54 pages • 1 hour read
Riley SagerThe House Across the Lake
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2022A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Themes
The Dangers of Drinking to Forget
One of the central themes of the novel is Casey’s experience with alcoholism, and how drinking to forget can lead to dangerous consequences. Casey confesses, “I drink to forget. Which is why I tilt the bottle and bring it to my parched, parted lips. When the bourbon hits my tongue and the back of my throat, all the tension in my mind and muscles suddenly eases. I unclench, like a flower bud spreading open into full bloom” (201). This quote illustrates the allure of drinking to forget, implying that Casey believes a sober self is one hiding their true beauty from the world. This allure proves short-lived, however, as the dangers of alcohol misuse become apparent. Throughout the novel, Casey’s alcohol addiction leads her to repress painful memories, but these same memories are crucial to solving her neighbor Katherine Royce’s crisis. The novel highlights the importance of confronting one’s past to move on from it rather than avoiding it through substance misuse. While Casey is caught in cycles of drinking, she can’t accurately face the past or solve the mystery in front of her.
Casey’s journey to recovery is essential to fully understanding Katherine’s situation and finding a way to stop her husband from attempting to kill her for her wealth. If Casey is repressing her memories, anyone can be suspected as the serial killer, including Tom or Boone. Only when she faces the memories and confronts the fact that Len was the serial killer can she start to let the other pieces fall into place. This also deprives the victims’ families of closure, which weighs heavily on Casey’s conscience. Through this theme, Sager explores how external conflict can be inextricably linked with our internal conflicts.
Furthermore, the novel suggests that drinking to forget is a dangerous coping mechanism that can be a slippery slope that leads to damaging one’s health and relationships. It can be an escape from problems, but ultimately it is not a viable solution. Casey herself notes, “But if you drink too much, for too long, all those well-meaning people in your life who try to understand but can’t eventually give up and drift away” (237). This shows how Casey’s alcohol addiction has harmed her relationships with her support system like her mother and her cousin, Marnie. Furthermore, it impairs her judgment, making her question her own reality. Throughout the novel Casey drinks until she throws up, showing the visceral reality of alcohol misuse and its effects and illustrating that burying one’s memories can make one literally and metaphorically ill.
In the novel, Casey’s struggle with alcoholism is a central theme, highlighting how addiction can be a barrier to solving problems and how sobriety can lead to a better life. The novel also shows how alcoholism can be a destructive coping mechanism that leads to repressed memories and the inability to confront one’s past or move forward. Through Casey’s journey to sobriety, the novel ultimately shows the power of self-discovery and healing to overcome life’s challenges.
Public Life Versus Private Life
In The House Across the Lake, Sager explores the tension between private and public life, portraying public life as a façade that is either crafted by the individual through social media or created by the media to generate interest. Casey Fletcher, the protagonist, is a prime example of an individual who is seen in a certain way by the public. She is frequently called “Troubled Casey Fletcher” by the media, showing how she is perceived. However, Casey has alcoholism and is haunted by a tragic event from her past. When she watches herself perform in her first movie, she thinks: “Watching the performance now, though, I know I must have been acting, even if it didn’t feel like it at the time. In real life, I’ve never been that charming, that bold, that vivid” (141). This shows the disconnect between public perception of Casey as a successful actress and the private reality of her current life. Moreover, the media in the novel is depicted as manipulative and willing to create sensational stories at the expense of individuals’ privacy.
The media is depicted as a hungry force that will create narratives for sensationalism. At the end, after the mystery has been solved and both Tom and Len are dead, Casey notes, “The press lost their collective minds. I can only imagine how many editors needed smelling salts after hearing Mixer founder Tom Royce tried to poison fashion icon Katherine Royce but was stopped by Troubled Casey Fletcher, who had just learned her dead husband was a serial killer” (346). While for Casey and Katherine, these are very personal experiences, for the media they are simply sensational stories that will drive sales. The tension in fame is who gets to control the narrative. A famous person’s identity isn’t entirely in their own hands.
Furthermore, for Casey, her public image is her primary driving motivation to not turn Len when she first uncovers his secret, out of fear of what it would do to her career and public image. She recognizes this decision as a selfish one and it haunts her throughout. Her reputation is marred anyway due to her inability to deal with the trauma of the events, and she is nicknamed “Troubled Casey” and must flee the public eye to the lake house anyway, so her decision to take justice into her own hands was for naught. By the end of the novel, she makes the selfless choice to come forward about Len’s murders. Detective Wilma Anson confirms her fears: “You’re going to spend the rest of your life tied to that man. You can try to distance yourself from his actions, but it’ll be hard. You might not be able to show your face in public for a very long time” (332). However, Casey has learned that sacrificing one’s public image is worth the internal peace gained from doing the right thing. In the end, public life is a façade that can easily be destroyed or manipulated, and one’s private choices are what really matter.
Marriage and Secrets
In The House Across the Lake, the hidden risks of marriage are explored through the characters of Katherine Royce and Casey Fletcher. Both women are married to men they do not truly know and must face the consequences of the secrets kept from them. Katherine, a successful supermodel, is married to a wealthy businessman, Thomas Royce, who secretly attempts to kill her for her money. Casey is married to Len, a screenwriter with a dark secret. Sager portrays marriage as a risky endeavor, one where the people you think you know best can often be the ones with the most to hide.
Katherine and Casey’s marriages are built on lies, secrets, and deceptions. Both women are forced to confront the truth about their husbands and their marriages, and in doing so, they face the danger that comes with discovering the truth. For Katherine, the danger is physical, as she must protect herself from Thomas, who is willing to do whatever it takes to get his hands on her money. For Casey, the danger is emotional, as she must come to terms with the fact that her husband, whom she thought she knew so well, has been keeping a terrible secret from her. When Casey uncovers her husband’s secrets, she is fundamentally changed; “I hated him for destroying the life we had built together, erasing five wonderful years and replacing them with this moment of him weeping and begging and grasping for me even as I recoiled” (267). Because she is linked to him as his wife, she also feels she bears some responsibility for his actions. This comes to fruition when she sacrifices herself alongside him to save Katherine, showing how one destructive person in a marriage can harm both individuals.
By portraying marriage as a risky endeavor, Sager suggests that it is important to be aware of the dangers of keeping secrets from your partner, and to be willing to confront the truth, no matter how painful it may be. Casey knows this well from her traumatic discovery of Len’s crimes, and her understanding of the lies that can hide in a marriage is what makes her aware that something is off with the Royces:
The only thing I’m certain of is that I regret ever picking up these binoculars and watching the Royces. I knew it was wrong. Just like I knew that if I kept watching I was eventually going to see something I didn’t want to see. Because I wasn’t spying on just one person. I was watching a married couple, which is far more complex and unwieldy. What is marriage but a series of mutual deceptions? (90).
While marriage is a relationship that binds two souls together regardless of the secrets, lies, and unspoken desires that each partner keeps hidden from the other, Sager also shows that those who have suffered from deception in their marriage may become more acutely aware of the struggles in the marriages around them. Exploring their own relationships through the lens of watching others’ struggles helps individuals heal themselves.
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