Middle of the Night by Riley Sager
Publication Date: June 18, 2024
Summary from Goodreads:
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.
Confession:
I have read all but one of Riley Sager’s books, and they never disappoint. This new one is just as good as the others, if not in some ways better. Although the characters were not exactly likable, I could relate to them in their grief and the fears that they have carried from their childhoods.
The story is told through two timelines. The present chapters are told only from Ethan’s point of view. The chapters that tell what happened the day and night that Billy disappeared are told by multiple characters, both the adults and the kids that lived on Hemlock Circle.
I could totally relate to Ethan and all that he has been going through. He is totally trapped in his grief and guilt about what happened to his best friend Billy when they were ten. Coming back to live in the house where it all started was very brave of him, but I also think it was what drove him to confront what happened that night. Ethan was not a totally likable character, but he was certainly someone that I felt a lot of empathy for. He was trapped in a spiral of grief of his own making and really struggling to find a way out.
I really liked the chapters that took place on the day that Billy disappeared. Because they were told from so many different characters, it was easy to see how each one impacted what had happened that day. I really liked Billy and the other kids that were involved and it was nice to see them both as children and what they were thinking and also as adults and how their lives were affected by Billy’s disappearance.
The entire book had a feeling of despair and creepiness. The way the chapters were laid out also kept me guessing as to what really happened that night, as well as what was going on in the present. I liked the paranormal aspect of the story and how the author just kept skirting the edge of making you believe in ghosts, but maybe not. The ending was amazingly well done and something that hadn’t even entered my mind as a possibility, but one that was totally plausible. The story did lag a bit in the middle, but the break neck speed at the end made up for that.
If you are a fan of this author’s suspense novels this is one you don’t want to miss. If you enjoy suspense thrillers with themes of loss and grief, as well as facing your past, then this is a book you need to read.
Confessions of a Serial Reader 