Book Review: Lock Every Door by Riley Sager
Hi readers and writerly friends!
This is a spoiler-free review.
Lock Every Door by Riley Sager reminded me of American Horror Story’s Hotel season, where patrons of the hotel go suddenly missing under mysterious circumstances. The Bartholomew was an entity and character of its own and I couldn’t help feeling like I simultaneously wanted to visit the spooky hotel and stay a million miles away from it forever. The unsettling events that occurred behind closed doors were absolutely chilling to the bone. I found myself wishing I could shake the main character and tell her, run Jules, run!
This heart-pounding, breath-catching, page-turner of a thriller kept me hooked start to finish. I listened to the audiobook version of this novel and I was completely enthralled the entire time.
Lock Every Door by Riley Sager follows a young woman whose new job apartment sitting in one of New York’s oldest and most glamorous buildings may cost more than it pays
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 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 sordid past and into the secrets kept within its walls. What she discovers 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 (Sager 2019).
The entrance to the Dakota where John Lennon was shot. Photo by Encircle Photos.
The Dakota as seen from Central Park west. Photo by Michelle Young.
Something Riley Sager is known for in his books, is the central plot twist—a storytelling element he does very well. I didn’t see the major twist coming and when my original theory was flipped on its head, I was astonished. However, the twist made sense, once all the clues he laid out beforehand were explained.
Sager employs a history, both real and invented to weave a thrilling tale that feels equal part as urgent and realistic as present-day and equal part ancient and enchanting as The Dakota, the upscale apartment building in New York upon which the elegant Bartholomew is based! Lock Every Door is an intoxicating tapestry that is every bit as disquieting as the bizarre wallpaper in Jules’ apartment in the Bartholomew and the unsettling events it has witnessed.
“I wanted the building to be seductive yet sinister, elegant yet also creepy…I wanted people to really want to live there but at the same time, to be terrified while they’re living there.” —Riley Sager on Lock Every Door.
The Bartholomew, the setting of the story, a character as much as the people in the story, evolves as the story progresses, observed initially as sophisticated and whimsical, and eventually becoming increasingly more sinister and mysterious. From elegant, gilded cage elevators that carry patrons from the top floor to the bowels of the building, to watchful gargoyles perched on the exterior, elements of the setting grow more and more unsettling and oppressive as Jules uncovers one dark secret after another.
This story is a gripping read cover-to-cover that teeters precariously between thriller and horror and stupefies readers with a chilling plot twist that doesn’t come completely from left field.
“There’s plausibility in a thriller. No matter how weird they may get, it’s something that could potentially happen in real life… It never gets otherworldly, so to speak…it is always grounded in some sense of reality. With horror, it seems like there’s a tear in the fabric of reality and that inexplicable things are going on and that just makes it even more frightening...I like to walk that fine line between the two.” —Riley Sager on Lock Every Door.
The quotes from Riley Sager about his book is from the “Interview with Best-Selling Author of Lock Every Door: Riley Sager” on the No Thanks, We’re Booked Podcast Hosted by Mollie from Mollie Reads and Katie from Life Between Words. Check out the rest of the interview here.
“Move over Rosemary’s Baby, urban paranoia has a deliciously gothic new address.” —Ruth Ware
This book makes me want to a) read more of Riley Sager’s writing, b) read Rosemary’s Baby by Ira Levin, and c) get into more urban paranoia.
In July of 2019, Paramount Television, Sugar 23, and Anonymous Content announced plans to adapt Lock Every Door into a television series, and I am so stoked to see how it turns out. I cannot wait to draw comparisons between the film adaptation and AHS: Hotel.
And that’s it for my review of Riley Sager’s Lock Every Door. Have you read this book? What did you think of it? Have you read any of Sager’s other works? I cannot wait to check out Final Girls by Riley Sager to see more of Jules’ story and where it goes from here. Will you be watching the film adaptation? Let me know what you thought of this book and this review in the comments below!
