This was an exciting ARC for me to get. I wasn’t prepared to be totally freaked out, however! What happened in Maggie’s home when she was a child and what about now that she is an adult and back at that very house?

When Maggie is handed her father's estate after his passing, she is shocked to discover that the home she lived in as a child, Banberry Hall, located in Vermont, was left to her. Her memories of her time in that house were not pleasant - too put it lightly - and as far as she could remember, her parents said that it was a place that they would never, ever return to. So, how is it Banberry Hall is still in her father's name, and is hers right now?

Maggie is a designer, and pretty much a historian. She takes leave of her business for awhile in order to restore the house so that she can put it on the market. There is a magnanimous obstacle in her way however. The house, and by extension, her family, was made famous by a horror memoir her father wrote of the house. Maggie's memories are skewed, and she has always maintained that the book was fiction. There were no evil forces in the home, were they? What about now, when Maggie goes back to restore it?

People never lost interest in that house. Spectators and critics abound. As the story shifts back to when Maggie was five years old, which is when her parents, Ewan and Jess, bought the home, there were definitely some very spooky occurrences. There were even deaths connected to the house. And, the fact that her parents and Maggie only lasted a few weeks in the house? Well, what was it that drove them away?

Maggie begins to go through the house room by room, unearthing things that not only give her clues from her childhood, but also present creepy feelings that Maggie just cannot shake. Was there credence to her father's book after all?

This is the third book I've read by Riley Sager, with the other two being The Last Time I Lied and Lock Every Door so I am familiar with his style of writing. While the first two books were mostly incredibly intense suspense, he raised the bar really high with Home Before Dark. I am so glad that I read this book during the daytime!

This thrilling, albeit creepy, read by Riley Sager definitely kept me on the edge of my seat and the conclusion literally knocked my socks off. There is just one book of his that I haven't read, Final Girls, and I will do so soon so that as I follow him, he becomes and author that I will proudly be able to say that I have read all of his books.

Many thanks to Dutton Books and to NetGalley for this ARC for review. This is my honest opinion.

Wow. Wow. WOW! Sager does it again! Another 5 star read! Home Before Dark blew my mind ...

Absolutely LOVED this book within a book! The alternating chapters between Maggie in present day and her father Ewan's bestselling horror memoir based on the twenty days spent inside Baneberry Hall are GENIUS! Seriously ... you guys! There's layer upon layer, upon layer here! This book gave me ALL the creepy vibes I crave ... so glad I didn't read this at night. The storyline is fascinating and will have you guessing right up until the end! Twisty AF and perfectly woven. All the stars!!!

Add this book to your TBR right away! You don't want to miss out on this masterpiece!!

Huge thank you to Dutton Books and Netgalley for my review copy!

Riley Sager has done it again! This book was delightfully spooky and full of twists and turns that kept me guessing the entire time! I inhaled it over the course of a day! I absolutely recommend this to anyone who loves creepy thrillers!

Books rarely bother me, but this book freaked me out! I found myself needing to stop reading at bedtime so I could go to sleep so I wouldn't have bad dreams, but I loved this book! Huge thanks to NetGalley for approving my ARC!

Riley Sager is one of my favorite authors. I have read many of Riley Sager's books and loved all of them.

Of course, I was ecstatic to get my hands on his hottest new book. Unfortunately, this one missed the mark for me.

Home Before Dark is very similar to the Haunting on Hill House. But, I'm not sure if Sager was purposely writing a story similar to the series? I was a bit bummed out and felt that the story wasn't very original. Additionally, I was wanting to be left creeped out and scared and I was a bit bored in the first half of the book. There wasn't enough Gothic and ghost story vibes for me.

And.. the last two chapters?! For real Sager haha? I was completely disappointed in the final reveal of the story and it really didn't make sense to me. I was wishing for more of a ghost story type of novel and this just fell really flat for me.

Overall, 3 stars for me.

Huge thank you to Netgalley and Dutton for the arc in exchange for an honest review.

Pub date: 6/30/20
Published to GR: 5/25/20

If you inherited a haunted house what would you do? Maggie and her family moved to Baneberry Hall when she was 5. Many strange things happened and one night they left the house never to return. Her father wrote a bestselling book about their time at Baneberry Hall. When he died, Maggie found out the house was now hers. She needs to know what happened in that house! Was her father's book true? If you enjoy creepy fast paced thrillers, then you need to read Home Before Dark.

