Middle of the Night by Riley Sager Book Review

Book Synopsis: “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 monsters 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.”

Genre: Thriller 😈

Pace: Medium

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Length: 367 pages, 11 hours, 22 minutes

Format: Kindle, Libby

What to expect👇🏼

✌🏼 Dual timeline
🗣️ Multiple POV’s
👻 Nods to paranormal activity 
🔥 Slow burns
🎢 twists & turns 

💭Review: “I’m having a hard time wrangling my thoughts on this book!

1. This isn’t his best book! Riley has some much better, bigger thrills, bigger twists books. 

2. I was starting to think this was going to be a paranormal book and I was getting pissed 🤣

3. I was not expecting the ending at all! So hats off to that. I also feel like he tied everything together nicely at the end with a nod to paranormal activity which I was good with!

4. I wish this book was a bit more fast paced! I think if it was I would have liked it more. 

Overall, it was a solid read! If you liked Sager’s Home Before Dark, you’ll like this one!”

Have you read this one? What did you think?👇🏼

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SMM: @brandakinsocialfargo
📚Thriller, Mystery, Crime, + Suspense Junkie
2025 Reading Goal: 80 books