Bibliography:
Hayes, Payton. “Lock Every Door Audiobook on Google Pixel.” (Thumbnail photo), September 19, 2021.
Sager, Riley. Lock Every Door. New York: Dutton, 2019. Amazon.
Related topics:
Double Book Review: Before The Storm by Christie Golden and Shadows Rising by Madeline Roux
Book Review: Good Morning Good Life by Amy Schmittauer Landino
Recent blog posts:
—Payton
Author Interview: Melanie Martins (Author of Blossom In Winter)
Melanie Martins Blossom In Winter Press Kit Photo.
This is a spoiler-free interview!
Hi reader friends, meet Melanie Martins, author of Blossom in Winter, on romantic thrillers, the writing process, becoming an author, and upcoming news!
Melanie Martins has been quickly gaining attention and avid readers within the bookish community and specifically, the romance community for her spicy, controversial, and heart-wrenching romantic thriller, Blossom in Winter. Known by many as one of the most followed Luxury Travel Influencers on Instagram, Melanie flipped her corner of the internet on it’s head by changing her career path so dramatically—from travel blogging to novel writing—that’s quite a leap!
She did an interview with Thrive Global that gave us insight into the change in her career path, self-publishing and so much more. Now, I’ve gotten the incredible opportunity to sit down with her and discuss her debut novel, Blossom in Winter, which has earned her a 4.7/5-star rating on Goodreads and 4.1/5-star rating on Amazon. Considered on Goodreads as a “real page turner”, “engrossing and addictive” and a “damn roller coaster”, Blossom in Winter is definitely a must-read for Romantic Thriller enthusiasts everywhere.
Blossom in Winter very clearly falls into the Romantic Thriller genre. What do you think of Romantic Thrillers both as a reader and a writer? Have you ever written in this genre before?
Blossom in Winter is actually the first novel I ever wrote. I did write a short novel in Portuguese when I was seventeen but it was just for fun and it never saw the light of day. Although it also had an age-gap and a judge in it. I personally love writing thrilling love stories full of mystery, secrets, and twists and turns—it makes the story-line so much more engaging and different than the usual romantic plots which only focus on the development of the relationship between the main characters. As a reader, I feel much more hooked and entertained when there is an underlying plot going on, leaving me on the edge of my seat, which is probably why I’ve a hard time to connect with a predictable romances that only focus on the relationship with no real external conflict.
Do you think you will write more Romantic Thrillers?
Yes, Blossom in Winter is the first book of a series and the second book “Lured into Love” will have even more thrilling events, twists, and difficult choices our main characters will have to make. Actually, the second book will be even more unpredictable and my goal is to make sure no reader will figure out the ending.
What do you think makes a compelling Romantic Thriller?
The build-up of events that take unexpected turns is definitely a must, along with creating some mystery around a particular character, event, or situation. This is something we see a lot in Blossom in Winter, especially around the Van Dieren’s family. In sum, when the reader thinks she’s got everything figured it out, and the unexpected happens leaving the reader surprised (and sometimes even shocked) is what makes, in my personal opinion, a great thriller.
Can you tell me a little bit about where you drew your inspiration while writing this book?
Romeo & Juliet, first and foremost. It’s by far my favorite story because of the eternal question “How far would you go for Love?” We may question if it was Love or pure lust, but in my opinion, Shakespeare wanted to explore, on a deeper level, the human nature and how far we can go for what we believe in and care about. I adapted the story to fit a contemporary romance, but there are a lot of resemblances—from the forbidden relationship between Petra Van Gatt & Alexander Van Dieren and all the external events that make it even more forbidden, to the ending. The quote from Elizabeth Elliott at the beginning of the book says it all: “There is nothing worth living for, unless it is worth dying for.” which would’ve been the perfect opening quote for Romeo & Juliet too.
What is your writing process like?
