Unfortunately this is probably my final Riley Sager straw. There was enough juice here to keep me from DNFing, good cliff hangers that made reading this propulsive despite poor writing and kinda bonkers plot points. I wish Sager (in most of his books) would just go firmly paranormal horror or realistic thriller, the bait and switches often felt like flimsy papering over plot holes. 

There were maybe too many elements to this one that were not fully explored, which left me wanting more. The insular, kind of weird neighborhood full of strange characters? Could have leaned into a kind of Stepford Wives vibe! The creepy and mysterious institute in the forest? Could have gone full occult! It’s like he couldn’t decide what book he wanted this to be so halfway chose a bunch of them.

The ending was… weird! And mostly unsatisfying! I guessed Ashley had something to do with this, but like… an accident and a pretty half-assed cover up? Also, it would be pretty suspicious to have your daughter show up late after hitting a deer with a car on the same night a child disappeared. Another gripe I had is that I honestly forgot Andy existed, so his inclusion at the very end felt surprising but more so in a “wait, Billy had a brother this whole time?” kind of way. If he was built up slightly more, I think that could have been more successful. Also Ethan adopting Henry?! lol don’t get me started.

This was readable and twisty and interesting enough, but I leave this feeling immensely dissatisfied.