Reviews tagging 'Alcohol'

Sluit alle deuren by Riley Sager, Roelof Posthuma

15 reviews

traciereads's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical trauma, Violence, and Torture

Moderate: Misogyny, Medical content, Injury/Injury detail, Grief, Fire/Fire injury, Death of parent, Terminal illness, Murder, Death, Classism, Blood, Abandonment, Suicide, Kidnapping, and Trafficking

Minor: Alcohol, Terminal illness, Gaslighting, Slavery, Pandemic/Epidemic, and Drug use

growintogardens's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

I figured everything out at the beginning of the book, so a bit disappointed, but it's got some good tense moments. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Classism, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Kidnapping, Murder, Death of parent, Gaslighting, and Trafficking

Moderate: Confinement, Toxic friendship, Violence, Medical content, Stalking, Medical trauma, Suicide, and Toxic relationship

Minor: Infidelity, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual content, and Alcohol

aprilblues348's review against another edition

mysterious tense

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Medical content, Murder, Classism, Death of parent, Self harm, Violence, Blood, and Death

Minor: Alcohol

singalana's review against another edition

emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.75

Things are not going well for our main character, Jules. She lost her job AND her boyfriend on the same day, and she has no money and no family she could reach out to. When she’s offered a job as a housesitter in the famous Bartholomew-building, she accepts, even though the job seems too good to be true. 

Despite the strict rules, she gets acquainted with the other housesitters and a few of the residents. She has started to feel uneasy about the building, and when one of the other housesitters disappears, she is determined to find some answers: is she in danger too?

Despite the fact that her sister has disappeared, Jules seems to get very quickly involved in the other housesitters' disappearance. It's hard for the reader to get emotionally invested in the character's disappearance or understand why Jules is so invested in it.

This book has gothic undertones, but I wish that the uneasiness would have been explored more slowly. There are a few moments the book captures the Gothic feeling, but it passes way too quickly. Maybe this book could have done with a little less investigative twists and turns and a little more atmospheric horror. And I wasn’t a huge fan of how we are shown glimpses of how things are now and working our way to find out how Jules ended up there. 

For New Yorkers, everyone seems to be surprisingly friendly and helpful in this book. 

Things seem to move both too fast and too slow in this book. It certainly is a page turner and I was interested enough to see how it ends, but… More on that in the spoilers. 

Spoilers!

The characters feel a bit archetypical and shallow, and like I said, as I was not very invested in the characters, I wasn't as invested in the story as I would have liked. Especially towards the end we get some very clichéd villain monologue.

And of course she manages to throw herself into one of the villain’s (Nick) arms, who is shady from the beginning. The character’s description takes an interesting turn when she finds out he’s involved in the strangeness of Bartholomew: at first he’s depicted as attractive, and then almost nerdy and creepy. Initially the role of a sketchy male suspect is played by Dylan, whose description changes in a similar manner, but to the opposite direction. Even though I have to admit that I kind of liked Nick's ending.

 

I didn't guess the mystery behind Bartholomew, even though I probably should have. I guess I liked it more when it was Satanic sacrifice. Organ harvesting for the rich seems cheap and boring. In hindsight, the twists were predictable and the book doesn't do much that feels original.

Also I kept expecting to get something out of Jules' sister's disappearance, but apparently it was there only to provide a tragic backstory.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Kidnapping and Medical content

Moderate: Pandemic/Epidemic, Car accident, Fire/Fire injury, Forced institutionalization, and Trafficking

Minor: Death, Violence, Body horror, Blood, Death of parent, Sexual content, Suicide, Classism, Infidelity, Alcohol, Chronic illness, and Cursing

daringreader13's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny mysterious sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Confinement, Cursing, Death of parent, Drug use, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Gun violence, Misogyny, Murder, Suicide attempt, Trafficking, Gore, Medical content, Medical trauma, Violence, Vomit, Alcohol, Body horror, Classism, Blood, Death, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Police brutality, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Terminal illness, Torture, Toxic friendship, and Toxic relationship

chasingpages1's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Suicide attempt, Classism, Medical content, Fire/Fire injury, Death, Grief, Death of parent, Forced institutionalization, Suicide, and Medical trauma

Moderate: Gore, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Cursing, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail, Torture, and Confinement

Minor: Alcohol, Kidnapping, Sexual content, Gun violence, Stalking, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, and Car accident

kyrstin_p1989's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

A well-written psychological thriller, there were several twists I didn’t anticipate. That said, I knew who the bad guy was almost immediately. The premise of the book is good and the execution is great too!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Stalking, Classism, Car accident, Terminal illness, Death, Murder, Alcohol, Toxic relationship, Toxic friendship, Torture, Suicide, Gore, Grief, Trafficking, Fire/Fire injury, Misogyny, Infidelity, Animal death, Blood, Violence, Gaslighting, Deadnaming, and Confinement

kayelina's review against another edition

mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Blood, Violence, Murder, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Trafficking, Body horror, Gore, and Suicide

Minor: Car accident, Cursing, Death, Trafficking, Medical content, Confinement, Death of parent, Alcohol, Fire/Fire injury, Kidnapping, and Grief

foldingthepage_kayleigh's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

This is my third book by Riley Sager and the one that has been recommended to me the most. I know this is many people’s favourite by this author, but while I enjoyed it, I wouldn’t say it was my favourite.

I usually shy away from books with medical content and the last third of the book was so heavy on this topic I felt sick to my stomach. And the FMC was such a limp noodle/damsel in distress—a trope that I found myself constantly being frustrated by. She was so downtrodden that being a final girl never really paid off in the end.

The tension and twists were effective, making it a thriller I didn’t want to put down, so overall I would recommend it if you already are a fan of this genre. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Terminal illness, Suicide, Murder, Infidelity, Death of parent, Classism, Blood, Medical content, Medical trauma, Injury/Injury detail, Fire/Fire injury, Kidnapping, Trafficking, Grief, Death, and Body horror

Minor: Alcohol

sam_maree's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Trafficking, Violence, Blood, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Murder, Alcohol, Cursing, Medical content, Sexual content, Terminal illness, Torture, Chronic illness, Death, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, and Medical trauma