I always start with creating a board with the story-line, the external conflicts, the inner-trouble/worries, the characters’ personalities and bios, and how the ending is going to be. When it comes to the writing itself, I never wrote from start to finish, but rather by scenes. I might do the Prologue first and then jump to write a scene on Chapter 15. Since I knew the story-line and how it would go, I wrote the most important scenes first, and then the connecting ones.
Is there anything you’d do differently with your writing process next time?
Not with the writing process itself but rather with the post-writing, which is when the first draft of your manuscript is done.
In an interview with Thrive Global, you advise aspiring writers to write for their readers as opposed to themselves, but I’ve heard quite the opposite from many other writers. I know by this; you mean all works of writing can benefit from a second set of eyes. What did you learn from working through various stages of editing and how do you think it made you a stronger writer?
I worked with 3 editors; my development editor is a creative writing professor at the University of New York and former-executive editor at Harlequin, and the two others worked at Penguin and Simon & Schuster, and even today I’d consider myself an amateur. The best way you learn is actually through your readers and by reading in your genre. And by readers I mean your paying readers— those who pay to read your work. This is where I received the best advice ever. They were cold, harsh critiques but important nevertheless, to improve and become a better writer. I believe editors are great, but sometimes they don’t tell you all the harsh, cold truths you need to hear (they might not even know about them themselves). The more your novel is read, the more opinions you can gather and some of them can be as valuable as the opinion of an editor (and sometimes even better).
I’ve heard you are planning a launch for February. Can you give me any details about that?
I did what is called a soft launch on October 28, which is when you launch the e-book first. The idea of a soft launch is to gather as much feedback as possible and make any necessary adjustment before it goes to print (this is when you do offset/traditional printing of your book, not print-on-demand). On Valentine’s Day, I’ll have the 1st Edition of Blossom in Winter available on paperback which is an offset print. As a new self-published author, I’m a firm believer on gathering as much genuine feedback as possible before it goes to print and the best way to do so is by readers who [willingly] paid to read your work.
I know you made quite a career shift, from travel blogger to self-published author. Now that you’ve taken the plunge into writing, do you notice any overlap? Will you continue to do Luxury Travel Influencing or is writing your focus for now?
Photo by Melanie Martins.
I’m actually a writer at heart. When I was nineteen and a Law school student, all I wanted was to travel to exotic places (think Morocco, Egypt, Maldives, French Polynesia, Seychelles, etc.) and escape my rather boring college life, so becoming a travel blogger seemed the right path to achieve it. My boyfriend and I purchased a camera and we started to create content for hospitality/travel brands allowing us to travel and build my personal brand out of it. However, writing fiction is what I enjoy the most. Eight years ago, I would’ve never been able to write a novel in English since my level was quite basic (I’m French and Portuguese, English is my fourth language). For now, writing and the business aspect of self-publishing is what I want to focus on, but I will definitely continue to collaborate with some of my favorite brands such as the Four Seasons, the Ritz-Carlton, etc. in the future.
What advice would you give to new writers?
First, find your writing style. I realized after finishing my first manuscript of Blossom in Winter (a 125k words manuscript) that I hated reading it on the 3rd person and past-tense. It was so impersonal that I had to change it. I changed from 3rd person to first person but something was missing. Then I changed the past-tense to the present-tense and that was my eureka moment. Multiple first-person points-of-view became my writing style. Second, plan your story. There is nothing worse than not having a planned story-line; you will get stuck and not know what to write about. I wrote my first manuscript in three months because I had everything figured it out beforehand. Third, once you have a first draft, hire a development/line-by-line editor. A development editor will check everything from plot holes, pacing, characters development, etc., and might even do some copy-editing (if it’s a line-by-line editor). Your first manuscript is always horrible, believe me. Once you have a revised version, hire a copy-editor and lastly, a proofreader. It’s an investment, but if you are serious about your writing career, you should do it. Also, read as much as you can in the genre you want to write about.
What book are you reading right now? Do you have a favorite?
