Ranking Every Riley Sager Book

Hi everyone and welcome back to the blog! A few years ago, I made it my personal mission to read every Riley Sager book. There's just something about his writing and plot twists that my little thriller loving mind eats up. So, I've decided to rank all his books from my least fav to fav. Let's get into it!

The Unknown - #10

• Newest release

• The vibes: classic ghost story, retro slasher, and gothic atmosphere

• Tropes: Dual timeline, locked-room, unreliable narrator, paranormal

Home Before Dark - #9

• The vibes: gothic estate, gothic New England, unsettling, true crime curiosity

• Tropes: haunted house, hostile small town, return to cursed property, paranormal manifestations

Lock Every Door - #8

• The vibes: gothic apartment horror, high society paranoia, feeling of dread

• Tropes: “too good to be true,” supernatural or human evil, haunted building, paranormal

Survive the Night - #7

• The vibes: cat and mouse, 90s road trip horror, fever dream paranoia

• Tropes: stranger rideshare, holes in the story countdown, unreliable narrator, isolation

With a Vengeance - #6

• The vibes: revenge, everyone is a suspect, passengers turn up dead

• Tropes: locked room mystery, “and then there were none” vibes, family ruins and revenge decades in the making

The Only One Left - #5

• The vibes: decaying cliffside mansion, dark family secrets, Lizzie Borden lore

• Tropes: unreliable narrator, urban legends, sinister caretaker and suspicious employer, limited communication

The House Across the Lake - #4

• The vibes: “rear window” homage, lakeside desolation, supernatural fever dream • Tropes: unreliable and alcoholic narrator, missing trophy wife, slow burn paranoia

Middle of the Night - #3

• The vibes: childhood nostalgia, 90s suburban nostalgia, “friendly neighbor” paranoia

• Tropes: creepy suburban cul-de-sac, “is it a ghost?” ambiguity, institute in the woods, the forced return home

Final Girls - #2

• The vibes: sole survivor of a massacre, missing memories, classic 80s slasher

• Tropes: the “final girl” trauma club, fractured support system, cabin massacre backstory, psychogenic amnesia

The Last Time I Lied - #1

• The vibes: summer camp slasher, lakeside isolation, deception & mind games

• Tropes: return to the scene of the crime, dual summer timelines, urban legends turned real, artistic and haunted paranoia

 Alright folks, that is all I have for this week! Come back next week for another blog post. As always, thank you for reading :)