This fast-paced thriller is exactly what I needed.
Maggie’s father wrote a best-selling book about the haunted house they lived in and the ghosts she saw there. She has no memory of it assumes the book is all lies.
So she goes to check it out.
Her current-day story is told in chapters that alternate with her father’s book, which keeps the tension high.
I love stories about writers and books and this was well-done.
The novel is really about issues of parenthood and assumptions we make about our kids. How does a famous parent’s decision affect their kids? How does believing (or not) your child affect their own sense of self?
I couldn’t put it down and I already miss reading it.

Not very often do I find myself so spooked by a book that I cannot sleep. I totally devoured Home Before Dark into the wee hours of the morning, ever floor creak or sound from outside had me on edge. This was definitely another astounding read by Sager. He has an amazingly smooth writing style that seems to suck me right in. I enjoyed the dual presectives one for present day and the other, the book the main characters father wrote about their life in the past. I thought it very intriguing that she wasn't actually sure if the events in the book were true or fabricated and I enjoyed the journey in discovering her past and trying to uncover what excately had happened at baneberry hall.

Maggie's father just died and she finds out he left her their childhood home, she doesn't remember except for what she's read in his book. Although her father was adamant that she's not safe there and her mother agrees that she should never return, Maggie wants answers. Maggie returns to the house to uncover the past she's in denial about and to get answers about things her father had written in his book, with an extra secret thrown in here and there this is one thriller you'll be wanting to add to your tbr this summer.

THIS BOOK WAS AMAZING. Per the publisher, full reviews are to be held until July when it’s released... but PRE ORDER THIS BEAUTY if you like chills & layered story telling. Thanks net galley & Penguin Group!

Spine-tingling fun! Sager is back in top form with his latest novel, which returns to the successful format of his first two books by telling the story through alternating passages from the past and present. However, an interesting new twist this time around is that the portion of the book set 25 years ago uses an unreliable narrator to keep readers guessing about what really happened and what has been fabricated. There are several twists in the final act that I didn't see coming but was thrilled to see unfold, and Sager paints Baneberry Hall with its various horrors so vividly that their images will linger with me for a while.

This is a creepy and darkly atmospheric tale that is a perfect read for a stormy summer night. The alternating chapters between the action of the present and excerpts from “The Book” was an especially effective device. Recommended for fans of Simone St James and gothic horror.

Home Before Dark is a chilling ghost story about a woman who returns to her childhood home, a home that was made famous when her father wrote a book about how it was haunted. Maggie never really believed that her father's book was true, after all ghosts aren't real. But when she returns to the house and strange things begin happening, Maggie starts to question whether her father was right all along.

I thought this was a pretty good book. It alternates between what Maggie is experiencing in the house with chapters from her father's book about what he says occurred when she was younger. I really liked that format, and I thought it worked well to propel the story forward. With lots of talk of ghosts and haunted houses, it definitely has a creepy vibe that keeps you turning the pages to find out what is going to happen. Is the house haunted? Or is something else going on? A lot of people are comparing this book to The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson. I have not read that book, so I can't compare the two.

Generally, I don't love ghost stories, so I wasn't sure if I would like this book. However, the page-turning suspense, spine-chilling atmosphere, and a satisfying ending worked to make this book a quick and enjoyable, albeit spooky, read. It would be the perfect book to read late at night by flashlight while sitting around a campfire this summer!

What was one of my most anticipated books of the year turned out to be a disappointment. I read Riley Sager’s debut a few years ago and loved it, but skipped out on his next two releases—not sure why. When I was approved by the publisher and Netgalley for an ARC of this one I knew I’d jump on it ASAP.

I’m a fan of the haunted house subgenre; rarely does it steer me wrong. Something about old haunted houses wreaking havoc on unsuspecting families appeals to me. This book’s synopsis grabbed me from the jump: told in dueling narratives, part of this story is a book-within-a-book (which ends up reading as basically <i>Amityville Horror</i>-lite), and the rest—the “present” narrative—is the young girl and haunting victim coming back to the house twenty-five years later to find out if the book her father wrote was fact or fiction, or something in between. What’s the truth? Was the house she and her family bought when she was a little girl actually haunted, or did her desperate father write a book falsifying events to make money?

What did I like about this book? Not much. It’s compulsively readable, I guess, and I was able to finish in two days. Mostly that came from a determination to be done with it, put it behind me.

