Meh. This was certainly compulsively readable but it's one of Sager's more lackluster thrillers, imo. I also hated the protagonist, who was super whiny and judgemental. The final twist was okay, I guess.

I know there are some mixed reviews of Sager’s books, but for me, they always provide the perfect amount of escapism and the spooky/creepy vibes. Each time I finish one of his books, I think it’s my favorite one yet, and Home Before Dark is no different.

This was absoutely the perfect book to read this time of year. It gave me chills up and down my spine and had several twists I didn’t see coming. I will never be able to look at snakes the same again (IYKYK) – not that they ever were my favorite. 😳

“Twenty-five years ago, my family lived in a house named Baneberry Hall, situated just outside the village of Bartleby, Vermont. We moved in on June 26. We fled in the dead of night on July 15. Twenty days.”

It's been years since I have read a story involving a haunted house. Home Before Dark was a completely binge-worthy, creepy, and entertaining take on the genre. While I predicted some things, others left me with my mouth hanging open. My biggest unanswered question: why did no one think to toss the record player?

Perfect haunted house book. Told in two stories (past and present), this book was really scary. Logically, you know there has to be a real reason for all the "haunts", but it still made me jump at times. Highly recommended.

Creepy and atmospheric, this book doesn't disappoint. I looked under my bed a couple of times while reading. Sure to be a hit with lovers of ghost stories.

Maggie Holt was five when her parents bought the sprawling Victorian estate called Baneberry Hall. The young family spent just three weeks in the house before they fled in fear, abandoning their belongs, never to return. The nonfiction account of the horrors and hauntings of Baneberry Hall, written by her father, was an international bestseller. While Maggie has no memory of the events that are outlined in the book, the story itself has haunted her for 25 years. She has never believed that the book was true, but she has never managed get her divorced parents to reveal to her what really happened in that house. When her father passes away she is shocked to learn that she has inherited Baneberry Hall. Why did her father still own the house? Maggie returns to a house she doesn't remember with the intention of restoring it and selling, putting the nightmare forever in her past. Her arrival in town is not a welcome one. People that she knows a characters in the book are real people and they have stories of their own to tell. Maggie is interested in learning the truth, but as events outlined in the book begin to occur again in the house, Maggie is forced to consider that her father's account may be more fact than fiction after all.

I went in to this book blind. I have read and enjoyed other books by Riley Sager, so I assumed I would also enjoy this one, despite my terror of haunted houses. Thanks, dad, for letting 5 year old me watch Amityville Horror. Totally scarred for life. But I digress...Anyway, we have a haunted house with a nonbeliever living in it. I want to be a nonbeliever, so I was onboard with Maggie's goal to disprove the validity of her father's book. Also, side note, I love a book within a book. But dang it, if that house isn't creepy and probably haunted and it turns out a lot of the things in the book ARE true. Will Maggie finally learn why they fled in the middle of the night? You bet she does. Did I see the answer coming? NOT. AT. ALL. This is a perfect spooky season (aka, October) read that left me questioning everything to the very surprising end.

So, did I like this month's pick, Home Before Dark? Yes. Yes I did. Was it well written and a chilling and creepy story? Yep. Could part of my fondness for this book have been because it's fall and this is the absolute best time to read an eery, ominous story? Maybe. Either way, let's dive in!

First, Baneberry Hall. Sager set up the perfect atmosphere for a potentially paranormal tale. I loved his descriptions and I loved the history of the house that was slowly revealed over the course of the book. It reminded me a little of the house in the movie Clue or any other Victorian gothic mansion with lightening cracking in the background. Definitely sufficiently spooky.

What were your thoughts on the house? Did you feel adequately scared?

Maggie's relationships with both her mother and her father, but particularly her father, were a strong theme throughout the book. I thought it was an interesting take to have her father's book interspersed throughout the novel so we could get an almost real time feel regarding what the young family had gone through when they first bought the house while also showing what Maggie was discovering in present day. The history of the house provided the clues that shaped Ewan's book and also lined up with all the paranormal activity. The only thing that I found kind of confusing was why her father left the house to her.

How did you feel about the relationship between Maggie and her parents? Did you understand Maggie's anger?

I personally love a great paranormal thriller where you are not sure if it is truly ghosts or real people messing with the main characters. I thought Sager did a great job up until the very end before revealing what was really happening.

Are ghost stories your thing? What do you love about them? How about if they turn out to NOT be ghost stories?

Sager really had me guessing up until the very end. I had guessed parts of the ending near the middle of the book, and while some of that was semi-true, the actual ending was a true surprise. My favorite!

Did you guess the ending? Were you clueless? We won't judge!

What was the scariest part for you? I'd have to say the snakes falling from the ceiling was pretty disturbing to me and I may have checked my own ceilings for bulging.

Overall thoughts? While I definitely found a few flaws with the book, I found it properly suspenseful and was perfect for the season!

I don't typically read scary or thriller type books - but I decided to give Home Before Dark a go, and I am GLAD I did. This was great. Not too scary. No, that's a lie. I went to bed each night thinking about Mr. Shadow and making my husband double check our closets. Sager kept me on my toes until the very end, and I highly recommend Home Before Dark to others!

