Riley Sager's books are just ... FUN.

Really, chillingly, fun. I always know I'm in for a ride when I read one. This one is a clever spin on The Amityville Horror books - when a family claimed to be haunted by malevolent ghosts and spirits in their home and became famous because of it. The heroine, Maggie Holt, lived in a house like that as a child, and her father wrote a bestselling book about their experiences.

Maggie doesn't remember her childhood in Baneberry Hall, so when she inherits it from her father, she returns to renovate it and sell it without hesitation. The girl seriously has a stomach of steel - I wouldn't spend a night in a house like that if you paid me - especially not alone.

Soon, Maggie is seeing figures in the trees outside, hearing ghostly sounds in the house, and wondering... did her father actually tell the truth? Has she been living in a haunted house all along? And if so, what do the ghosts want from her?

Sager's writing is crisp and assured and while this wasn't my favourite outing of his, it's still such an awesome read. I love the way he's flipped the thriller genre on its head and brought a campiness and a fun to it - such a breath of fresh air.

I have enjoyed all of Riley Sager's novels, and Home Before Dark was no different. The twists and turns that the story took shook me to my core. I also loved the back and forth between the father's perspective and the main character's current experience of moving back into her seemingly haunted childhood home. I am not a huge fan of snakes, and, without spoiling too much, I will say that a particular scene that involved snakes still haunts me to this day! I would definitely recommend this to fans of stories that combine both horror and mystery elements.

Having been periodically recommended and hearing awesome reviews about the previous three books by Riley Sager, I thought it was time to dive into his latest book. I was not disappointed. While I cannot compare his latest, Home Before Dark, to his previous three novels as I haven't read them, I can say that this story checked all the boxes that I was expecting. And it gave me a rather good time while doing it.

Home Before Dark focuses on Maggie Holt as she returns to the old mansion that her family fled from when she was a small child because of the disturbing activities they experienced inside it's walls. Afterwards, Maggie's father, Ewan, writes an Amityville-type recollection of their time at the house and the books infamy shadows Maggie throughout her adolescence and adulthood even though she herself has no recollection of the events. This has always left her questioning whether the story was real or just a big charade. Her father leaves her the house in his will upon his death and Maggie decides to immediately chart a path to Baneberry Hall to pull out some Scooby Doo Mystery solving skills. What could go wrong?

This story has the right amount of the everything going on in a suspense/paranormal/horror story that I dig. You've got a creepy old house with a terrible history, supporting characters who seem suspicious especially since they seem to be doing some selective storytelling and leaving out the most important bits, a descriptive atmosphere that makes you feel locked in a creepy amusement park ride where you're wishing it would speed up and get you out of there but at the same time you want to move slower because looking at that next corridor you're heading towards shoots a chill up your back. You know, all the fun stuff.

This story pivots between two points of view, present day with Maggie as a grown adult restoring the house and Maggie's father Ewan who is basically recounting what he penned in his bestselling account of residing at Baneberry Hall. I personally enjoyed the split point-of-view. I did slosh through a few parts because they seemed to be a little repetitive or stagnant. However, this didn't dull my opinion of the book enough to rate it any lower. Still a solid and holding 4 out of 5 stars for me. Especially for one particular scene involving a majorly creepy and creative use of a vintage instant camera. Never really taken a selfie, and based on that scene I can tell you that I will not be taking one any time soon. Sheesh.

As I mentioned, I gave this title a glowing 4 out of 5 creepy chandelier stars. I actually own a couple of Sager's previous titles and this book has me definitely pushing those up higher on my TBR list. Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for an eARC of this book.

A very creepy supernatural (or is it??) thriller.

25 years ago, 5-year-old Maggie Holt and her parents left Baneberry Hall in the middle of the night, leaving all their possessions behind. They’d lived there only 20 days. Afterwards, Maggie’s father wrote an account of those 20 days in House of Horrors describing how three ghosts from the house’s turbulent past had haunted Maggie and driven them out.

