A century-old disappearance, a haunted island, and a leading lady who might be walking straight into the same fate as the woman she’s playing — Riley Sager’s latest thriller wastes no time announcing itself as this fall’s must-read gothic chiller.
In 1926, five mediums vanished from the isolated commune of New Avalon on Vermont’s Lake Faraday, leaving nothing behind but five empty dresses hanging from an oak tree and a diary belonging to one of the missing women, Daisy Rue. A hundred years later, struggling actress Marin Keane lands the role of a lifetime playing Daisy in a film dramatizing the unsolved case — only to find herself stranded on the same island, cut off from the outside world, as history appears to repeat itself. Sager splits the narrative between 1926 and 2026, letting the two timelines circle each other until the line between reenactment and repetition blurs.
Sager’s real gift here is mood. The remote lake, the abandoned commune buildings, the sense of a landscape that has quietly kept a secret for a hundred years — it all builds a genuinely unsettling atmosphere that blends paranormal horror with the claustrophobia of a locked-room mystery. The dual timeline is well-paced through the first two-thirds of the book, and Marin is a compelling enough guide that readers will want to stay stranded with her even as the walls close in. Fans of Sager’s earlier isolated-setting thrillers will recognize his knack for turning a single location into its own character.
Reaction to the book has landed on a familiar Sager pattern: strong marks for atmosphere, softer ones for the machinery underneath it. Several reviewers have singled out the first half as some of his most effectively creepy work yet, praising how the dual timelines feed off each other’s dread. But a fair number of critics have also flagged the back half, arguing the flurry of late twists arrives faster than the plot can support, leaving some of the mystery’s finer threads — particularly around what actually happened to the five mediums — feeling more asserted than earned. It’s a split that seems to depend on what a reader wants most: if the vibe of the ride matters more than a tightly buttoned ending, the reception skews positive; if you’re reading for the puzzle, it cools.
“The Unknown” is Riley Sager operating at his most atmospheric, even if the landing isn’t as clean as the takeoff. It’s a worthy pick for readers who want a gothic, slow-burn creep-out with a dual-timeline hook, and its status as an instant #1 New York Times bestseller suggests plenty of readers are along for the ride regardless of the ending’s stumbles. Just don’t go in expecting every empty dress on that oak tree to get its due explanation.
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