This novel lacks most in atmosphere, essential to a successful haunted house tale. What can I remember about this house? Nothing, aside from the dastardly “Indigo Room” (I was sick of the word Indigo by novel’s end!) And the bells on the wall straight out of <i>Bag of Bones</i>. In fact, much of this novel liberally “borrows” from that particular Stephen King novel. But Sara Laughs this house ain’t.

And the characters . . . are not bad, but they’re not really developed at all. I could fit their characteristics and traits on a thumbtack. A lot of the time the family unit doesn’t feel like a family—they just coexist. They’re stiff. I know the wife’s name is Jess, and I think the daughter’s name is Maggie. The fact that I’m not completely positive on the daughter’s name is especially woeful, as most of this novel is focused on her in the present day.

I really wanted to like this book, and I tried. I was able to finish, and Sager’s writing isn’t offensively bad—hence the two stars. But I was bored out of my mind, mostly due to this author doing a lot of telling and not showing, and the fact that these characters are pretty grating. It’s a thriller that doesn’t thrill, it’s a horror that doesn’t horrify. It’s a thud, a particularly lifeless one hitting the floor at 4:54 am. The only thing scary here is the praise and adoration it will inevitably receive upon release.

Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for the ARC.

Riley Sager, you magnificent genius, you've done it again!! This was an excellent story, chock-a-block full of Gothic atmosphere, back - and - forth narration, a story within the story, and red herrings and twists galore... The characterizion was marvelous, the protagonist was a delight, the creepy - crawly factor was delicious, and the pacing was spot - on. Nobody tells a modern day ghost or urban legend story like Riley Sager!!

Lock Every Door was my favorite book of 2019 and I was nervous that Riley Sager wouldn’t be able write something I’d love as much. I loved this even more! If you loved the Netflix series, the haunting of hill house or the Amityville horror, you will love this book. I was actually terrified reading this book alone at night. At one point my phone rang and I screamed out loud. A house of horrors paranormal thriller with twists and turns among every page. I really enjoyed the dual timeline in this book. After Maggie Holts father passes away, she learns she inherited a home that has defined the last 25 years of her life. Between Maggie’s return the house and her fathers writings from 25 years ago, this suspenseful horror thriller will have you on the edge of your seat! Thanks netgally for giving me an e-ARC copy of this book to read.

Home Before Dark is my first Riley Sager novel. I LOVED IT!! I am going to find every book he has written and read all of his work!! I highly recommend this novel!!

I was VERY nervous when I started reading this book, because I am a big baby when it comes to scary stories. This book did a great job of walking the line between ghost story and mystery. Weaving Maggie's dad's book into her present-day story was done masterfully. This book was suspenseful, but the plot moved along quickly. This might just be my favorite Riley Sager to date! I look forward to including Home Before Dark in our Summer Reading Guide!

Let me just start out by saying- I LOVED THIS BOOK!!! I have been a big fan of Riley Sager since I read The Final Girls and every book is better than the last. I don’t know how that is even possible, since I think every one is perfect. I am a sucker for anything with a gothic feel and this book has it in spades, from a spooky Victorian mansion to things that go bump in the night. I read lots of thrillers and it’s hard to surprise me, but this was an ending I never saw coming.

I really liked the alternating view points. I found myself having a hard time putting it down. As soon as I was done reading Ewan’s perspective, I was compelled to follow it up with Maggie’s and vice versa. I did make the mistake of reading it late at night while I was alone and it frightened me more than I had anticipated. Lucky for me, I LOVE to be scared. I will be recommending this book to everyone I know. One of my favorites of the year.

Yet another winner from Riley Sager! Although this one is very different from his last books (more ghost story than thriller), I absolutely loved it and read it in one night. This book alternated between the story Sager is telling and the book written by the main character’s father (also written by Sager, of course). This was an inventive way of writing this novel, and it was interesting to read her fathers story as she slowly began remembering her childhood. Highly recommended!

Riley Sager has become the go-to author for creepy, gothic, atmospheric thrillers and Home Before Dark doesn't disappoint. Maggie Holt's life has been defined by a book her father wrote about their experiences in a haunted house when she was 5. She has no memories of any of the occurrences and has long believed her father lied about the whole thing to sell a book. When her father dies and she discovers she now owns the house, she returns to it to try to discover the truth about why her family fled the house and never returned. There are enough twists and turns here to keep you on the edge of your seat throughout.