The Unknown by Riley Sager
When Present-Day Hollywood Reenacts a 1926 Gothic Disappearance
In The Unknown, bestselling author Riley Sager delivers an eerie blend of gothic locked-room horror and psychological mystery set on a isolated Vermont island. Narrated through dual timelines separated by a century, the novel centers on New Avalon, a remote retreat where five women from a spiritual medium commune vanished in 1926, leaving behind only five dresses dangling from an oak tree and a haunting diary by a woman named Daisy Rue. Fast-forward to 2026: struggling actress Marin Keane lands her big break playing Daisy in a movie adaptation filmed on location at New Avalon. However, when a sudden health emergency strands the modern cast on the island, past and present collide as the creepy atmospheric events mirror Daisy’s decade-old diary, and history begins repeating itself as cast members go missing.
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The novel weaves together complex gothic elements, dual perspectives, and a high-stakes mystery structure. In the present day, Marin Keane navigates her role under the direction of ambitious filmmaker Ronan Peters while staying in the very house where the 1926 commune members vanished. As Marin reads Daisy’s original diary passages detailing séances gone wrong and a creeping darkness on the island, real-world horror strikes when her fellow castmates vanish one by one, accompanied by the eerie discovery of individual dresses hung in the same infamous oak tree. What begins as an apparently supernatural haunting quickly shifts into a gripping web of hidden motivations, buried secrets, and conflicting narratives as Marin uses the journal entries to stay alive and solve the century-old conspiracy before becoming its next victim.
“A hauntingly atmospheric locked-room thriller that excels in gothic mood and pacing, even if its tangled final quarter stretches plausibility.”
The Book Guide® Editor
Sager builds an incredible sense of dread and paranoia, utilizing the island’s isolation to create a claustrophobic pressure cooker where every character’s reliability comes into question. While some readers may find the explosive sequence of final twists leaning into theatrical melodramatics, the clever interplay between Daisy’s historic journal and Marin’s modern nightmare keeps you hooked until the final page.
The Unknown by Riley Sager
The Unknown by Riley Sager-
by The Book GUide's Editor4.7/5 Very good
