied on the ''Twist Ending' but that didn't help the dissonant writing we were given to begin with and the sudden change that was supposed to make sense and accept. I also disliked how much emphasis was put on her drinking problem and her dependency on alcohol only for her to turn it off in the last bit of the book like it wasn't a huge part of character. Alcoholism doesn't work that way I'm afraid and it really made it feel like a plot device that was there just to make the reader believe Casey's thoughts couldn't be trusted and etc etc. Again, poorly executed.

Final Thoughts? I'm being generous with a 2 star rating. This felt like a very overplayed story that we have seen many times in the past few years that was not very interesting and the addition of the 'twist endings' did nothing to make it stand out from past renditions of the almost exact story. In fact, it vexed me so much that I guarantee I will not remember much of what this story left me feeling after I submit this review because ultimately, it's a forgettable story in my eyes and I won't be revisiting it in the future.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC of this novel in exchange for my honest review.

I wanted to like this novel so badly. While it is a step up from Sager's release last summer, The House Across The Lake is still not as good as his older books. Yes, I read it pretty quickly, and the storyline kept me engaged, but I had one big problem with this title. This title's big twist is VERY similar to another popular paranormal thriller's twist. I understand that it is impossible to write a truly unique story, but I can't even publically compare the two books because it would spoil this big plot point. This part of the story really affected my enjoyment of this novel and will cause me to not go out of my way to recommend it to others.
(PUB DATE: 06/21/2022)
(I received a digital copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. All opinions expressed above are my own.)

I really enjoyed this time around with RileySager. His last two novels felt like flops to me, so this strong return really brings back my faith that his twist endings can be more than just one-trick ponies. Casey is a trouble, alcoholic actress living on a lake after the untimely death of her husband. She keeps a close watch on her neighbors, more out of boredom than anything, but starts to develop a relationship with the model across the street. I really enjoyed the camaraderie of their fast friendship, the women were written well, like most Sager female leads. I thought I knew what was going on in this novel, I thought for sure I wasn’t banking on the red herring, but I was lead astray—the ending truly threw me for a loop. I enjoyed the paranormal edge and the revenge, and everything was’t wrapped up in a neat package by the last five pages—we got ANOTHER twist ending for the price of suspending our disbelief just a bit. I’m happy about this novel and I’ll be referring it to paranormal thriller fans at my library.

So this is definitely a slower book, but I think that because of the plot it has to be. The whole watching your neighbors through binoculars thing is just a slower build. Our main character has to have time to make others believe her, and gather as much evidence as possible, even though they are usually not believed.... at least at first.

Casey has been exiled to her family's lake house, she spends her days drinking and waiting for her mother to call and check-in. When one night she sees something in the lake and it turns out it's a woman named Katherine who is drowning. Casey ends up saving her and a fast friendship is born. The only thing we know about Casey is that she has a drinking problem that stems from the death of her husband, in the lake, she is currently visiting.

Casey starts watching the house across the lake, where Katherine and her husband are currently living... When Katherine ends up going missing, the things she has seen while spying, and what Katherine has said her to she begins to suspect foul play. The build-up is slow as Casey and her other neighbor Boone start to look for evidence to uncover what happened. Thankfully the police are on her side, but again there is no evidence. So Casey and Boone are on their own.

Then at like the 70% mark BOOM, things happen that were completely unexpected and quite frankly awesome and I loved it... All that build-up to the reveal was worth it. Which I knew it would be. It was exactly what I didn't know I wanted.

I will absolutely be buying a copy to add to my Riley Sager collection, and I can't wait to see what he comes out with next!!!

This is a pretty solid thriller, perfect for reading on a long flight, which is what I did. The many twists get resolved in satisfying ways, though the overall story does require some suspension of disbelief. This should appeal to mystery/suspense lovers, especially those who enjoy a bit of the supernatural. Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

*Thank you to Penguin Group Dutton, Riley Sager, and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review*

Casey Webster is a film star, daughter of a famous actress and neglectful mother, Casey is grieving her late husband and has been on an alcoholic binge for 18 months. She has lost her starring role in a broadway play and has been dropped off at her lake house to sober up. She spends her time drinking bourbon and staring at the dark lake. Until she sees a body floating in the water. The body is her new neighbor across the lake, Katherine, who appears to be dead, but when Casey lifts her into the boat, she wakes up coughing and sputtering, having no memory of how she ended up in the water.

