Review: Lock Every Door by Riley Sager

Title: Lock Every Door

Author: Riley Sager

Genre: Adult, mystery thriller

Publication date: July 2019

Published by: Dutton

Source: Library book

Add it on Goodreads

Buy it: Amazon | Book Depository | Thrift Books

Synopsis: 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.

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 façade 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.

My rating: ★★★★★

“The place is haunted. By its past. So many bad things have happened there. So much dark history. It fills the place.”

I loved Final Girls and The Last Time I Lied, so I was very excited to read this one. And I ended up really enjoying this one as well!

The job Jules accepted as an apartment sitter sounded too good to be true. And as it turns out, it was. Ever since she took the job it felt very fishy to me. You get paid to house-sit this gorgeous apartment, right? But then there’s ALL the rules. For example, you can’t have visitors... What gives! Granted, the lady gave really good explanations for all the rules, but it was still very suspicious. And I totally get why Jules took the job regardless though—she desperately needed it. Especially because she’s been having a lot of bad luck in life lately. It was super sketch, but it was a good gig, plus the pay was great! I get it.

Not every person gets a do-over in their life. My father certainly didn't. Neither did my mother.
But I now have that chance.
Life is offering me a building-size reset button.
I intend to press it as hard as I can.

So while sitting, she actually made a friend, Ingrid, another apartment sitter. However, something happens to said friend and Jules decides to look for her. She doesn’t know the girl well, and the girl has no one. Jules was very compassionate knowing that if SHE ever disappeared, she’d at least have her friend Chloe who would look for her. So she wants to be that friend for Ingrid. It was very sweet.

Another thing about Jules is that she was pretty badass there at the end. Telling off all those rich pricks? So good! But even better was the fight at the end. She had a freshly removed kidney and was sedated, but she still got up and fought her way out of the place. AND she set it on fire while she was at it 😂 It was great!

And then after everything that happened, Jules received many donations. So many, in fact, that she in turn donated some of that! At the beginning of the book she had nothing, so this was very rewarding to see. And Jules is such a good person that she decides to share her small wealth with others in need... Unlike the greedy bastards at the Bartholomew 😒

Another character I liked was one of the residents of the building... the hot doctor, Nick 😏 But there was definitely something sketchy about him...

He told Jules to come to him first if she ever got creeped out by the place... And then playing it off by flirting 🙄 Uh-uh pal. And then Jules started to suspect him. I didn’t want to believe it... but Jules was right! He was in on this whole thing. EVERYONE was in on it! All the sitters were the ones who were in the dark!

It's really funny because all the research Jules was doing led us to believe that the residents of the building were basically in some sort of satanic/devil worship cult. BUT in actuality, they just butchered the sitters and harvested their organs for the residents who need them. Hence why Nick lives there. HE'S the one who does the transplants!

But why, you ask? Because if they need a kidney or whatever, they’d need to be put on a list and wait for a donor/match like every other person. But they’re rich and they think they’re superior so they do this underground thing. And this has been going on for a LOOOONG time! It's SO messed up! I was SO blown away by this plot twist! I was loving the whole satanic cult thing, but then we found out about the organ harvesting operation. It was definitely more mundane, but to be honest, it’s more scary because it’s more realistic. Selling organs on the black market is a thing that happens IRL!

One thing about Riley Sager’s books is that the main story is intertwined with flashbacks, but in this one we get these sort of flash forwards instead. Jules is out of the building and whatever awful thing that’s happened to her already happened, and it was all very intriguing because we had no idea what had happened! It was just very interesting to see how she ended up there.

But yeah, I really enjoyed this book overall! I loved the setting—the building sounded absolutely gorgeous! And unraveling the mystery was really interesting especially after that plot twist I wasn't expecting! It was just great!

Have you read this book? If so, what did you think about it? If not, what do you think? Does it sound like something you might want to read? Leave me a link to your review or comment below! 😊