I believe this is Sager's best book yet. Not only will thriller fans love it, but anyone who has watched Amityville Horror or the Conjouring movies and wondered about the real people behind the stories will be enthralled.

Maggie Holt returns to a house made famous by her father's bestselling horror memoir. Baneberry Hall is supposedly haunted and dangerous. They spent only three weeks living there before fleeing. Maggie was too young to remember the ghostly happenings and spirits but she doesn't believe a word of her father's book anyway.

After her father's death, Maggie inherits Baneberry Hall and plans to renovate it before putting up for sale. Yup, you guessed what happens next! She starts to experience strange occurrences and is living a chapter right out of her father's book. Maybe it really was more fact than fiction.

Le sigh. Home Before Dark has all the makings of a good fictional horror. Yet I am underwhelmed. It was just okay. It was fine. That is how I describe Riley Sager's newest release. It was not gripping like his other novels. In fact, it is better as a Halloween spooky read rather than a page-turning thriller.

LiteraryMarie

The instant I started reading this book, I knew it was right up my alley. It was giving me major "haunting on Hill House" (the tv version) vibes and I was excited to see what the story was behind this house. I don't scare easily, especially when it comes to books so when I was reading a certain scene at two in the morning and finding myself physically uncomfortable, I was really impressed. The twists kept me guessing. I'm happy to say that I guessed one or two but NEVER saw some of the other developments coming! This was my first Riley Sager but it will definitely not be my last!

That was unexpected and in a good way. I do so love haunted houses and gothic spooky reads. Home Before Dark is an atmospheric and spooky read. liked how it alternated between the past and present and what caused Maggie and family to leave and what has her come back to confront what happened so long ago. I got some serious Haunting of Hill House vibes. I also liked that with any supposed ghost story that the narrators are inherently unreliable makes the spookiness so much more frightening. Overall, Home Before Dark is an excellent, atmospheric thriller that reminisces in front of a fire contemplating on being gothic.

This was my first Riley Sager book and now I NEED to go read his other releases! This was perfectly creepy and exactly what I was looking for in my October reading list.

Well, this was certainly an unusual story. I've always loved stories where the house or church or ???? is part of the story, but in this one, the house IS the story and the book.

Maggie Holt has inherited a house from her father....a haunted house....a very famous haunted house. Her father had a best selling nonfiction book about the 25 days Maggie's family lived in this house when she was 5 yrs old. The family deserted the house, leaving everything they owned and never returning. Maggie has never believed her father's account of their short lived residency so is determined to now prove the book as a hoax. BUT......

Riley Sager has given this house a life of it's own. The story will give you goose bumps and make you jump at small noises. Maggie's theories add a touch of disbelief as she makes her way through her father's book....oh yes, we get to read that book too...but you will get a creeping feeling that maybe, just maybe, Maggie should not have gone back into that house.

This was so creepy and fun. I love a good ghost story, especially around Halloween. I was in just the right mood for this book to scare the crap out of me. It's a great storyline, good writing, and most importantly, likeable characters. I love the way it goes back and forth and leaves the haunted house, Baneberry Hall, a mystery until the very end. Things aren't what they seem and Maggie attempts to figure it all out and it's so fun to watch.

WHAT A GREAT BOOK! This is my favourite book for Riley Sager’s so far. I did the awful thing of reading this at night instead of during the day. This book is a very creepy thriller that had be guessing through out.

Maggie Holt has always been known as the girl from the book, and from Baneberry Hall, the place from where she and her parents fled after living there for only twenty days when she was five, which were then memorialized in a nonfiction, Amityville-style book written by her father, Ewan. Now Maggie's father has passed away, leaving the Hall to her and Maggie is determined to find the truth about what happened there. The story is told in chapters alternating between Maggie's father's book and Maggie's present day life.

I'm a bit surprised about all the love and the high ratings for this book, as, to me, it mostly seemed like retreads of someone else's ideas - Amityville, mixed with the classic The Haunting of Hill House (read that instead of this) and a soupcon of Stranger Things (with multiple explicit references to the master, Stephen King), all tied up with some mediocre writing ("Our relationship was like a rose. Beautiful, yes but it came with thorns." Ugh.).

