Book Review | The House Across The Lake by Riley Sager

July 7th, 2022

Hi Readers!

The House Across The Lake is Sager’s latest twisty, mind-bending page-turner.

Recently widowed actress Casey Fletcher has escaped to her family’s lake house for peace and quiet. She’s been happily losing herself in her thoughts and several bottles of bourbon, until the glamorous couple across the lake catch her attention. They look so perfect – just like Casey and her husband used to be.
But is anyone what they seem?

Casey has a detective sat at her kitchen table.

She has a man bound and gagged upstairs.

Casey will uncover dark truths so life-changing that nothing will ever be the same again.

Riley Sager has become a staple in my house. Me and my Mum have very different tastes and rarely agree on books, but Sager has become a favourite for both of us, which is great because I can finally talk to her about books! It almost feels like a book club, so his books will always be special to me.

In his latest The House Across the Lake Sager does his own take on the nosy neighbour who, armed with binoculas, spies on the house opposite her and sees something that leaves her fearful something terrible has happened. It’s a trope we’ve seen time and again, but Sager has skillfully put his own twist on it, and has created a cast of characters so captivating, he’s made the trope feel entirely new.

I always say this, but Sager is one of the few male authors who can write women without making me want to cringe into a hole. Casey is an unreliable narrator who’s reputation has been ruined by an unsympathetic media. She’s trying to escape the pain of the loss of her husband, but being shipped off to the lake house where he died only brings back those good (and bad) memories attached to him, and makes her spiral even more. She is absolutely certain she isn’t an alcoholic (but the reader knows she absolutely is).

The setting of this book creates an incredible, eerie and isolated atmosphere for this book. I love a thriller where the location is a huge part of the plot and this one added so much tension from the first page. It’s wonderfully paced, and never felt slow or dragging. It was always moving forward and really kept me on my toes.

The epigraph of this book is a lyric by the very talented Taylor Swift, and I can see how that song might have inspired this book, but in the way you would least expect. But if you know the song, don’t think you know the outcome of this book. It, again, twists the meaning of that song in the way you would least expect.

I love that Sager always allows the reader to come to their own conclusion. He lets you assume you’ve got it all worked out, then sends your head spinning. After reading so many of his books I thought I’d got him sussed. I thought I knew better. But no, he still got me!

I think this will be Sager’s most polarizing book yet. Some people will accept the twist, some will think it was a cop out. But if you’ve read Sager before, you know he knows how to write a genius conclusion that brings everything together in a way you weren’t expecting. With The House Across the Lake he knew what he wanted to do and I think he was fearless for doing it.

Riley Sager remains on the small list of authors who has never disappointed. If you haven’t read from him yet, please remedy that!

Thanks For Reading,
Jess X