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A review by justinkhchen
Lock Every Door by Riley Sager
2.0
2 stars
Great premise hindered by a below-than-average execution.
With such premise I was looking forward to a psychological thriller in the vein of Rosemary's Baby, which the novel definitely takes inspiration from; but what we ended up is a skeletal frame of a plot without any of the delicious meat...
Lock Every Door is full of inconsequential padding; the telltale sign first appeared when it took 13 chapters to set off a plot point mentioned in its synopsis (the character Ingrid's disappearance), and the duo-timelines device sprinkled throughout the narrative ultimately provided very little payoff—those chapters can be completely skipped without missing any significant development.
Riley Sager's basic, unadorned writing style is another downgrading factor for me, which seems to work against the genre that is desperate for intricate mood-setting and atmosphere. It's like watching a movie filmed with office fluorescent light and IKEA furniture—yes, lines are delivered and plot understood, but in the least engrossing way possible.
The combination of a sluggish pacing and passionless writing drives my full attention to scrutinize Lock Every Door's plot, which is filled with obvious holes and logic gaps, beyond my typical thriller genre tolerance. It's as if the publisher rushed to push the book out, without giving it the final polish, because a lot of its clumsiness could've been cleaned up through a couple more rounds of editing.
Spoiler:
- If this whole black market scheme has been operating for decades, why are they so bad at getting rid of previous tenant / sitter objects in the apartment? (Magazine with Marjorie Milton's name, Ingrid's key in the dumbwaiter, inscribed copy of Heart of a Dreamer everywhere, Erica's cellphone in a grate, Megan's ring, etc.)
- Why would Marjorie Milton wear an ouroboros pin—when ultimately The Bartholomew was not a place of occult but simply an organ transplant center for her? That's like wearing a t-shirt from the dentist where you got your teeth cleaned.
- I find it hilarious that Jule carries her family photo with the cracked frame DURING ALL THIS TIME—could've easily just taken the photo with her instead.
.
Ultimately, Lock Every Door was not a fulfilling read; it has a promising setup, but everything else feels extremely sloppy and unfinished. Which got me concerned, as I already have the same author's Home Before Dark sitting next to me...
Great premise hindered by a below-than-average execution.
With such premise I was looking forward to a psychological thriller in the vein of Rosemary's Baby, which the novel definitely takes inspiration from; but what we ended up is a skeletal frame of a plot without any of the delicious meat...
Lock Every Door is full of inconsequential padding; the telltale sign first appeared when it took 13 chapters to set off a plot point mentioned in its synopsis (the character Ingrid's disappearance), and the duo-timelines device sprinkled throughout the narrative ultimately provided very little payoff—those chapters can be completely skipped without missing any significant development.
Riley Sager's basic, unadorned writing style is another downgrading factor for me, which seems to work against the genre that is desperate for intricate mood-setting and atmosphere. It's like watching a movie filmed with office fluorescent light and IKEA furniture—yes, lines are delivered and plot understood, but in the least engrossing way possible.
The combination of a sluggish pacing and passionless writing drives my full attention to scrutinize Lock Every Door's plot, which is filled with obvious holes and logic gaps, beyond my typical thriller genre tolerance. It's as if the publisher rushed to push the book out, without giving it the final polish, because a lot of its clumsiness could've been cleaned up through a couple more rounds of editing.
Spoiler:
Spoiler
- The whole setup of finding apartment sitters to ultimately salvage their organs is an intriguing concept, but extremely convoluted—there are so much implied risks, and so many alternative ways to elicit candidates with even lesser liability (why not just go to homeless shelters directly?)- If this whole black market scheme has been operating for decades, why are they so bad at getting rid of previous tenant / sitter objects in the apartment? (Magazine with Marjorie Milton's name, Ingrid's key in the dumbwaiter, inscribed copy of Heart of a Dreamer everywhere, Erica's cellphone in a grate, Megan's ring, etc.)
- Why would Marjorie Milton wear an ouroboros pin—when ultimately The Bartholomew was not a place of occult but simply an organ transplant center for her? That's like wearing a t-shirt from the dentist where you got your teeth cleaned.
- I find it hilarious that Jule carries her family photo with the cracked frame DURING ALL THIS TIME—could've easily just taken the photo with her instead.
.
Ultimately, Lock Every Door was not a fulfilling read; it has a promising setup, but everything else feels extremely sloppy and unfinished. Which got me concerned, as I already have the same author's Home Before Dark sitting next to me...