A Another amazing Eerie work! The pacing was amazing The flashbacks between current times and the past were well done. It would've been very easy for these flips in time to tank you out of the story. However they fortified you instead.

The haunted house trope is one of my favorites within the thriller genre, but it's one that seems difficult to execute well. A haunted house premise always piques my interest, but I often walk away from those reads highly disappointed and wanting more. Therefore, I picked up an ARC of Home Before Dark with excitement, but also a healthy dose of skepticism. I was pleasantly surprised, to say the least, and this book encompassed many of the tropes and themes that I enjoy when it comes to haunted house tales. Add in some paranormal elements, and this book was a chilling success!

This book is disorienting in all of the right ways. The setting is dark, atmospheric, and moody, and a creepy old house adds to the eery tone. The narration jumps back and forth between multiple timelines, building suspense in one timeframe before quickly switching to another timeframe before the big reveal. Add in some questionable and potentially unreliable characters, and you have no idea who you can trust or what everyone's motivations are. With a possible undertone of paranormal elements at play, readers are left questioning everything and looking around every corner trying to predict the next twist or turn. The thrilling elements were perfect in the one - the tone oscillated between creepy and slightly off-putting, to downright terrifying and panic-inducing. The horror relies on many of the common childhood fears, and the vivid descriptions truly transported you back to that sort of mindset as the terrifying scenes unfold.

The pacing was relatively fast, with a few slower moments that allowed readers to catch their breath and soak in the creepy atmosphere. This rendered it a quick read that was easy to follow, and I flew through reading this one! One of the characters wrote a book about the haunted house in question, and I found the inclusion of excerpts from this book within the narrative to be a unique and interesting change of pace. Recently, I've been loving books that include mixed media or a book-within-a-book, and Riley Sager successfully pulled off this setup!

The one component of the book that lowered this from a 5-star rating was the final twist. The entire novel kept me guessing as to how it would conclude, but the ending seemed so far-fetched that there was no way I could have predicted it. The preceding portion of the book didn't appear to lay the necessary foundation to foresee the conclusion, and this seemed like a cheap attempt at thwarting and subverting readers' predictions. Consequently, I wasn't shocked by this reveal, but instead angry and frustrated that there would have been no way for me to arrive at the twist or solution on my own. In hindsight, I wasn't able to identify hints and clues throughout the narrative that would have pointed me toward the true conclusion, and this felt like a lazy and lackluster approach to keeping readers in the dark.

Overall, with the exception of the ending, this book was a wild success for me! It felt very reminiscent of a Stephen King novel, and I loved the small-town feel and creepy, atmospheric setting in a "haunted" house. I enjoyed the thrilling aspects of the book, which helped to keep me on my toes, and the rapidly moving plot was perfectly paced! Sager's writing was compelling, easily digestible, and helped to set the underlying mood and tone throughout the narrative. Sager's other works have been fairly hit or miss for me, and I've yet to have a 5-star read from him. However, I'm willing to give his future works a chance, and I'm still holding out for that 5-star read!

Loved this book! Sager does it again, what a fun ride! I didn't see the twist coming and I appreciated the nuance in the story and the turn. Would highly recommend it!

Riley Sager is become one of my favorite authors! Always exciting and keeps me wanting more. I enjoyed this book thoroughly, even though books involving supernatural or ghost themes aren’t my favorite. This kept me wanting more and gave me more than I could have thought at the end!

I am so pleased to have had the opportunity to be along for the ride of this book. I am not a person who watches scary movies or reads too many thrillers but there is just something about Riley Sager's writing that makes me throw all caution to the wind whenever he releases a new book.

This book was no different. I was going thru a reading slump like most of us have during this time and although I only had access to the egalley, I devoured it. What I like most is how Riley takes a troupe and puts his own little twist on it making it something a bit new. He also has the ability to write his stories from a female perspective without making you feel like he is patronizing her.

A good, realistic twist on The Amityville Horror-style book the story within the story is based on. Several twists keep the ending and the mystery of whether something supernatural is going on a surprise till the end, although one that fits with the narrative we've been presented.

I FINALLY READ THIS. While it wasn't my favorite Sager, it wasn't bad! I did feel like the story got pretty repetitive and it felt like it took so long to read for it being such a short book. I loved the creepy vibes and the feeling of a haunted house. I definitely did not guess that ending to happen so that was a pretty cool reveal especially with how it happened! I really liked the story within the story -- reading Ewan's book simultaneously with Maggie's story where she is trying to figure out what really happened during the week her and her family were at Baneberry Hall. Definitely would recommend this to those who enjoy paranormal thrillers!

Riley Sager has quickly become one of my favorite horror authors. Sager has a way of writing that truly takes you to the heart of the novel and devours you while you're there. Once I start, I cannot put down his novels. This particular work is no exception. Home Before Dark follows Maggie, an adult that spent part of her childhood at a haunted estate, which her father wrote a best-selling book describing the incident. She returns to the estate as an adult and wishes to renovate the mansion to sell it. While there, eerie and curious things start to unfold around her, taking her back to her father's smash-hit book. Is there an explanation? Could it be the local residents that are not thrilled with her return (after all of the fanfare her father's book garnered)? Is it her imagination? Is it a ghost? All of these questions are answered, all you have to do it pick up the book and read it...if you dare.