Now Maggie’s father has died and she learns that he never sold Baneberry Hall and has left it to her. Maggie has no memories of those 20 days and wants to believe her father made the whole book up. So she decides to go back there, ostensibly to renovate it (she’s a house flipper) but really to see if what her father wrote about was true.

Cutting between extracts from House of Horrors and the present day, the author quickly builds up the tension. Mysterious goings on in the house - inexplicable lights and music - plus Maggie’s finding out about the true stories of the many mysterious deaths there all create a great atmosphere. Of course, as a reader I spent a lot of time batting the book and asking it why Maggie would do something like that (for example, she first gets to the house at twilight) but I guess that’s why I’m a librarian and not a fearless debunker of the paranormal.

The resolution is pretty neat and (mostly) ties up the loose ends - there’s definitely a few “hey, what about…?” issues but this is a quick read that’s just my cup of tea.

Thanks to Dutton and Netgalley for the digital review copy.

What a great read! So far I have loved everything by Riley Sager and Home Before Dark didn’t disappoint. Fast paced thriller - couldn’t put it down - that kept me guessing until the end. Thank you NetGalley for the advanced copy!

I am a member of the American Library Association Reading List Award Committee. This title was suggested for the 2021 list. It was not nominated for the award. The complete list of winners and shortlisted titles is at <a href="https://rusaupdate.org/2021/02/2021-reading-list-years-best-in-genre-fiction-for-adult-readers/">

Absolutely loved Riley Sager's newest release! The blending of the horror and thriller genres was perfect and the double twist surprised me.

I have loved all of Riley Sager’s books and this is no exception! The plot twist at the end really threw me!

Are you joking? Riley Sager does it again. I fell in love with Sager's writing a couple of years ago when I read "Lock Every Door" and have since devoured anything he has written. The house was the perfect eerie, creepy setting for one heck of a ride. I also have the physical copy of this book which is glow-in-the-dark, a perfect marketing technique for this kind of book.

Well done to all. Thank you NetGalley for this gifted copy.

This was my second Riley Sager book and to say i was fascinated by his book would be an understatement. HE has become my fav author real quick. Thrillers have this innate ability to make you forget food and sleep and this one does exactly that. I could not put down this thriller even for a split second. It was sooooo good. The eerie factor was just top notch. I was intrigued to be going into this thinking if the paranormal aspect might scare the living hell out of me. Even though it did , i just couldn't stop. The story alternating between the book and the current was just brilliant. I guess the star of this book is the Baneberry hall and its story more than any characters that exist. This book will have you making 100 different guesses and assumptions only to be blown away by the constant plot twists that i don't think anyone could ever have seen coming. An unputdownable thriller thats for sure to make you hunt all his other books.

"He says we're going to die here."

So, I have some mixed emotions happening. On one hand, I expected the twists because the premise is so similar to the setup of Netflix's Haunting of Hill House (as opposed to the Shirley Jackson originial). Sager did not disappoint on that front.

Written from two points of view, we get the father's story as told in his own book (yep, a book within a book), and the current-day daughter trying to work out what really happened to her family because she damn sure doesn't believe what her father wrote and wouldn't you know? She can't remember.

Now that I've actually researched some of what I thought were similar plots (Shining, Haunting of Hill House, Amityville Horror...), I'm decently impressed with how well-crafted this story is. Is it a terrifying ghost story? Is it a psychological thriller? Why not both? Why don't you decide?

Twenty-five years ago, when she was just 5 years old, Maggie escaped Baneberry Hall, with her parents. What was supposed to be their dream home, ended up being a house of horrors, one that Maggie’s father Ewan ended up writing a NYT best selling novel about.

Maggie remembers nothing about her childhood and loathes “The Book”. But after her fathers death, she’s inherited Baneberry Hall and as a house designer/renovator, she decides to return back to Vermont and to prove her father wrong about the haunting.

<i>Home Before Dark</i> is the perfect mix of thriller and haunted mystery. Sager has perfected the art of keeping the reader engaged and weaving a masterful story, with evolving twists.

This is my third Riley Sager novel I’ve read and I definitely wasn’t disappointed. I was craving a novel that made me question everything that was happening and this did exactly that.

