Monthly Book Reviews: July 2019

Lock Every Door by Riley Sager (BOTM)

One of my favorite authors, Riley Sager, does it again! His books never disappoint. Lock Every Door is a fast-paced thriller that follows Jules, a 20-something living in NYC who’s recently lost her job. She finds an ad for an apartment sitter at a luxurious building called The Bartholomew. She is told she’ll receive $12,000 just for living in the building for 2 months…an offer that sounds (and is) too good to be true. With the arrangement, however, comes a number of rules- no visitors, don’t speak to other residents, and no spending a night away from the apartment. After her friend, fellow apartment sitter, Ingrid, goes missing, Jules begins to unravel the secrets of The Bartholomew and its dangerous past. I really loved this book and I think if I had to rank Riley Sager’s 3 books, I’d put this at #2 (I think The Last Time I Lied might still be my favorite!). This was absolutely unputdownable, especially the second half. The first half of the book (similarly to Sager’s other 2) left me wondering where it was going, but then it was full of twists and turns. I also loved that this took place in NYC since I feel like a lot of thrillers tend to be set in the woods or in very desolate locations…it was a nice change of pace. Would highly recommend!

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

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The Alienist by Caleb Carr

This is a more “classic” book that I’ve had on my to-read list for quite awhile, so when I saw Book of the Month was carrying it as an add-on I jumped at the opportunity! The Alienist takes place in the late 19th century and is narrated by NY Times reporter, John Moore, who gets involved in trying to solve a murder investigation with his friend, Dr. Lazlo Kreizler, a psychologist (or “alienist” as they were called at the time). Moore and Kreizler work with a team of other characters to try and find a local serial killer who has been targeting children of mostly poor immigrant families and killing them in gruesome ways. Its a very long book, and the type of book that does feel long as well. Carr is extremely descriptive with his writing which gets annoying at times when you’re trying to plow through a 500 page novel. However, I did enjoy it, and it really picked up towards the middle and end. I tried to watch the TNT adaptation of this when it aired last year (without having read the book) and I just couldn’t get into it, so this time I figured I would try watching it again while simultaneously reading the book. The wiki for the book has which chapters correspond with which episodes, so I followed that by reading a handful of chapters, then watching an episode. It worked out pretty well, minus a couple minor differences/additions between the novel and show. I definitely liked the show quite a bit more having had the background of reading it. There is actually a sequel called The Angel of Darkness which will also air on TNT (I think next year?) so I’m looking forward to reading/watching that as well!

My rating: 4 of 5 stars