Rating - ⭐⭐⭐1/2
"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."
Middle of the Night is a standalone mystery thriller novel by Riley Sager.
I have been burned by Riley Sager before, though haven't we all? I was willing to give him another chance though simply for the fact that there was green on the cover, and the only book I have really enjoyed thus far of his also had a green cover. That was literally my only reason for picking this up but, thankfully, I didn't have the worst experience reading this.
I spent the majority of this book in a bit of a daze since this was more of a slow burn than I was expecting it to be. While it was sprinkled with good concepts, such as leaving the ball in the yard, the stakes were rather low and the atmosphere was pretty neutral for the majority of the book. When the book did pick up in time for some big reveals, I found that I was either disappointed by it or wasn't surprised which...isn't exactly what you want from a mystery book.
Despite the neutral experience, I didn't have a bad time reading this which is why I ended up giving it a 3.5/5 which is an 'ehh, not bad' rating from me. I will leave you with my biggest takeaway from this book which was this fantastic quote that kind of blew me away because it was a lot more profound compared to the rest of the writing.
"In my experience, men who say they want the truth end up wishing they had settled for the lie."
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