Book Review - Riley Sager's Lock Every Door
Lock Every Door by Riley Sager
Published by: Dutton
Publication Date: July 2nd, 2019
Format: Hardcover, 381 Pages
Rating: ★★★
To Buy
Jules's life has gone spectacularly to shit. But a new job opportunity might just give her the breathing room to get it back on track. She's willing to take it, caveats and all. And there are a lot of caveats. She would be an apartment sitter at the tony Bartholomew. This apartment is one of THE most famous in all of Manhattan. All the residents are rich and famous, some even infamous. So obviously one of the caveats is to not disturb them. She is to come and go and do nothing else. She must never leave the apartment unattended overnight and she must never invite a guest over. Given the opportunity and the life of luxury she would be living, the rules don't seem untoward. Plus, she would be PAID to live a life she could never even dream of. Floor to ceiling windows overlooking Central Park! Views to die for. Only, maybe people did die for them... There are actually a few other apartment sitters in residence and Jules starts to befriend Ingrid, the sitter taking care of the apartment right below Jules that has a convenient dumbwaiter so they can communicate with each other. Ingrid reminds Jules painfully of her sister she lost eight years earlier. So when Ingrid disappears, Jules isn't going to rest until she finds her. She might have forever lost her sister to the wide world, but Ingrid can't just be gone as well! Plus, Ingrid had some very dark theories about what is actually going on at the Bartholomew. The building has a history. A dark history. Also, the building feels as if it's watching and waiting. With Ingrid missing Jules decides to dig deeper. Not just into the Bartholomew's history, but into her fellow residents. She learns that the turnover rate for apartment sitters is quite high. They all jump at the chance to make $12,000 but then rarely do they stay for the length of the job. They disappear in the middle of the night, just like Ingrid. Also, looking back, it seems odd that Jules was asked so much about her lack of family and friends in her job interview. Why would her lack of connections matter? Unless of course the Bartholomew doesn't want anyone looking for you... Jules knows she's probably in danger just looking for Ingrid, but she's been in danger since she took the job. What's one more foolhardy risk at this point?
I remember the first time I walked past The Dakota in New York City. At the time I didn't even register that that was where I was. I had been walking around the Upper West Side and I felt this chill in the air and I noticed that the building I was passing had actual gas lamps around the entrance. Who would have actual gas lamps in this day and age, which admittedly was a few decades back, but still!?! They're so impractical and of another era I was flabbergasted. It didn't even sink in that the entrance they were surrounding was where John Lennon was killed. I just got a creepy vibe off the building and moved quickly to Central Park where I would no longer be in the shadow of this building. Later that day I put two and two together. And oddly enough it wasn't finding myself in Strawberry Fields that did it but talking to a friend of mine about her first experience of New York and what were the sights she most remembered and everything clicked into place. And the vibe I got made sense. John Lennon's death aside, there's a reason Roman Polanski chose this building to be the "Bramford" in Rosemary's Baby. This building feels off, yet at the same time, it feels quintessentially New York. Lock Every Door is Riley Sager's ode to this duality of New York and The Dakota and in extension Rosemary's Baby. The Bartholomew gives you this feeling of what you imagine New York to be but that it never is. Or at least it never will be for you. It's luxury and class, but then, there's the sting. New York is an old city with old money and people set in their ways and the "other" New York is what lurks beneath. What is behind an apartment that is too good to be true? What are you inadvertently sacrificing to "live the dream?" What will be revealed if you dig deep enough? Also there's that pull to not dig, to not look, to just blindly ignore everything and just remember to not pinch yourself in case you wake yourself up. Because why would you want to? You're being paid to live the dream with a hansom doctor, exuding a season two Dynasty Nick Toscani vibe, right next door. I'd be tempted to ignore my sixth sense, wouldn't you?
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