Many thanks to NetGalley and Penguin Dutton for sending me an e-ARC copy, in exchange for my honest review.

The cover is stunning. Simple, retro and I love that! The house I imagined was different than the one on the cover though, haha.

When I received this book, I was excited to read it. It was my second book by Riley Sager. The first being Lock Every Door, that was a good read. However, I was led to disappointment. Middle of the Night was just not it.

It was dull and at some point there were stuff that kept on repeating throughout the book. Uneeded fillers.

The main character, Ethan Marsh, was rather unlikable. At the beginning he was meh, then he got annoying with his liking of jump to conclusions. As a child he was spoilt, since he was an only child of an upper-middle class family. Reading his POV as a child I started to realise he was self-centered. Even as an adult he sort of still was. Made me dislike him, sorry.

Billy was Ethan's best friend from next door. Although, if Ethan had options, he wouldn't have chosen Billy as his best friend. There was Russ Chen, another neighbour but that boy wouldn't have been an option either. Ethan was lowkey embarassed of Billy, especially of Billy's big interest for ghosts. He tried to surpress this embarassment, until one day he exploded.

Honestly, the part when Ethan had his outburst, my heart broke for Billy. I get Ethan's anger- at how he was peer pressured to trespass earlier that day, and felt left behind by Billy. But what he said was way harsh.

I believe Billy knew people called him strange, but he didn't care. Except when his own best friend thought so too, and this best friend also told him to go die so that Billy can meet ghosts...I think that broke Billy. Like the boy woke up in the middle of the night, decided to go to the Institute (walking through the freaking woods, BAREFOOT), and wouldn't have minded if he didn't return home. He wanted to crossover...He was ten.

I liked the existence of the Institute being a mile behind their houses, and I wished the author had written something more wow regarding the Institute.

The killer's identity was surprising for me, even though I should have suspected them. I guess it was the audacity of them acting all fine throughout the book threw me off slightly.

And oh!

I hated Andy's reaction when he found out the truth. Like thanking her...I mean I get he was glad that he found out the truth. She might have killed Billy on accident, but she threw the body into the lake, and kept the secret for 30 YEARS! Ashley deserved jail.

The ending was definitely fiction, since there's no way it was that simple for someone unrelated to the child to gain custody (to adopt) them that simply.

A fun and exciting book! I couldn't put it down (thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for letting me read it early).

The story is about Ethan, who goes back to his old house after 30 years. His best friend Billy disappeared from his backyard in the middle of the night when they were kids.

Back in his old neighborhood, weird stuff starts happening, and Ethan tries to figure out what happened to Billy.

This book is a fun mystery, it's not too scary and it's easy to read. I kept guessing what might have happened to Billy, and my ideas kept changing.

I liked that the story takes place in a small neighborhood and that we also hear from some of the neighbors. The ending surprised me, but the clues were there all along!

If you like easy-to-read mysteries, this is a great book for you!

Having read and thoroughly enjoyed my first Riley Sager book last year, I was excited to see what Middle of the Night had in store for us! For me to feel invested in a book I need intrigue from the very first chapter, and with Middle of the Night I was immediately gripped by the mystery of it all and the question of what had happened to Billy all those years ago.

I quite liked that the book was primarily set on one small street, and it really encompassed that “moving back to your hometown” feeling. The multiple POVs kept the dual timelines interesting, and each gave us another piece of the puzzle when it came to finding out what happened to Billy (and that came as a surprise to me!). For me, the only real downside to this book was the introduction of the supernatural - I’m just not the biggest fan of supernatural elements appearing in storylines that could otherwise be realistic.

Overall, I really liked Middle of the Night. Whilst I didn’t enjoy it quite as much as The Only One Left, it was still a great read and one I would recommend.

Thank you to NetGalley and Hodder Books for this arc in exchange for my honest review

Rating: 3⭐️
I recently got the amazing opportunity by Net Galley to read the ARC for this book and let me tell you it did not disappoint.

Middle of the night takes you on a wild ride around the disappearance and emotions regarding 10 year old Billy’s disappearance.

This book displays trigger warnings of: drug addiction, bullying, child loss, homophobia, grieving, depression and anxiety.

Things that I liked about this book:

Firstly, the cover of this book is stunning, eye-catching and possibly my favourite Riley Sager cover.
I LOVED the paranormal atmosphere and aspect to this book because it took it from an ordinary, overdone close nit neighbourhood thriller ‘who done it’ and make it special and unique. I also loved how Riley wrote all of the characters and made them all distinguishable to the reader as this has been a problem of mine with thrillers in the past. I think that the past and present timeline in the book also helped with this. Another thing to note is Riley’s ability to drip thrilling and suspenseful elements into his books at the perfect timings to keep the suspense for the reader and engagement throughout.

Things that I disliked about the book:

The first thing to note is that I wasn’t connected to the main character Ethan and found him very boring and repetitive. This made his segments of the book really unexcitable to read about.
I also didn’t like how the story seemed to be thrown together. There would be times in the book where something big would happen and the question as to ‘why’ was never answered. This led to a very jumbled storyline. I also found it to be very predictable being able to guess what was going to happen which isn’t ideal for a thriller book. Whilst I still really enjoyed this book this is ultimately what led to my 3⭐️ rating as this wasn’t the case for me in the other Riley Sager books I’ve read.