Home Before Dark had all of the elements I love about a Seger novel: a strong heroine, plenty of secrets, and thrills that kept me captive throughout. I really liked how Home Before Dark had a book inside of a book and I felt like Seger executed that element really well.

I did feel like this was a very slow burn, then a sudden rush during the last 10% of the book. Personally, I am a big fan of this style but I can see how others might struggle to get through the beginning.

Riley Sager is one of my all time favorite authors. I read all his books without even reading the synopsis and going into this one blind was so much fun! This was another great mix of both thriller and horror from Sager. I really liked how the chapters switched from Maggie’s current day experiences at Baneberry Hall and Ewan’s book chapters about the family’s past time there. There were many characters throughout both timelines that all add a little piece to the overall story. Sager writes an interesting storyline that was quick moving and kept me up way past my bedtime reading. This is one I definitely recommend. It’s creepy, fast paced, and another five star read from Sager! Now to wait until next summer for his next book.⁣

Maggie Holt was still mourning the loss of her father when she got some shocking news. He had never sold that house and she has inherited the house that made her family famous. Maggie was just five-years-old when her parents bought Baneberry Hall and they weren't there for more than three weeks when they fled the home in the middle of the night, never to return. Maggie's father wrote a book about those three weeks and it became an instant bestseller. People were curious to hear about the ghosts that haunted the house and eventually drove them out. Maggie grew up hating that book and believing that her father lied about most of it. Right now she has one goal, fix up the house and sell it. But when odd things start happening everything Maggie is afraid that everything she believed to be a lie just might be the truth. Will she be able to get to the bottom of it all before she is run out of Baneberry Hall?

It was just this year that I realized just how much I look forward to Riley Sager's newest novel. After some reflection, I decided that it is because they are reminiscent of old campfire tales. Every single book. The kind of tales that my uncles would tell me with the intent of scaring me silly. Home Before Dark was no different. The haunted house theme prevented me from even reading the book before bedtime. It scared me that much. Maggie Holt was a great main character because she was so steadfast in her belief that her father was full of shit. But when things started to happen around the house, you could see the cracks starting to form in those beliefs. And once again - the author dropped some shocking truths. - CLICK HERE FOR SPOILERS

Bottom Line - I know that this summer, so far, has been "weird" for most of us. But if you are looking for a great ghost story to share around the fire this summer, look no further than Home Before Dark.

Details:
Home Before Dark by Riley Sager
On Twitter
Pages: 400
Publisher: Dutton
Publication Date: 6/30/2020
Buy It Here!
Thank you to NetGalley for the free book in exchange for review.

This is my second Sager (I read his debut, FInal Girls) and I'm starting to think that his books simply aren't for me. I really loved the creepy haunted house style mystery going on and the build-up had some moments of real terror, but what ultimately failed for me was the book being marketed as a supernatural haunted house mystery when it ended up being anything but. It made the ending feel like a flat disappointment.

Loved this book. Much like any of the books before, I had hopes for a spooky tale that kept me on the edge of my seat and Sager delivered. This book is packed full of surprises that will keep you up at night as you try to finish just one more page before going to bed

This book was amazing! A young woman returns to the presumably haunted home of her childhood, and the setting of her late father’s popular memoir -“House of Horrors.” Convinced his novel is full of lies, she returns to find more secrets than she expects, and some strange occurrences make her wonder if her dad’s work was more fact than fiction.
A ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5 read for me, I couldn’t put it down! -@lucywrazor4

The fast pace, great gothic atmosphere, and lots of twists and turns kept me from my chores. Perfect for fans of The Amityville Horror and the Netflix series Haunting of HIll House (and perhaps the book by Jackson, too).

‘Baneberry Hall remembers...’

Wow, what a ride! My mind is still reeling. I will never again listen to ‘Sixteen Going on Seventeen’ without thinking about this story.

Told as a story-inside-a story this had me completely immersed. Though this builds on the horror aspect I would categorize this as much more of a mystery. Definitely had me on the edge of my seat. And the ending? Fantastic! One of the best thriller/mysteries I’ve read this year. Highly recommend.