Riley Sager can almost do no wrong. I loved this spooky thriller. I really didn't see it all coming. It creeped me out and made me check my closets. Warning: do not read if you have a fear of snakes.

Riley Sager knows how to pull you into a story! This creepy book follows Maggie Holt. Her an her family moved to Baneberry Hall, a rambling Victorian estate in the Vermont woods 25 years ago. Her family begins to experience ghostly happening. Maggie's father writes a book on their encounters. This book gets a lot of buzz around town and may residents get mad thinking her father is lying. years later the house needs to be sold and Maggie goes back to renovate it and put it on the market. Maggie thinks like the community and believes her father made all the stories up, until weird things begin to happen. This is the perfect fall or Halloween read!

Another great read by Riley Sager! Had me turning the pages quicker than possible. He has become one of my favorite suspense authors over the last year or two. Would definitely reread and recommend!

Another Sager favourite! I spent the entire book questioning what was real or not while seated at the edge of my seat. I really well told story with a twist I never saw coming!

3.5-4 stars. Thank you to Dutton Books for providing my review copy.

Maggie Holt returns to Banberry Hall, some 25 years after she and her family fled it in the middle of the night, seemingly because it was haunted. She has been trying to outrun and overcome the infamy that surrounds the book her father wrote about their time at this mansion, but after he dies she decides to return in search of answers about what really happened while they were there. Though what she learns is more than she bargained for or possibly could have imagined.

I am huge Sager fan and have truly enjoyed all of his books. This one is bit different than some of his others as it was full of ghost-type stories, which isn’t typically my thing. So for me, parts of this book, weren’t believable to me at the time I was reading them.

That said, it quickly turned the corner as new revelations were discovered. I can’t say much about that without giving too much away, so I’ll stop there. I’ll simply say it was pretty suspenseful, and I liked the ending, which was much more grounded in reality.

Overall, I would recommend this book to fans of ghost stories and realist alike.

Baneberry Hall, a Victorian mansion in a remote area of Vermont, is the setting of Riley Sager’s latest thriller. Twenty-five years ago, Maggie and parents Ewan and Jess lived in the house for three weeks before fleeing in the night, never to return. Following their dramatic escape, Ewan wrote a non-fiction account, entitled House of Horrors, recounting the terrors and evil hauntings they experienced at Baneberry. Following Ewan’s death and with no memory of the events in House of Horrors, Maggie returns to the house determined to put the past behind her and prove that the property is not haunted. Alternating between the chapters of House of Horrors and Maggie’s present-day stay in Baneberry Hall, the story unfolds as Maggie begins to experience events that happened in her father’s book. The story starts slowly but picks up momentum as the creepiness factor ratchets up, and I enjoyed the clever and unexpected ending.

The plot for Home Before Dark was fast paced & totally engaging. I REALLY wanted to know what would happen next. How is this different from other thrillers? Because, as a reading friend of mine puts it, Riley Sager is the CEO of plot twists!
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I really enjoyed the back & forth between the past & present, two connected stories that paralleled each other but held their own mysteries.⁣ This held my attention, and also made for some big cliffhangers, as the action would shift to the other time frame right when something big happened.

I’m not much of a fraidy cat but my pulse definitely quickened & I scooted a little closer to my husband when I was reading some of the more intense scenes late at night in bed. In fact, I had total Amityville Horror vibes. That book/movie scared the bejesus out of me when I was a kid! Props to Sager for being able to frighten me!

And finally, the ending twists totally got me! I predicted a few minor things but overall I never saw the big reveal coming.🤯⁣

I had fun on this wild ride! Super grateful to @jordys.book.club & @bostonbookfanatic for the opportunity to participate In #mysterybookclub, and I very much appreciated @duttonbooks sending an ecopy in advance through @netgalley!
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Thank you,

*SPOILERS* This book is AMAZING! I couldn't put it down, HONESTLY. The book that Maggie's father, Ewan, wrote detailed their time at Baneberry Hall. Maggie returned 25 years later and tried to unravel the truth about what had gone on years ago. She ends up discovering the truth and it was not at all what was written in the book.

This book was magnificent. The writing style was brilliant. I loved the book within the book element. It made me feel like this was an actual true story not fiction. There were great spooky moments that kept me interested while also having informational moments. So in this book we are following two story lines Maggie and Ewans. During Ewans story we are reading his book of their experiences living in Baneberry Hall and why they left this beautiful home only 20 days after buying the house. Within Maggie's story you are 25 years in the future. Maggie has no memory of their time a Baneberry Hall so she decides to return to learn what really happen and why they really left.

This book is so twisty and dark and wonderful at the same time. I had never read anything like this before and I cannot wait to read more Riley Sager.

This was a fantastic read by Riley. I went through it in just a few days. Great twist and edge of your seat fun!

I've read all of Riley Sager's other books and this is by far my favorite! This book is a perfect ghost story/haunted house story and will keep you guessing!