This may be my favorite Riley Sager book yet. Home Before Dark brings all the creepy vibes with some amazing twisty turns at the end that I definitely didn’t see coming. I’m not a huge ghost story fan but this book just worked for me. It felt like Turn of the Key meets The Sun Down Motel as Maggie tries to discover the truth about her childhood at spooky Baneberry Hall. Highly recommend!

Thank you Netgalley and Dutton Books for the advance egalley for this book.

A fabulous haunted house thriller from one of my favorite thrill writers at the moment. Very easy to fly through this one, and kept me guessing to the end.

2.5 * This book started off strong. I was immediately pulled in and ready to love Sager's next book. I liked the dual timelines of Maggie's POV and chapters of the book her father wrote about their time at Baneberry Hall. The atmosphere and timing was perfect. Where this book lost me is the ending. I felt everything I read had been a waste and I am so let down!

Each of Riley Sager's books tackle a different type of horror. I love the supernatural-esque elements of this new Amytiville Horror.

Oooohh this was good. Good mystery with some horror elements but not too unbelievable. Kept me up all night!!

This was really different from my previous experience with Sagar! I liked it but it did leave me a bit unsettled, but then Sagar usually leaves me a bit unsettled! The story was compelling especially the way it didn't fall into any one genre...it had the best parts of lots of different genre styles. It's really hard for me to explain without spoilers. Suffice it to say, Sagar has become one of my favorites because I never know what to expect!

There's something about Riley Sager's books that are deliciously addicting. Throughout the ever-evolving global pandemic, it has been very difficult to sit down and engage my mind with reading. This is the book that brought me back to life!

A fun page-turner from the very start, Riley Sager gives us a smart, strong-willed female lead character intermixed with a family with secrets and a house that may or may not be haunted. The haunted house trope is one of my absolute favorites and Sager stays true to the theme while still keeping it fresh and exciting.

The number one question driving the entire plot - Is Baneberry Hall haunted or did Maggie Holt's father fabricate her haunted childhood to make money off of his book, House of Horrors? The structure of the book slips seamlessly between present-day Maggie Holt exploring Baneberry Hall, and chapters describing a supposed House of Horrors that she lived through but has no memory of.

Read it! You won't regret it!

It's a great story. Flows well.. And it's quite a departure from a regular thriller and dips a toe into horror, ahem, suspense.
My only problem is with the repressed-memory gimmick recycled from Final Girls.

Thanks to NetGalley for allowing me to read this book in exchange for my honest review.

I love love loved this! My fave of all the Sager books so far. A classic haunted house horror novel with lots of twists and turns along the way. The main character’s family lived in a haunted house when she was just five years old, and her dad becomes a very wealthy man after writing a book about their terrifying time in the house...but it’s all lies...or is it? Kept me scared and intrigued throughout the whole book. Thriller fans will love this one!

Another wonderfully creepy novel from Riley Sager. I love his plots from the slasher movie like Final Girls to the haunted house book in the vein of The Shining and Amityville Horror of his new novel Home Before Dark. A classic tale of a non believer who restores homes, inherits her parents haunted house, that was written about in her father's book, Maggie gets the ire of the townspeople in Vermont and the hostile ghosts inside, which she's beginning to see that they are not as fictional as she thought.

This book was a true roller coaster ride. Riley Sager has a great way of keeping you on the edge of your seat wondering what is next or what is real. Truly the top of the list of books written by Riley Sager.

Wow. This is my new favorite by Riley Sager. This page turner is full of plot twists that you won't see coming. It will keep you up at night and make you question what is in the shadows of your home. I could not put this book down and I loved the way it was told by going back and forth from past and present.

