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Mystery, Sacrifice, and Cultism: A Comparison of Riley Sager’s “Lock Every Door” and “Rosemary’s Baby”

Overview of “Lock Every Door” (SPOILERS): Jules Larsen gets a job as an apartment sitter at the Bartholomew, one of Manhattan’s most famous and secretive buildings. After losing her job and her boyfriend in the same week, forcing Jules to move out and crash on her best friend’s couch, this job opportunity is a miracle and seemingly too good to be true. When a fellow apartment sitter goes missing, Jules takes it upon herself to dig deeper into the history of the hotel and its wealthy tenants, not know that she has put a target on her back. As she peels back the layers of the hotel’s sordid past, nearing the pinnacle of her investigation, Jules is attacked and held hostage by the tenants of the Bartholomew, discovering that they are all working together to hire and kill the apartment sitters. They find young people who have nothing to lose - no money, no family, no friends - and perform surgery on them to provide any ailing tenant with a fresh, new organ, their goal to extend the “important” lives of the wealthy by taking from the poor.

This was my first Riley Sager novel and I was pleasantly surprised with how captivating the language is, as well as the structure of the story and how Sager was able to build all of the characters and tie up loose ends within 368 pages. The story was very reminiscent of “Rosemary’s Baby,” from the location, to the relationships of the characters, and finally, the overwhelmingly cultism. I was excited to delve deeper into both stories, seeing how Jules’s and Rosemary’s experiences compare.

Location

The Bartholomew and The Bramford are both historic apartment buildings located near Central Park. Unlike the tenants of The Bramford, however, the tenants of The Bartholomew were of upper class or celebrity status, and were meant to be left undisturbed by the young apartment sitters. Though it can be assumed that those living at The Bramford were wealthy, there was no indication based on behavior, or more blatant indications like fashion. From the beginning, Jules is separated from the glamorous lives of those living around her, making it clear that she is not an equal. She is told not to bother the tenants, and each time she had a seemingly private conversation, whether it was with a tenant or another sitter, there were immediate repercussions - the gravest being the disappearance of Ingrid, the sitter she befriended.

Cultism & Character Relationships

Looking at the cults from both stories, we can see that they each have a shared focus: using the human body to achieve a goal representing their beliefs. Jules’s background was like chum in the water, literally checking off every one of Leslie Evelyn’s boxes. Jules was unemployed, had no family left after her parents’ and sister’s passing, and had no money saved, solidifying her need for the job. The immediate separation of tenants based on class helped to make the need for secrecy seem normal, when it really was the driving force behind their cult. Preying upon the lower class helped the upper class continue their legacy, turning The Bartholomew into a kind of living museum. Using the bodies of the apartment sitters , organs were removed and given to tenants in need of transplants. Greta Manville, the author of the famed novel “Heart of a Dreamer” based in The Bartholomew hotel, utilized her closeness to Jules to get a healthy kidney. 

This is much like Minnie Castavet, Rosemary Woodhouse’s intrusive neighbor, who created a relationship with Rosemary in order to manipulate her mind and body, which led her to carrying Satan’s child. Two women who, compared to their young, misguided counterparts, are advanced in age, falsely compassionate in their demeanor, and who are set on “helping” these young ladies to lead them into their own trap. Unfortunately, Rosemary is forced to accept her fate after her child is born, whereas Jules is able to escape despite her post-surgery injuries. Nevertheless, the fight and tenacity in both women amplified the stories by challenging those who expected them to easily succumb to their fates.

Blind with Love

With the protagonists not feeling comfortable in their own homes nor being acquainted with the other tenants, Rosemary and Jules both confided in their partners/romantic interests. Jules first meets Nick, the handsome young doctor living at The Bartholomew, after she gets cut by a piece of broken glass in the hotel lobby. Naturally, Nick is very appealing - attractive, gentle, down-to-earth - imprinting on Jules and planting a seed of security. Over the course of the novel Nick proves to be trustworthy by coming to her aid when she has an unexpected visit from her cheating ex-boyfriend, and more importantly, when Ingrid goes missing. He is eager to help Jules find Ingrid and goes so far as to sneak her into Ingrid’s apartment, standing guard while she searches for possible clues. This was an impactful moment in the story as it led the reader to believe Nick’s intentions were genuine. Up until that point, every character that the reader was meant to question - Leslie Evelyn, Ingrid, Charlie the doorman - displayed behavior that indicated obvious distrust. So when Nick turned out to be the one posing as Ingrid texting Jules, the audience is just as shocked as she is. The foundation of trust and companionship collapses, leaving Jules with no one to rely on but herself.

This is similar to the evolution of Rosemary and Guy Woodhouse’s marriage. With the young couple freshly moved into a new apartment and Guy just beginning his career as an actor, they rely on each other to work through these changes. However, when Rosemary is at the peak of her suspicion, Guy is around less and less, making business connections and building his career. A particular turning point occurs after Rosemary’s “nightmare” of Satan sleeping with, waking to find gruesome scratch marks across her back. When she asks Guy about them, he hides the truth with the disgusting lie that he had done that to her during sex after she had passed out from a night of drinking. Though it is a lie, it leaves the audience with a bad taste in their mouths. Not only does he come across as a predator, but he disrespects Rosemary by dismissing her concerns and convincing her that she is overreacting. In the end, Nick and Guy prove to be monsters as Nick conducts surgery on Jules and Guy joins the tenants of The Bramford in welcoming Rosemary’s new spawn.

These elements, along with the author switching narratives from past to present, allowed the tension to build from a low rumble to a high-pitched scream by the end of the novel. It is always difficult to stray from the authors you love and are familiar with, but I was not disappointed this time around. For anyone looking for a great thriller, this one is worth checking out!

[crackedspinesnodogears]

Welcome!

Hi there! My name is Leah and I am a constant reader. Over the years I have found and befriended other constant readers, treasuring them like artifacts ripped from ruin and polished to a shine, and have come to realize just how impactful our conversations have been. 

Discussing books is not just a way to fill dead air - stale words crowding into conversation lulls - but it elicits excitement, frenzy, and diverse perspectives of a shared world. Whether your love of reading was sparked in a bookstore, library, at school, or just one fine day out of the blue, it binds people together, building communities that offer a sense of comfort, free thinking, and safety.

In an ideal world, I would only have discussions about books. Don’t even try talking to me about anything else:

🧑: “Hey Leah, how are you?”

👩: “Hm, kinda feeling like Alan from Stephen King’s short story, ‘Riding the Bullet.’ Conflicted, nostalgic, a little afraid...have you ever read anything by Stephen King?”

You know what I’m talking about, fellow reader, which is what brings us both here. So, let’s get to the good stuff, shall we?

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