Hello, Book Nerds! Welcome back to Reading Has Ruined My Life or welcome if you are new. As always, my name is Hannah and I am your captain on this journey into my bookcases.
Out of all the posts on this site, the most popular, by far, is my ranking of Riley Sager’s literary canon. Thank you to everyone who has read my ranking. I do so hope you’ve found your new favorite Riley Sager book. But since I published that ranking, Riley Sager has released two new books.
My ranking is obsolete. It’s incorrect. The Only One Left and Middle of the Night have changed things. I need to re-rank these books. Please give a warm welcome back to the long dormant series: Ranking Every Book By an Author According to this Rando on the Internet! It’s a literary extravaganza today, Book Nerds!
Please note I will only be ranking works published under the name Riley Sager. Riley Sager is a pseudonym for Todd Ritter, and while I have read some of his works under his other pseudonyms I will not be including those in this list. Riley Sager books only! Now let’s meet our contestants!
Vying for the title of Best Riley Sager Book According to this Rando on the Internet we have: Final Girls (2017); The Last Time I Lied (2018); Lock Every Door (2019); Home Before Dark (2020); Survive the Night (2021); The House Across the Lake (2022); The Only One Left (2023); and Middle of the Night (2024).
Now that we’ve meet the contestants, what am I ranking these books on? This tier list is solely based on how much I liked the book or not. I will take the quality of the novel into account as well, and the likability of the characters, but this is mainly me being selfish and ranking them on personal preference. Don’t be offended when your favorite book isn’t mine.
8. Kicking off this list, once again, is Lock Every Door. I do not like this one. It’s a flop. It’s the only Sager novel that I actually dislike. I think the story sucks. By the halfway point of the book there are two possibilities for how the story may end, and the possibility I don’t like is how the story ends. Also, when I was sitting down to create my new ranking I did go back and read some of the books I hadn’t read in a while; I refused to reread this title.
7. Coming in at number seven we have Survive the Night. It’s staying in the same spot as last time. The story itself is interesting, but I don’t like the main character. Her drunk friend died because she left said drunk friend alone at a bar when there was a serial killer in the area. You don’t leave your drunk friends alone at a bar! I don’t care if they’ve pissed you off beyond belief. You drag your drunk friend home by their hair if you need to. I can’t get behind the main character after what she did and I’m not sorry for saying that.
6. Next up is Final Girls. Nothing is wrong with this one. It’s a decent debut and worth a read, I simply feel nothing towards this one. It’s neutral. It’s Switzerland.
5. Finally, a change! At number five we have The House Across The Lake. This read has gone up in my ranking. As I said, I reread a few of these books prior to sitting down and writing this list, and this was one of them. I enjoyed it more on a second read. I said in my original ranking that the main twist really threw me through a loop and I couldn’t properly enjoy the book. But on a second read, knowing the twist was coming, I could sit back, relax, and get the most out of the book. Highly recommend reading this one twice in a row.
4. Alright, here’s where things get interesting! At number four we have a tie! This read and the next are pretty equal in my eyes. So what books am I talk about? First up is The Last Time I Lied. The mystery is great, the first time I read this novel I stayed up all night to finish it. I love horror and thriller books set in summer camps so much. The Last Time I Lied still holds up for me after all these years.
3. Next up in our tie we have the newest Riley Sager read, Middle of the Night. It’s such a simple idea, but the psychological torture the main character goes through thanks to what happened in his youth is *chef’s kiss.* Is that wrong to say? Probably. Anyway, the main character’s mind was my favorite part of this novel. What the main character goes through is real and raw and I love it. The mystery was pretty good too.
2. In the penultimate spot we have The Only One Left. It’s Lizzie Borden meets And Then There Were None. The Only One Left is giving me some serious Agatha Christie vibes. Once again we have a book I stayed up late to finish. I could not put this read down. I think Riley Sager is one of the few authors whose books I'll stay up all night to read when I get my claws on them. I really can't, and shouldn't, do that in my old age but I make the exception for Riley Sager. My body may hate me in the morning, but I have no regrets.
1. Finally, at number one, we still have Home Before Dark! Haunted house tale! That’s it, that’s the tweet. I don’t care how many times I read this novel, it always hits the same. I love it. I love it. I love it! Riley Sager, can you please write another haunted house book? Pretty please! Pretty please with cherries on top!
Congratulations to Home Before Dark. It gets to keep the title of Best Riley Sager Book According to this Rando on the Internet.
Thank you all for joining me today as I re-rank every book in Riley Sager’s canon. I’ll be back in two years to do this all again. Let me know in the comments if you’ve also read all of Riley Sager’s novels, and let me know what your ranking is while you’re at it. I shall bid you all adieu now. I will see you all again next week with a very special review. If you can’t wait that long then you can always check out my podcast Nothing to See Hear. You can listen to the show on Spotify and YouTube. Let me tell you a spooky story or you can listen to me and my two friends talks Scooby-Doo, Disney, gay vampires, wrestling, and just about everything in-between.
Until next time, stay safe, wash your hands, and read some good books for me.