I suppose it should be classified as horror, but only because there's a bit of a haunting involved, I think it's more of a family drama, myself. Not a bad book, but not especially great either. One I likely won't remember in a year.

Super spooooooky! A fantastic ghost story perfect for the Halloween season. I probably won’t sleep tonight, and will definitely check under my bed for ghosts, but that’s okay. Highly recommend!

A big thank you to Dutton Books for providing me an early copy of the book as part of an Instagram book club.

There's not a whole lot I can get into about this one without spoilers, but I thought it was simply an okay thriller. (Disclaimer: I'm very picky with thrillers and a ton of people in the chat group loved it.)

What I enjoyed: I thought the format of the book was clever as we get chapters of the Amityville Horror-esque novel that spurred the family's notoriety, and I enjoyed those faux-excerpts a bit more than the modern day story line, and the main character was compelling once I got passed some early gripes in tone.

What could have been better: My main problem was expectations versus reality with the book's plot, which is nobody's fault. It also took a minute for the main character to come across as anything other than petulant, and I thought the ending was a little weak. (But that's more compared to several endings and plot devices I came up with in my head while reading.)

Overall, not a bad summer read to take on your socially distanced vacations.

Rating: 3/5

Synopsis
This story is about a haunted house, which is just perfect for spooky season. The story mainly follows Maggie, who lived in a haunted house as a child and then her dad wrote a bestselling book about their experience. Maggie has always believed the book to be a lie, but then she returned to the house after 25 years and things occur. I don’t want to give away too much of the plot. There are also chapters which read directly from the book that Maggie’s dad wrote, as well.

My Thoughts
I enjoyed this very much, but it is not my favorite Riley Sager book. I reserve my favorite spot for Lock Every Door. My favorite thing about Home Before Dark was the spooky, gothic, haunted vibe of the whole book. My main issue was that I didn’t know at first that the book is a mix of two perspectives, so I was a little confused at first. I was also not immediately engaged by the book form the first chapter. It took me about three or four chapters to really get into the story. I have found with Riley Sager’s other books that I am immediately interested in the story form the very first chapter, just not this one. Overall, it was a superb thriller! I would totally recommend this, especially to people who are fans of haunted house stories!

4.5/5!

Maggie Holt has lived for twenty-five years in the shadow of Baneberry Hall, a rambling Victorian estate in the Vermont woods that she used to call home. She lived there for only three weeks with her parents until they ended up fleeing in the dead of the night. These three weeks went on to be documented by her father, Ewan, in a nonfiction book called House of Horrors that would later become a phenomenon. The tale of Maggie’s experience in Baneberry Hall rivals that of famous stories such as Amityville in popularity and skepticism. Maggie is the biggest skeptic of all and has for years insisted that the story is lies. She cannot remember anything that happened during that time. Now that she has been reunited with Baneberry Hall, Maggie is determined to find the truth.

HOME BEFORE DARK is a clever reimagining of the haunted house stories that we have come to know and love over the years. While this isn’t billed as an inspired work, it is clear famous works such as THE HAUNTING of HILL HOUSE and THE AMITYVILLE HORROR have influenced this story. While for some this may be a put off, I found it to be a nostalgic nod to those works.

Haunted house stories are easily one of my most loved subjects to read about and it is clear from page one that Baneberry Hall has more than one secret hiding up it’s sleeve. As the reader journeys through this story the house becomes more and more vivid with glimpses of the past and present bringing the building to life. I really enjoyed all of the small details, such as the chandelier that graces the cover and even the paint colors.

As if the setting wasn’t enough to make this one predestined to be a winner for me, Sager went ahead and made it structured as a book within a book. I have found so many gems (and a few duds) written in this style that it has become something I love discovering. I was swept away in the present day story with Maggie, but also beyond intrigued by the passages from House of Horrors.

