The House Across the Lake
by Riley Sager
narrated by Bernadette Dunne
Blurb:
Casey Fletcher, a recently widowed actress trying to escape a streak of bad press, has retreated to the peace and quiet of her family’s lake house in Vermont. Armed with a pair of binoculars and several bottles of liquor, she passes the time watching Tom and Katherine Royce, the glamorous couple who live in the house across the lake. They make for good viewing—a tech innovator, Tom is rich; and a former model, Katherine is gorgeous.One day on the lake, Casey saves Katherine from drowning, and the two strike up a budding friendship. But the more they get to know each other—and the longer Casey watches—it becomes clear that Katherine and Tom’s marriage is not as perfect and placid as it appears. When Katherine suddenly vanishes, Casey becomes consumed with finding out what happened to her. In the process, she uncovers eerie, darker truths that turn a tale of voyeurism and suspicion into a story of guilt, obsession and how looks can be very deceiving.
My Reaction:
I listened to this audiobook while doing some patchwork quilting. This was perfect for that—interesting to listen to, but not too complicated to follow while cutting, sewing, and pressing.
I suspect that the format (audiobook vs. text version) may affect how I rate a book. It takes less of a commitment in time and effort to simply listen to a book while I'm doing something else, so I might tend to rate an audiobook less harshly. Also, I'm swept along with the flow of the story and am less likely to stop, think, and poke holes in the plot. Or become annoyed by something. And even if I am annoyed, it's not easy to highlight that section and to remember for my review.
Anyway! I did enjoy the book, mostly. I wasn't thrilled when it turned out that the main character is an actress (just... meh), but later on I suppose it turned out to be important to the plot... In any case, I was mildly amused by the fact that the main character and her mother were clearly inspired by Carrie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds, even more so because the narrator sounded a lot like Carrie Fisher.
However, that posed a bit of a problem, as well, because the narrator, while very talented at narration and probably a big part of why I enjoyed the book, sounds much older than the character is supposed to be. Even after learning that the character is in her 30s, it's hard to picture a woman that age when you're hearing her thoughts and words in the voice of an obviously older woman. Just not a good fit in that way, unfortunately. (After searching other reviews, I see that I wasn't the only one to make this observation. Not just me—though, is it ever?)
As for the plot... I don't think there's much I can say without getting into spoiler territory. It starts off as you'd expect, especially if you've read the blurb. It's very Rear Window-ish, which is never a bad thing, as far as I'm concerned. I see a lot of reviewers didn't like the main character's excessive drinking/alcoholism, and I agree. It's been used too often in too many popular books over the past several years, and it wasn't particularly fun to read, even on the first time around. However, I don't mind travelling over familiar ground in terms of the "spying on your neighbors and deciding there's a crime in the offing" trope. That's pretty much what I expected and signed up for, with this book.
What I didn't expect was a very odd twist that came in the final quarter (or so?) of the book. Again, I can't tell you much without spoiling the whole book, so I guess I'll just say that it's extremely unexpected and strange, and it comes completely out of the blue. To be honest, I didn't like that twist. It's just too weird for me. I would've preferred something else, but oh well!
This is the kind of thing that would prevent me from recommending the book to many people, because it just feels too outlandish and out of place in a book of this kind (or a book of the kind that I mistakenly thought this was). Some people will love it, but others will find it incredibly annoying and stupid. I think it was pretty stupid, to tell the truth, but I just kept listening, and by the end... Eh, it's fine. Because it still gave me something to think about while I worked on my quilt, so it did its job. And a month from now, I'll have forgotten all about it!