The Middle Of The Night by Riley Sager

Well this book certainly had me hooked, I raced through it.

Ethan has returned to his childhood home 30 years after his best friend Billy went missing in the middle of the night whilst camping in Ethan's back garden.

Strange things start going on in the small cul de sac where Ethan now lives (along with most of the original neighbours who lived there when Billy went missing) and he begins to investigate Billy's disappearance.

This is a fun, not too heavy thriller that you do need to suspend a bit of belief to enjoy. I whizzed through it fully enjoying creating theories about what happened to Billy, changing my mind every few chapters.

I always love a little neighbourhood setting and enjoyed the short chapters from other neighbours that filled in some extra details.

The reveal was interesting and I realised the clues where there all along, I just hadn't noticed them! Not such a top detective after all!

Definitely recommend this fun easy read!

Middle of the Night is a slow burn thriller with a supernatural edge, made richer by an underlying layer of grief and trauma. I’m not sure the events all stand up to close scrutiny after reading, but that didn’t bother me in the journey - I was invested in the central characters - both present and during the period leading up to the vanishing of Billy - and enjoying the ride.

Riley Sager is one of my auto-read authors, having read nearly all of his work minus Final Girls.

Middle of the Night starts off quite slowly as Ethan establishes himself back in his childhood home which is filled with the bad memories of his best friend going missing.

10 year old Billy was suspected of being abducted from Ethan's backyard after a night of camping together. With very little evidence and no leads it continues to plague a guilt ridden Ethan for 30 years as he was the last one to see his friend alive.

Admittedly in the first half I didn't think that I was going to like the book very much as there wasn't really a lot going on but at the halfway mark things got moving.

I loved that the book changed from past and present and really honed in on Ethan's grief and trauma of the fateful night that changed everything.

The story has twists, turns and emotional moments that really make you feel for those involved.

The conclusion does have a lose thread that could easily unravel the plot but we aren't going to pull it.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for the arc.

Middle of the road for me rather that ‘middle of the night’.

Was very excited to read and I love the cover.

Have read and enjoyed several other books by the author.

I really liked the ‘ghost’ parts and stories and liked Henry as a character. Also enjoyed the premise and the settings - the Institute and Hemlock Circle.

What I felt was less effective was the story (predictable to me) and the characterisation. Ethan was frustrating as a character and the sections reflecting the earlier time period a little cheesy. The ‘bow’ at the end was a bridge too far in reality. Hard to comment without any spoilers but overall a lot of development for a small fizzle ending.

Overall, the writing is fast-paced and enough to engage most readers but not enough ‘wow’ for me and too many minor annoyances to rate any higher than average.

Thanks to Netgallery/author and publishers for the e-book advance copy.

I’m a HUGE Riley Sager fan so I was excited to be asked to read an ARC of this book. I anticipated a gripping storyline and boy, did I get it! From page one I was sucked into this unputdownable thriller.

We start with 10 year old Ethan and his best friend Billy, camping out in the backyard. However, the next morning, the tent is slashed open and Billy is nowhere to be found. Ethan doesn’t remember anything and can’t help – Billy is gone – missing without a trace.

The story jumps between the past and present time, when Ethan is now living back in his old childhood home. Weird things have started to happen – he senses a presence which he is certain is Billy. Baseballs are tossed into the backyard, reminiscent of his secret code with his old best friend for when he wants to play.

Besieged by nightmares of that fateful night, Ethan tries to get to the bottom of the decades old mystery. What happened to Billy? And did the mysterious Hawthorne Institute have something to do with the disappearance?

Riley Sager once again has crafted a tantalising mystery, that keeps you guessing right until the end.

Many thanks to Hodder & Stoughton & NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to read this outstanding story. I predict a huge bestseller!

This book had everything from Sager that I love, great writing, intriguing plot and a touch of the supernatural. One of my favourite books by him is Home Before Dark and this was exactly the kind of story I was yearning for by him. Absolutely loved it and delighted I got to read it early! Sager will always be an auto buy author for me!

Really enjoyed this easy to read creepy thriller. Dual timeline, good interesting plot line and could see this doing well as a tv spooky thriller. Thank you NetGalley, the publisher and the author for the advance copy.

Middle of the Night by Riley Sager is a creepy tale about a child, Billy, that goes missing. Years later, a badly decomposed body is discovered. Is it Billy? Who killed him? I enjoyed this novel but it didn't grip me like a normal Riley Sager book. 3 stars

Riley Sager does it again. He is fast becoming one of those authors who you can count on the deliver time and time again.

In Middle Of The Night, we follow the disappearance of Billy, missing after spending a night camping in his friend, Ethan's, garden in what is supposed to be a quiet, safe neighbourhood.

The story largely follows Ethan who has moved back into his parents house after thirty years which brings back memories of Billy going missing all those years ago.