I’m currently reading The Kiss Thief (an arranged marriage novel by L. J. Shein and it’s the first time I’m reading from this author). I read mostly dark erotic romances, so one of my favorites is The Dark Duet series by C. J. Robert (for the plot—not the writing style, though). An easier read for me was Comfort Food by Kitty Thomas, but both of them explore Stockholm syndrome which I find fascinating.
Click here to view The Kiss Thief by L. J. Shien on Amazon
Click here to view Captive in the Dark (The Dark Duet Book 1) by C. J. Robert on Amazon
Click here to view Comfort Food by Kitty Thomas on Amazon
Photo by Melanie Martins.
Where can readers find and keep up with you?
I’m mostly active on my Facebook group Blossom in Winter (by Melanie Martins) but they can also find me on Instagram and Facebook under @melaniemartinsblog.
Click here to view Blossom in Winter by Melanie Martins on Amazon
Click here to view Blossom in Winter by Melanie Martins on Blossominwinter.com (Free worldwide shipping)
In closing, I’d like to include my own Amazon review of the book. I’d highly recommend it to every romance reader out there and especially if you enjoy reading Romantic Thrillers.
Click here to view my review of Blossom in Winter on Goodreads
And that’s it for my author interview with Melanie Martins. Have you read Blossom in Winter? If so, what did you think about it? And if not, why not? Get on with it already! I know you’ll love it! Let me know your thoughts in the comments below!
Click here to view Blossom in Winter by Melanie Martins on Amazon
Click here to view Blossom in Winter by Melanie Martins on Blossominwinter.com (Free worldwide shipping)
Thanks for reading my interview with Melanie Martins! If you’re looking for her contact links or where you can find the book, you’ve scrolled a bit too far. No fear though, just scroll up to the section above these pictures ^ and you should find it!
—Payton
How To Write Best Friends to Lovers Romance - That Feels Realistic
Hi writerly friends!
I’m back this week with another romance writing guide. Next week we’ll be discussing how to write believable hate-to-love romance, so I thought it’d be a great warm-up to show you guys how to writer believe best-friend-to-lovers romance. This is obviously a steppingstone and acts as the middle ground between enemies and more-than-friends in hate-to-love romance, so as you might expect, you can’t have one without the other.
However, your characters don’t always have to start out hating each other, they can indeed go from friends to lovers in a single story. Funnily for us, and embarrassingly for your characters and readers, it’s not exactly a straight shot, no—it’s a pretty rocky ride from best friends to lovers and it can be a tricky-to-write trope.
It’s unsurprising that the characters will have a bumpy time getting from one side to the other, as one is decidedly platonic and the other is decidedly romantic, and the transition from friends to lovers can be tough to read, even tougher to write, and often employs tons of awkward exchanges and cringe-worthy moments.
So, how do you write best-friends-to-lovers romance that is realistic and believable to the reader?
Step 1: Embrace The Weirdness
As you might expect, writing best-friends-to-lovers romance stories is going to feel weird, because plot twist, going from best-friends to lovers is weird! Not unearthing any best kept secrets, her—everyone knows it’s a weird shift, especially if you’ve known each other since childhood. So, when writing this trope, don’t shy away from all the weirdness, awkwardness, and embarrassing, gross feelings that happen, because it’s completely natural and these feelings should be present in the story. In fact, the reader should be able to pick up on these feeling and feel weird about it too. Secondhand embarrassment is a thing, and it’s something we want our readers turning pages to get to a point in the story when everything makes sense again and the awkwardness has died down a bit.
However, don’t go so far as to make it unrealistic. Yes, at times the uncomfortableness of the transition should be almost palpable to the reader, but keep the balance between rising and falling tension so that readers stay on the edges of their seats and grit the teeth at all the right moments.
Step 2: Determine Whether the Love is Mutual or Unrequited?
Before we get into the story structure for this trope, ask yourself whether the love between your characters or if it’s unrequited. This is very important to how the story will play out and what choices your characters will make based on their emotions, especially towards the resolution. Both routes can be delicious and heart-wrenching in their own right but know which one you’re going to go with in your own writing, will make the process a lot easier.