Casey spies on the house across the lake. A bottle of bourbon and a pair of binoculars complete the picture and remind me of the movie, The Woman in The Window. When Casey sees suspicious behavior in the house across the lake, she suspects their marriage is in trouble. When Katherine disappears, Casey suspects her tech guru husband, Tom.

As with most of Sager's books, all the twists are turns are surprising and unique.His characters are real with flaws and I enjoyed not knowing what was going to happen. Such a great book!

The House Across the Lake
By Riley Sager
Pub Date: June 22, 2022
 
⭐️: 3/5
 
After her husband’s death, Casey’s mother sends her to the family lake house in attempts to sequester her from the temptations of the outside world. After saving her new neighbor Katherine from drowning, she begins spying on her and her husband from across the lake using binoculars. When Katherine goes missing, Casey suspects foul play and embarks on a mission to find out what happened to her.
 
There were two main issues that I had with this book. The first main issue I had was the supposed premise that any mother would send her alcoholic daughter to the site of her daughter’s husband’s death, alone, with nothing else to do than dwell on what happened there. It doesn’t make any sense why Casey was back at the lake house in the first place to me, so it feels like the main points of the book shouldn’t have even happened, because it’s just so absurd. The second, without revealing any spoilers, was main whodunnit plot point, or I guess you could call it a thriller book trope, that was the “how” of the entire book, is my absolute least favorite type of horror book trope. That is probably just a “me” thing, but regardless, it more or less ruined the story for me.
 
I do think that Riley Sager had a wonderful thriller imagination, and I enjoyed several of his previous books. He excels in introducing the main narrator and her character in a way that makes us feel as though we truly understand her. This was a bit of a slow start book, with a lot of stage setting that made it hard to get invested in the story until about 50% through, although it did pick up plot and action wise. I had to take off one star for the premise (including how ignorant and honestly, annoying, Casey was when it came to police procedure and what counts as actual evidence versus illegally obtained purely circumstantial evidence) and another because I was unpleasantly surprised by the aforementioned trope, but I still enjoyed the read as a whole.
 
Thank you to @netgalley and @duttonbooks for this eARC for review!!

What was overall a great read was unfortunately ruined by a horrible and confusing ending. **this review will be spoiler-free, and thus a little vague** I was so excited to read an advanced copy of The House Across the Lake because I have heard great things about Riley Sager, although I have never read any of their books. One of the things I love about thrillers is how realistic and scary they are, keeping me on the edge of my seat. I love guessing what is going to happen next, and I love being wrong about it! I am all for a plot twist that comes out of nowhere, but what I am not for is nonsensical twists in the middle of seemingly ordinary books. I had chills while reading the first 3/4 of this book. I found it so spooky, this alcoholic and the unreliable narrator is trapped in the lake house a few months after her husband drowned there and she saves someone else from drowning in the lake. The flashbacks and flashforwards kept me on my toes and I found myself really invested in the story. But the last 15% or so of the book made no sense and wasn’t really in line with any other part of the story. I was severely disappointed in the story and think it should be classified as more of a thriller/horror combo due to certain unrealistic elements of the story. Horror isn’t really my preferred genre, so I probably wouldn’t have picked this one up if I knew this ahead of time. I will say, I think many people who are interested in these genres will probably enjoy this story a lot so I encourage you to pick it up then! But, if you are looking for a thriller with standard non-supernatural elements maybe grab something different.

Awesome! The writing, the pace, the storytelling skill of Sager. Everything make it the perfect thriller for the summer!

"The House Across the Lake" is the latest twisty mystery/thriller from Riley Sager. I always enjoy Sager's books, and was so excited to read this one.