It's difficult to say anymore about where the story goes next for fear of spoilers however be prepared for an unnerving, twisty, supernatural story to keep you guessing up until the final, satisfying conclusion.

Thanks to Netgalley and Hodder and Stoughton for an ARC in exchange for an honest review

Riley Sager is a very hit or miss author for me. Some of his thrillers were a lot of fun to read, some didn't work at all, and most are kind of middle of the road. His newest thriller, "Middle of the Night", falls more in the latter category.

This time around we follow a male protagonist, which I was actually excited about because I don't think Sager is the absolute best at writing his female protagonists and it was something new at least.

The mystery is an intriguing one: two boys camp in a garden in their very safe little suburban neighbourhood, but in the titular middle of the night, one of them gets taken right out of their tent - and the other has to grow up with the heavy burden of having to live with the fact that he might never know what happened right next to him in that fateful night. The setting is equally great: a small neighbourhood where everyone knows everyone yet really, noone knows anyone, and all around them a vast dark forest in which hides a mysterious, now closed institute where allegedly once eerie experiments took place. Are there paranormal elements at play? Is that why noone has ever found out what happened to poor Billy all these years ago? And not just that - when Ethan, the surviving boy, returns to the neighborhood as an adult, weird things start to happen. Things that slowly make him suspect that Billy's ghost might have come back to haunt him, to urge him to finally find out the truth about that night.

While the premise is intriguing and I was absorbed in the mystery for a while, I did struggle a bit with a few issues. For one, Ethan is just a terrible protagonist. He is bland, boring, has no personality at all really, and he's so very ineffective and passive through the entire thing. The pacing is also rather slow, and while I actually enjoyed the dual timeline narrative exploring both the present and the past leading up to Billy's disappearance, the fact that the latter is told from so many character's perspective really brought to light just how uninteresting these characters were. A lot of these chapters were just there to present pretty ineffective red herrings, they didn't contribute much to the plot if at all. The pacing really suffered from that.

Add to that the predictability of some of the revelations and an ending twist that could have been actually really great, but fell flat because of the bland characters and lacklustre lead-up, and this really wasn't that great of a thriller. It's not a bad one either, it's just very forgettable. So for that, it sits somewhere between 2 and 3 stars for me.

I'm so sad to say that this book just wasn't for me! I've really enjoyed other novels by the author but I just felt that this one was dragging me through the chapters, rather than me frantically reading to find out what was going on.

I found the main character very one-dimensional. He only seemed to have one single personality trait which was 'my friend was kidnapped from a tent in the middle of the night'. Which was a shame, because I haven't found that with other books this author has written.

That being said, I may not be the ideal target audience for this kind of thriller as I don't generally enjoy those which are centered around relationships and events in the characters past. I think I felt that a lot of clues and hints just turned out to the paranoia on the MCs part and the 'mystery' was actually not a mystery at all? When I read the 'truth' about what had happened I honestly felt a bit deflated.

I'll still pick up the next book Riley Sager publishes - this one just wasn't for me!

Thank you to netgalley and the publisher for this ARC

Another fairly quick read, telling the story of Ethan who is desperate to find out what happened to his childhood friend Billy, who disappeared when they were camping out in Ethan's back yard.

Had an almost Stranger Things vibe about it, with the creepy institute in the middle of the woods.

Yes, the police made a bit of a hash of the original investigation, but these things do happen in real life too!

4.5 stars from me

Thank you so much to the publisher for providing me with an E-ARC copy of this book to review before it's publish date.

Wow! Where do I start! Riley Sager has done it again!!! This time a thriller with a ghost story to boot. I read this book in a couple of days as it had me on the edge of my seat, with the twists and turns it kept providing. Sager always delivers a fantastic twist which is worth the wait. The story gives a modern day version of your 'typical' ghost story but it also touched upon other themes, including friendship, loneliness, grief and heartbreak. You cant help buy 'feel' for the main character, Ethan, and the struggles he faces throughout his life...

This is an easy 4.5 stars from me and I can't wait to read more from Sager. Fantastic!

Riley Sager is very hit and miss for me with his novels

Some are absolutely brilliant, and others just meh

Middle of the night falls in the latter category and did not scratch my thriller itch for me

10 year old Ethan and best friend Billy are camping in the back garden, but when Ethan wakes up the next morning, Billy has vanished and is never seen again. 30 years later, Ethan returns to the neighbourhood when messages are left for him like Billy used to when they were kids. Ethan questions if Billy is actually alive and tries to solve the mystery.
As with all Riley Sager books, you won’t be disappointed with this standalone offering. Detailed setting and characters build up a scene you can really see and feel. You long for Ethan to find out the truth of that fateful night. With flashbacks to Ethan and Billy as children and the events leading up to that night. You start to suspect all residents with some involvement, but the truth is finally revealed in the anticipated twist.. 5 star plot and writing style.

I agree with the other negative reviews. Apologies but I couldn't force myself to read the entire book because it was too slow and not thrilling at all. There's nothing new here, and nothing interesting either, unfortunately. Just repetitive sentences, phrases and scenes, over and over again. I dnf'd at about 60%. I was hoping it got better but I was having to force myself to read it, a sign a book is not for me.