By: Riley Sager
“Never take anything you haven’t earned, my father used to say. You always end up paying for it one way or another.”
Lock Every Door
*This post contains spoilers for Lock Every Door.
Overview:
No visitors. No nights spent away from the apartment. No disturbing the other residents, all of whom are rich or famous or both. These are the only rules for Jules Larsen’s new job as an apartment sitter at the Bartholomew, one of Manhattan’s most high-profile and mysterious buildings. Recently heartbroken and just plain broke, Jules is taken in by the splendor of her surroundings and accepts the terms, ready to leave her past life behind.
Lock Every Door
As she gets to know the residents and staff of the Bartholomew, Jules finds herself drawn to fellow apartment sitter Ingrid, who comfortingly, disturbingly reminds her of the sister she lost eight years ago. When Ingrid confides that the Bartholomew is not what it seems and the dark history hidden beneath its gleaming facade is starting to frighten her, Jules brushes it off as a harmless ghost story—until the next day, when Ingrid disappears.
Searching for the truth about Ingrid’s disappearance, Jules digs deeper into the Bartholomew’s dark past and into the secrets kept within its walls. Her discovery that Ingrid is not the first apartment sitter to go missing at the Bartholomew pits Jules against the clock as she races to unmask a killer, expose the building’s hidden past, and escape the Bartholomew before her temporary status becomes permanent.
Chekhov’s Dumbwaiter
This book is not necessarily scary but it does have aspects that lend to the creep factor. For one, the dumbwaiter in room 12A. I over analyzed that thing the entire book. My mind connected the title Lock Every Door to the dumbwaiter. I was convinced that Jules would be barricading herself in the apartment only to realize too late that the dumbwaiter is an entry point for something malevolent.
That definitely put me on edge a little throughout the story. I just kept waiting for something to crawl out of that thing.
The Twist
I honestly did not think that the twist would be that the building was a front for black market organ harvesting. I thought that the cult theory was the strongest one.
Riley Sager deals mostly in people doing things to other people without the supernatural coming into play. Because of this I knew that there wasn’t some presence haunting the building. However, just because nothing supernatural is going on doesn’t mean that the people participating in it don’t believe that it is.
Easily, the tenants could have been a part of a cult that believed making a sacrifice is how they continue to have their fame and fortune. Regardless of if the sacrifices actually did anything.
In a way, they were sacrificing the apartment sitters so they could extend their life. it just wasn’t in a weird deal-with-the-devil type of way that the story was eluding to.
The organ harvesting was a creepy twist. Jules had to sit there for days knowing that they planned on taking bits of her until she eventually died.
I also appreciate that the author did not have Jules’ sister Jane have anything to do with the Bartholomew. It would have been lazy story telling to say that Jane ran away and ended up one of the “doners”.
Overall,
The author really had me with the misdirection. Everything was pointing towards cult so the black market organ harvesting really threw me for a loop.
I did enjoy this book and will be recommending it to my friends who like thrillers. I did not give the book 5 stars because I felt as if there could have been more suspense. I would have enjoyed a bigger build up to the reveal.
I have seen a lot of people review this as one of their least favorite Sager books but honestly… I liked it more than others like Final Girls.
Rating: 4/5 stars
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