Casey retreats to her family's secluded lake house after an unfortunate incident caused by her excessive drinking. Her mother insists that she gets away from the city to try to detox. Casey has taken to drowning her sorrows after her husband's sudden, untimely death while boating on the lake one year ago. While alone at the lake, she begins to spy on her neighbors, the wealthy and intriguing Katherine and Tom. She notices some disturbing encounters between the two, and when Katherine suddenly disappears, she suspects Tom has something to do with it.

This was a fun mystery that kept me guessing. I didn't see the ending coming at all, and found it (not a little) far-fetched. Still, it was entertaining and I would recommend it.

Riley Sager is one of my favorite thriller authors. I can typically fly through his books because they are written in a way where you cannot put them down. This one was not quite that for me. I really liked the first 50-60%, but then he includes a paranormal aspect that I just did not love. Overall, I would recommend this book with a disclaimer that I would change about 25% of the plot.

For me, this is a 3.5 rounded up to 4 stars.

Thank you to NetGalley and PENGUIN GROUP Dutton for my DRC in exchange for my honest review.

*SPOILER-FREE REVIEW*

Riley Sager's "The House Across the Lake" follows Casey Fletcher, a recently widowed actress, as she wallows in alcohol and sadness in her family's lake house at Lake Greene. In the same vein as Hitchcock's "Rear Window", Casey begins to spy on the attractive couple across the lake: Tom and Katherine Royce. Katherine was a super model and Tom is a tech king. What Casey comes to find out is that things are not as perfect as the shiny veneer of their house.

Like Sager's prior books, Casey as a lead is pretty flawed as a person and knows that which would be refreshing if Sager didn't utilize that for most of his main characters. The story itself was super predictable; it follows similar beats to "Rear Window" as well as following his prior books. I will say that I didn't expect the "twist" until it was mentioned in-story and I realized "Oh god, THAT'S the twist isn't it???" and lo and behold, it was. It generally felt pretty formulaic to me: hot handyman, super flawed and sardonic main lead, and multiple red herrings. While the "twist" was different and not expected, I don't really think that it made the story interesting in my opinion. It kind of felt like a cop out because Sager couldn't figure out any other way to fix up that particular storyline.

I enjoyed reading but I was kind of disappointed. Like Sager's other books, this isn't amazing or awful, it's just there.

This wasn’t my favorite Sager book of all time. I’m a little disappointed because it feels like it’s already been done. I’m a huge fan since day one, so I’ll continue to read his work but this was a mix of A girl in the window and Behind her Eyes which neither I was a huge fan of.

Wow!!! First, this storyline got WEIRD and by that I mean, I’m used to watching horror movies with similar concepts, but haven’t read a book yet with one. When you finish, or get 3/4 into the book you will know what I’m meaning. The twists got me!!! I was not expecting them…not even just one, but many moments I was like “whaaaaat!!!!” Riley Sager does it again for me. I feel I can always rely on him to bring the mindblowing unexpected twists for me. Recommend 100%!

Riley Sager has done it again. I love his writing style. The protagonist of the story is an alcoholic reeling from the loss of her husband. Her mood swings and thought processes are fascinating to read. There were twists and turns - many of which I did not see coming. This story deviates from his normal straight-up mystery with some added elements of story telling. I loved this book.

Riley Sager is a polarizing author, I have friends who rave over his books and others who think he’s overrated. I’ve enjoyed all of his books, some more than others but this may be my favorite yet! If you read the synopsis that may surprise you because it seems like the plot follows the same overdone script we’ve seen so many times before. But not everything is as it seems and things get flipped around so much I don’t think many could say this didn’t have a fresh take on a tired trope. Because of this unique spin I really think the less you know the more you’ll enjoy this because a huge part of the fun for me was the wild ride. I will say that despite there being a slow burn feel it read really fast for me still and the atmosphere was creepy too. All in all I thought it was a super entertaining summer thriller that I think will once again divide readers, I don’t see a lot of middle ground here, I think you’ll either love it or hate it. I loved it and can’t wait to see what everyone thinks, I’m sure it’ll be discussed quite a bit this summer.