As a child, Maggie lived at Baneberry Hall with her parents for twenty days before leaving for good under the claim that the house is haunted. Her father wrote a book about their experiences and Maggie is still recognized for the book, even though she’s now an adult. Her father left her the house in his will and he recently passed away. Her parents never would talk about the house or book even though Maggie had many questions. Her parents divorced soon after the book was written. Now that she’s inherited the house, she’s planning on restoring it to sell because that’s what she does for a living. Maggie has no idea what’s in store for her once she returns to Baneberry Hall. She finds old Polaroid pictures and hears odd noises. A record player randomly plays a song from The Sound of Music and then skeletal remains fall from the kitchen ceiling. Maggie talks to town residents, reads articles about the house’s past and even talks to Marta Carver who lost her husband and daughter in Baneberry Hall when they were living there as a family. Every time I thought I had it all figured out, something else happened to reveal more secrets. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book!
A perfect spooky thriller, 5 stars!

𝐑𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠: 4/5⭐️⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣
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𝗪𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐈 𝐞𝐧𝐣𝐨𝐲𝐞𝐝: I really enjoyed the book-within-a-book element of this one. It was fun to switch between the dual timelines of the best-selling book that Maggie’s dad wrote, and her experiencing the haunted house in the current day.

I consider myself a non-believer of ghosts and haunted houses, so I found it refreshing that the main character Maggie didn’t buy into the bullshit either. I found her character pretty likable throughout the book. In a genre where so many female protagonists are portrayed as dum-dums who walk into every trap imaginable, I found it refreshing that Maggie broke the mold a bit (except for one part at the end, which I saw coming).
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𝐑𝐞𝐚𝐬𝐨𝐧𝐬 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐩𝐚𝐮𝐬𝐞: With such a limited cast of characters, I found most of the reveals in this one to be a bit predictable; but I did enjoy how it was woven together.

A really great story, probably my second favorite from this author. I enjoyed the paranormal aspect to this one. I think this one had a much more satisfying ending than his previous one. I highly recommend this book!

Some nice misdirection here, even if you can see the strings. Sager's strength lies in his ability to keep a suspenseful yarn zipping along. Shirley Jackson he's not, much less M. R. James. But it's fun.

I am a fan of every Riley Sager thriller that I have read so far and Home Before Dark is no different! The whole time I was reading this I was on the edge of my seat and thoroughly creeped out! I would definitely recommend this book to any thriller lovers out there! It was a five star read for me!

The Haunting of Hill House vibes were strong with this one. Sometimes the pacing was a bit uneven, especially with the flip flopping between the book chapters and the present action, with some action in the past being more exciting than the present and vice versa. But still a really good thriller - perfect for Halloween!

Maggie doesn't remember all the bad stuff that happened in the country, but she sinks some money into the place to restore it and then sell it.
There are some strong haunted vibes, but while they are there, some things turn much more sinister.

I always love a good haunted house book, and Home Before Dark was just that. Or was it? This book was a pretty crazy ride that had me wondering just which was it was going to go. Maggie Holt has grown up in the shadow of the book House of Horrors that her father wrote based on their experiences of living in a haunted house. Maggie cannot remember her time there, as she was pretty young, but she has read the book and never believed what her father wrote. After her father passes away and she finds out that he never sold the house, she goes on a mission to figure out what exactly happened there. Her mother won't talk about it, and nothing is adding up. This also turned out to be a good whodunit story all the way until the very end!

This book was not at all what I thought it would be. No scares, no thrills just a basic LifeTime murder mystery... well written but if you are expecting ghost story scares you’ll be let down.

Never have I wished more so for a paranormal thriller. I was so convinced that was what I was getting and was heartbroken it wasn’t what I got. THAT SAID… this would be a perfect thriller for those who want to question “is it real? Or ghosts?” The whole time.

HOME BEFORE DARK is Sager's latest book and I am here for it. Straddling the line between thriller and horror novel, this dark and twisty novel will send chills down your spine. The way the author weaves the tale and carefully unveils the mystery within the pages is suspenseful and masterful.

I’ve been a fan of Riley Sager’s work since I picked up Final Girls in 2017, so I was very excited when I got approved for an advance copy of this year’s release.

Home Before Dark is I think my favorite release since Final Girls, since I’m personally a sucker for a good haunted house story—Lock Every Door came close to that, but this one really just hit all those notes for me and was ultimately turned into another enjoyable read.

It was cool to see something just a little different while still keeping the same style and tone that makes it so easy for me to read Sager’s books in what are usually single sittings. He does a great mystery, but it also turns out he does a great ghost story too.

Clearly I’m biased but easily a 4.5/5 if not a solid 5 ⭐️