When it comes to writing horror, Sager has something of a unique talent—the ability to build stories around the tropes and clichés of the genre in such a way that the resulting novels becoming comforting rather than hackneyed. Home Before Dark features a prototypical haunted house with both a storied history and an Amityville-esque bestseller. Twenty-five years after leaving Baneberry Hall with nothing but the clothes on her back, Maggie Holt returns to finally get some answers about her past. Along the way, Sager provides everything you would expect and hope for; sinister ghosts (I even scared myself a little a few days after finishing the book by picturing Miss Pennyface!), a handsome neighbor with a violent past, secret passage ways, forbidden love, menacing thumps in the night, and the SNAKES! That is a lot for one book but, unlike in The Last Time I Lied, in Home Before Dark it never becomes too much. Additionally, the resolution manages to be both predictable and twisty, but ultimately very satisfying. I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend this book to my patrons.

Riley Sager at it again with Home Before Dark. While I do not think this was his best book, it was still a very good book. I love his creepy story telling and the fact that I never guess the twist.
I will read every book he come out with.

I would like to thank Netgalley for the advance reader copy of this book.

In typical Riley Sager fashion, we are at the edge of our seat for the entirety of this book. Mixing psychological thrills and gothic horror chills, we are dealt a story that is reminiscent of Jay Anson's "The Amityville Horror" and Ruth Ware's "The Turn of the Key."

Maggie Holt has been trying to escape the book that her father wrote about their time at Baneberry Hall for most of her life. The book, titled "House of Horrors," details a gothic horroresque experience that Maggie cannot remember. When her father dies, and she inherits Baneberry Hall, Maggie decides to spend some time fixing up the old place and digging for clues as to what really happened in her time there as a child. Strange things begin to happen that are eerily similar to the occurences in her father's book. Maggie tries to maintain a level head during her stay, but as the occurences escalate and the house's haunted history reveals itself, she must choose between uncovering the truth about her troubled childhood and saving her own life. Maggie's perspective alternates with chronological chapters of her father's book to bring both stories to life in this unputdownable pageturner.

This book is a good one for the fans of the supernatural. It switches between a book written by Maggie's father and Maggie's present perspective. Is there something supernatural going ok n or is it all a hoax?

I love Riley Sager's books because they always keep me guessing until the end. This one was proper freaky. I slept with a light on the night I started it. The snakes! Ahh, the stuff of nightmares.

There were so many secrets and moving pieces in this one that I really didn't know who to trust - everyone was so convincing! Maddie, the main character, wasn't my favorite. She was hard to like because she wasn't kind to a single person, but I think she was the right kind of person to go back into that house.

Spoilers ahead - The book ended in true Sager fashion with a conclusion and explanation, which is nice, but I weirdly found myself wishing for that haunted house! That's probably because the author did such a good job making it very scary. I had no doubt it was real. That being said, I do appreciate that there is a reason most of the time, and they were some genuinely creepy reasons, haunted or not!

Thank you, NetGalley and the publisher for letting me read this one!

I have loved every single one of Riley Sager's books, and Home Before Dark was no different. The story was well thought-out, and I could see a movie happening in my mind while reading. While some of the story was a little slow at times, the major twists at the end were worth it. And they kept coming! I will definitely recommend this to my audience, especially to those who enjoy a good thriller!

I was given this arc in exchange for a full review, but you’ll have to wait to read the review until June! I will say...you HAVE to get this book when it’s released on June 30th! Full 5 star review will be up on my goodreads in June!!!

Thank you Dutton Books and NetGalley for an eARC in exchange for an honest review.


First of all: 🎶 “You are sixteen, going in seventeen”...this will get stuck in your head.🎶

ALL OF THE STARS. PREORDER NOW.

Riley Sager did it again.

Maggie Holt returns to a “haunted” house she once lived in after her father passes away, even though her mom told her to never go back. Once she arrives, her night terrors come back and history seems to be repeating itself, just like her dad wrote in his book.

All of the paranormal aspects in here kept me hooked. The twists were all over the place and it kept me guessing until the end.

I loved the format of the book. The mixture between Morgan in the present and text from her dad’s book helped connect the past with the present.

Note: Don’t read when alone and in the dark, I did and I heard some noises in the house and couldn’t sleep.