Summerween is a readathon hosted by GabbyReads that runs in early July each year. This year’s readathon was hosted July 5th through 11th with the following prompts: read a book in the dark, read a thriller or horror book, read a book with a night sky on the cover, read a book with 5 words in the title, and read a book set during the summer. For more information click HERE.
Middle of the Night by Riley Sager Genres: Adult, Mystery/Thriller
Published by Penguin on June 18, 2024
Also by this author: Lock Every Door
Format: Audio/Physical (384 pages) • Source: Purchased, Spotify Audiobooks
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THE INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
In the latest jaw-dropping thriller from New York Times bestselling author Riley Sager, a man must contend with the long-ago disappearance of his childhood best friend—and the dark secrets lurking just beyond the safe confines of his picture-perfect neighborhood.
The worst thing to ever happen on Hemlock Circle occurred in Ethan Marsh’s backyard. One July night, ten-year-old Ethan and his best friend and neighbor, Billy, fell asleep in a tent set up on a manicured lawn in a quiet, quaint New Jersey cul-de-sac. In the morning, Ethan woke up alone. During the night, someone had sliced the tent open with a knife and taken Billy. He was never seen again.
Thirty years later, Ethan has reluctantly returned to his childhood home. Plagued by bad dreams and insomnia, he begins to notice strange things happening in the middle of the night. Someone seems to be roaming the cul-de-sac at odd hours, and signs of Billy’s presence keep appearing in Ethan’s backyard. Is someone playing a cruel prank? Or has Billy, long thought to be dead, somehow returned to Hemlock Circle?
The mysterious occurrences prompt Ethan to investigate what really happened that night, a quest that reunites him with former friends and neighbors and leads him into the woods that surround Hemlock Circle. Woods where Billy claimed ghosts roamed and where a mysterious institute does clandestine research on a crumbling estate.
The closer Ethan gets to the truth, the more he realizes that no place—be it quiet forest or suburban street—is completely safe. And that the past has a way of haunting the present.
I read one Riley Sager book before and didn’t love it as much as I had hoped. MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT was much better for me – I’m a big true crime consumer but only if it’s about missing persons and unsolved cases. This book scratched that itch for me for sure.
The story follows Ethan as he returns to his childhood home 30 years after his best friend Billy was kidnapped from the tent they were camping in in the backyard. The crime remains cold and unsolved… until Ethan begins noticing some hints of Billy around the neighborhood. He sets out to solve the mystery with the help of old friends and neighbors.
I really enjoyed this! The way that Sager structured the book is alternating chapters between present day and the day in 1994 when Billy went missing. There were a lot more POVs in the past chapters, which I really enjoyed – they were well-timed with what Ethan was discovering in the present. I was always itching to keep reading; Sager had some kind of cliffhanger or dramatic final sentence in the majority of chapters to keep me hooked.
I don’t want to spoil anything but I loved was the implication of paranormal/ghost stuff throughout the book. There’s a creepy research institute (Hawkins Lab from Stranger Things vibes) behind the neighborhood that played an intriguing part of the story.
I did predict one major element within the reveal but not the entire thing – I’m sure that better sleuths than me would be able to figure it all out though, if we’re being honest. Looking back, there were so many red herrings and plot points that ended up not being relevant to the story. I would even consider some of those things to be plot holes. The ending/reveal wasn’t bad but it’s not like it knocked my socks off. I thought this would be 4.5 stars or more but by the end it was feeling more like 4 stars.
One Perfect Couple by Ruth Ware Genres: Adult, Mystery/Thriller
Published by Simon and Schuster on May 21, 2024
Format: Audio/Physical (400 pages) • Source: Book of the Month, Everand
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Harkening to Agatha Christie’s classic And Then There Were None, this high-tension thriller follows five couples trapped on a storm-swept island as a killer stalks among them—from Ruth Ware, the New York Times bestselling author who “is turning out to be as ingenious and indefatigable as the Queen of Crime” (The Washington Post).
Lyla is in a bit of a rut. Her post-doctoral research has fizzled out, she’s pretty sure they won’t extend her contract, and things with her boyfriend, Nico, an aspiring actor, aren’t going great. When the opportunity arises for Nico to join the cast of a new reality TV show, One Perfect Couple, she agrees to try out with him.
A whirlwind audition process later, Lyla finds herself whisked off to a tropical paradise with Nico, boating through the Indian Ocean towards Ever After Island, where the two of them will compete against four other couples—Bayer and Angel, Dan and Santana, Joel and Romi, and Conor and Zana—in order to win a cash prize.
But not long after they arrive on the deserted island, things start to go wrong. After the first challenge leaves everyone rattled and angry, an overnight storm takes matters from bad to worse. Cut off from the mainland by miles of ocean, deprived of their phones, and unable to contact the crew that brought them there, the group must band together for survival. As tensions run high and fresh water runs low, Lyla finds that this game show is all too real—and the stakes are life or death.
I was super excited to read this book. Ruth Ware is an author where ALL of their books are on my TBR in one way or another but I just somehow have not read any of them yet. I’m glad I started with ONE PERFECT COUPLE though because it was a really fun read that I could not put down.
This book is like RECKLESS GIRLS meets EVERYONE IS WATCHING. It centers around contestants on a new reality TV dating show called One Perfect Couple, where they compete to win prizes on a remote island while getting re-coupled with different contestants to see if they are meant to be with who they came with. Lyla, a scientist, begrudgingly goes on the show with her wannabe-actor boyfriend Nico. When an overnight storm comes to leave everyone stranded, the remaining contestants are forced to band together… or not.
It’s ended up being more of a survivor story first, thriller second. It’s very obvious in the early part of the book who the villain will be and it’s no secret by more than halfway through. There aren’t really any major twists or reveals after this, aside from something (that I saw coming) toward the end. Because Ware set this up as a survival story for the contestants and following their attempts to survive, I wasn’t mad at the lack of mystery/thriller elements. (Sidenote: I have seen other reviews where people did think it was twisty and thrilling though… so maybe go in without expectations lol.)
There were some journal entries peppered in that were fascinating – I realized that my predictions and assumptions (for this element at least) were wrong, and it was so fun. The ending was ironic and wild.
I absolutely think this could be a show or mini-series – I would totally tune in! The “twists” and plot beats were well-paced in a way that could be perfect for TV. Framing it as more of a feminist suspense story would make sense to me personally.
Ohh happy you enjoyed one perfect couple aswell! Which one of hers will you get to next? ☺️ id suggest woman in the cabin 10 (loved the easter egg!)