I enjoyed the methodical and at times slower pacing mixed with heart pounding moments that make up HOME BEFORE DARK. There were some scenes that made me cringe and check behind my shoulder that simply made the story that much better. This one is perfect for fans of haunted houses and creepy stories!

4.5 stars

This book actually had me SCARED. Like I don’t want to read this before did. Of course I still did but I may have had a nightmare or two (involving some creepy crawlies 😳).

I really loved the book in a book aspect. I occasionally had trouble remembering what was in the book and what was in present day but it didn’t bother me too much.

I’ll be honest, I had no idea what to believe! I kept thinking I had it figured out but then new creepy things would happen.

My main takeaway from this book is this: I’m REALLY glad I don’t live in an old house because everything about this house had me spooked. The noises, the size of it, the ornate features. Riley Sager did a fantastic job placing the reader right into this house of horrors.

I don't read a lot of thrillers, so I am not sure I can accurately rate this one. But it kept me guessing from page to page. I kind of resolved a part of the mystery about 40% of the way through which disappointed me a bit. But I certainly wasn't able to guess the whole part of the mystery. So it still got me. The whole novel is really well planned out and incorporates just about everything it needed to while still being unpredictable. There were a few definite places where I was spooked as well, which makes it a pretty good haunted house story in my book.

This book was wild from start to finish. It was my first ever Riley Sager read, and I was not disappointed. It reminded me a bit of Haunting of Hill House in the best possible way. If you are looking for a good spooky read with an amazing twist ending, Home Before Dark is what I would recommend!

OMG.
At first I was confused by this book, and the style. However after two chapters I got the vibe and I couldn’t stop reading! It’s the first book club book I’ve finished on time. It was gripping and engaging and I LOVED IT. Would highly recommend for a spooky, atmospheric read perfect for this time of year.

Maybe my expectations for this book were to high but I was not blown away. Don't get me wrong, I liked it...a lot, but just not as much as I wanted to. I was waiting for a good scare but it was not to be found.

Part ghost story, part murder mystery, Riley Sager returns with another bestselling thriller to keep readers on their toes... And looking behind them... And checking their closets for ghosts... And stay away from that Polaroid camera!

Maggie can't escape the popular book her father authored about their 20 or so days in an Amityville-type house when Maggie was just 5 years old. But while everyone she meets asks her about her time with ghosts and danger at every turn, Maggie can't remember anything about the days her family lived at Baneberry Hall. When her father passes away from illness and leaves Maggie the house in his will, she sees the perfect opportunity to finally get the answer she craves: What really happened at Baneberry Hall two decades ago? Armed with her renovation tools and a lot of courage, Maggie opens the door to Baneberry Hall - and its secrets - for the first time in almost 25 years.

Thoughts: Oh. My. Gosh. The twists! The turns! The suspense! You'll find yourself reading way past your bedtime with this one. I'll admit, it was a little difficult to get into because you think you're getting a ghost story but Maggie spends the first few chapters saying how there were no ghosts when they lived at Baneberry Hall and that she thinks her parents lied about the whole thing. But then she arrives. And let's just say she's not so sure they were lying. Then there's the 16-year-old neighbor who went missing the last night Maggie's family lived there - what happened to her? And did Maggie's father know anything about her disappearance? By itself, Maggie's story is interesting but with chapters of her father's book about the haunting of Baneberry Hall interwoven, the suspense is ratcheted up to a whole other level. Once things really started moving, I just had to keep reading! Lost quite a bit of sleep over this story. One of my favorite thrillers in 2020!

**Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for an eARC in exchange for an honest review.**

Huge thank you to NetGalley, the publishing house, and the author for allowing me an electronic ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Riley Sager!! You have a new loyal fan.
I loved this book. I could not put it down. A haunted house? Mystery upon mystery. Surprise after surprise. Dysfunctional families. I was a story within a story within an overall story. Don't let that sound confusing. It's done in a delicious, totally coherent way.
I don't want to ruin any surprises. Read this book!
Thank you Mr. Sager.