Jonah Hauer-King as Laurie Lawerence and Maya Hawke as Jo March in Little Women (2017) Photo by PBS.
To make it easier to chose which path your story will take, I’m going to give you a couple of examples, the first being Little Women by Louisa May Alcott, and the second being Emma by Jane Austen, (and no, I didn’t just pick these two because they involve someone being gifted a piano, but man isn’t that romantic?)
In Little Women, Laurie’s love goes unreturned when Jo tells him she never saw him as more than a friend. This sends him to Europe to avoid his heart break. When he returns after falling for Jo’s sister, being rejected again, and being inspired to do something with his life, he asks Jo to marry him. She rejects him again and ends up marrying someone else, but this story is a prime example of a best-friends-to-lovers romance that took a turn when the love was unrequited.
On the flip side, Emma, by Jane Austen Emma is startled to realize after everything, she is the one who wants to marry Mr. Knightly. When she admits her foolishness for meddling in the romances of others, he proposes, and she accepts. This is a great example of friends who become lovers where the love is returned.
Step 3: Follow The Structure
Alright, now that we got that out of the way, let’s talk about the parts of the BFTL story structure (at least that’s the acronym I’m giving it because that’s just way to much to type every time, sorry, not sorry.)
Whether or not you go by the 3-Act Story Structure, every best-friends-to-lovers romance typically follows this basic format:
Foundation
Set-up
Aha moment
Conflict
Decision
Resolution
Foundation
The first part of the structure for this trope is the foundation, where we are introduced to all core story elements, characters, setting, premise and theme. Here, the reader will get to know what exactly the story they’re reading is.
Set-up
The second part of the structure is the set-up. This is where the meet cute would occur in romance, and for best-friends-turned-lovers romance, it is no different. Introduce the characters, their relationship at this point in the story, and begin laying the groundwork for the transition from best-friends to future lovers.
Click here to read my blog post for creating the perfect meet cute.
While your story might be set preceding or following the formation of your characters friendship, it is important to know how and when they became friends, because if they become lovers later on, this will be an important part in the evolution of their relationship.
Aha Moment
This part of the story is when the characters first realize they are in love with each other. If you chose to go with the unrequited love path, then here, they would learn that one likes the other and decide they don’t feel the same way in return. Consider what path you take for this part because it will really determine how the rest of the story plays out.
Does the one who is rejected continue pursuing their friend romantically, or do they give up on the first try? Does the one who only views their friend platonically have a change of heart and end up with their friend after all? Is it a messy back and forth that never really ends with the two friends becoming lovers? Is the timing ever right? These are all important questions to ask yourself during the aha moment, because it directly drives the following course of the story.
Conflict
Remember the questions I just asked you in the aha moment section? Those questions should be asked and answered in the conflict of the story. Here we see the true feelings come out and the characters will understand the scope of the situation before them.
Decision
Saoirse Ronan as Josephine "Jo" March and Timothée Chalamet as Theodore "Laurie" Laurence (2019). Photo by Wilson Webb .
In the decision part of the best-friends-to-lovers romance, readers will see what choice the characters make based on everything they know at this point and their emotions. They might decide to get together or break up as friends, for good. Everything that has happened has led to this moment and how they react will change the course of their friendship forever. If the love is unrequited, maybe they just stay friends, but it is likely things will be weird and they’ll have to go their separate ways, like Laurie and Jo in Little Women. Perhaps they do end up getting together and marrying with a happy ending such as Emma and Mr. Knightly in Emma.
Resolution
Where do your characters go from here? How does the friendship grow or die after the decisions are made? Is there room for growth as friends and lovers or have they done irreparable damage to a good thing? Unrequited love stories are especially juicy and heart-wrenching in the resolution.
And that’s it for my guide on how to write best-friends-to-lovers romance stories that are believable and realistic. What do you think of these types of stories? Did you like Little Women and Emma? Do you prefer writing mutual or unrequited love? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below, and as always, thanks for reading!