I love all of Riley Sager's books! This one felt a little too much like the TV show Haunting of Hill House, but I still enjoyed it and was happy with the twist at the end.

I've read most of "Riley Sager's" novels, but Home Before Dark will always hold a special place in my heart because I read it on a rough day of waiting in the airport and on my flight. It was the only reason I didn't spend that time infuriated with the airline. I think one of his strengths is being able to make certain places and settings, full-fledged characters with lots of personality. In this case, that place is Baneberry Hall and the town of Bartleby, Vermont. Maggie Holt, now an adult, has had to live with the repercussions of her father's non-fiction haunted house story, and she's sick of it. She knows it's all made up, but doesn't understand why and what propelled him to write that story in the first place. Now that he's gone and she owns it, Maggie feels the need to revisit it, so she can give it a new life before it goes up on the market. In doing so, she gets re-introduced to people from her past that offer advice and opinions as strange things continue to happen in and around the home. You won't be able to put this one down!

Riley Sager gives us a very well done ghost story. Things do go bump in the night and the reader will understand the fright of the people involved in the action described. But wait, is it really a story about haunted houses and ethereal entities or not. Two positives as you read this book. You will enjoy an exceptionally well done novel and not being able to sleep until it is finished, and also not being able to readily answer the question of is it a ghost story or not?
Maggie Holt and a partner are involved in the business of restoring old run down houses and than selling them at a profit. Maggie comes across a Victorian estate located in the Vermont woods which fits the parameters of homes suitable for her partner and herself to fix up and sell. It is coincidentally one that she and her parents had bought twenty five years ago, lived in for a short time and than fled the premises. Maggie does not recall the reasons for her family suddenly fleeing the house with her memory on that score drawing a complete blank. The only thing she recalls other than fleeing the house is her father, an author of note, had written a book about the mansion that became a best seller and made the family a good deal of money.
When moving in Maggie's parents had arranged with a sixteen year old girl living close to them to baby sit for their daughter, and a mystery evolved when that girl suddenly disappeared from home never to be found. The supposition about the mansion being haunted revolves around the girl that vanished and now haunting the house looking for "something." Events happen supporting the evidence of a ghost or rather three of them that are in the house. Maggie notices that things start vanishing and checking looks like no one has entered the mansion. She also revives childhood memories about being visited by three unknowns and told that she will die in the house repressed memories that remain with her throughout the years after fleeing it with her parents.
Readers will be caught up in the apparently otherworldly things that have happened over the years to two families involved with the events described. It is a five star mesmerizing novel and another set of kudos to Mr Sager.

Riley Sager's writing gets better with every new book and he is truly becoming a master of the horror genre. In Sager's fourth release, "Home Before Dark" has readers scared within the first few pages and doesn't let up until near the end of the book. There are twists that you won't see coming and once you think you have it figured out, there is another twist. Maggie Holt is haunted by a book her father wrote when she was a child about their family fleeing from their home, Baneberry Hall. The Book follows Maggie wherever she goes, although she is skeptical that the events of the book are true, so when her father dies and Baneberry Hall becomes hers, she is forced to confront the ghosts of her past - real or imaginary.

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Riley Sager has been my new go to for recommendations for suspense/thriller reads. Home Before Dark is a solid read, but it is not the best of Sager's books. In having written that Home Before Dark has great tension and suspense it just doesn't pack the punch of the other novels.

Five stars....waiting to upload review until closer to publication date per publishers request! Another home run from Riley Sager!!

Riley Sager is quickly becoming my favorite author of thrillers. I have loved each of his books, and this is no exception.

Twenty-five years ago, Maggie and her parents flee their home of three weeks in terror, the Baneberry Hall. Maggie is too young to remember what happened, but her father ends up writing a memoir of the horrors that happened in the old Victorian house.

When her father dies, she is left his estate, which surprisingly included Baneberry Hall, which she had no idea he still owned. Never believing her father’s “true” ghost story of their time at Baneberry, she is determined to go back and find out if it really was fact or fiction.

I loved the alternating chapters between present day Maggie and the chapters of her father’s book, House of Horrors. I kept trying to figure out the truth along with Maggie, but was always pleasantly surprised when I was wrong! I devoured this book and am so satisfied with how it all needed. I can’t wait for Riley Sager to write more novels!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Riley Sager succeeds as a writer who knows how to create atmosphere and tell the beginnings of a good story. Unfortunately he continues to be an author who seems to think a cool concept is enough and he doesn't have to bother with a convincing ending.

"Home Before Dark" starts with a great idea only to build to a totally unbelievable ending that isn't so much unexpected as it is utterly implausible.

I continue to regard him as a writer of great talent who just doesn't deliver.

Riley Sager is fantastic at building tension and suspense in his novels, and "Home Before Dark" is no exception.
I liked Sager's juxtaposition of Maggie's adult POV with chapters from her father's book, and it was a good way to incorporate red herrings and build that creepy atmosphere. Haunted houses and ghosts personally creep me out so I was definitely a little scared at some points which is always fun! This book has elements of Shirley Jackson, Stephen King, and other traditional haunted house stories, and though I can't say it has added anything super original to the haunted house sub-genre--it was a fun and easy read.

I did have some issues with this book that made it a 3 star read for me. The ending was very rushed, with the major surprise! reveals happening one right after another in the last twenty pages or so. It was a lot of information all at once and I felt like Sager was trying to include more horror/thriller tropes than was really necessary. I also felt that I didn't really get to know the characters that well, Maggie especially. While I did like the different POVs, character development was definitely a casualty of that narrative decision.

Finally, something that irks me (just a little!) with Sager's books is that his female characters do risky things that myself, and no other woman I know would do. For instance, when Maggie rushes outside in the middle of the night/alone after seeing some creepy apparition in the woods that first night and doesn't take any kind of weapon/protective measures? Speaking as a woman, that just seems incredibly unlikely. It's not a major issue, but it's the kind of detail that gives me pause when reading his books.

Overall, I had a lot of fun reading this book and I am excited for thriller and mystery fans to read it!

Maggie had been haunted by her former life and the house she lived in as a kid, Baneberry Hall. When she finds out that she has inherited the house, she becomes determined to fix it up and sell it while also trying to discover the truth about what really happened while she was living there.

Twenty five years earlier, Maggie's father, Ewan, shares his perspective through the book that he wrote about his family's haunting experience living in Baneberry Hall.

Through twists and turns, Maggie discovers who she can really trust and what exactly happened twenty five years ago!

If you want a great mystery/thriller, this is the book for you! "Home Before Dark" has all of the necessary thriller elements: paranormal activity, twists & turns, suspense, multiple suspects, and red herrings! This book will keep you wanting more so much so that you will finish the book within 10 hours like I did! Just when you think you have it all figured out...think again!

Riley Sager masterfully creates the ultimate haunted house. He leaves you wanting more after every chapter, and he fuels your intrigue by systematically filling in the gaps little by little until you're left shocked and shook at the end! This book is a quick, fun read that will leave you wanting to read every Riley Sager book published!

Riley Sager has been a must read for me ever since I read “Final Girls.” I love how each story takes on a different horror trope in a fresh way.

All that being said “Home Before Dark” was an entertaining, if somewhat drawn out read. I enjoyed the book, but I didn’t love it as much as Sager’s other novels. The first three quarters of the book were a slow burn and the last seemed to just fly through to an ending that in some ways didn’t fully pay off. Don’t get me wrong. Even at this level, Sager is better than a lot of the other authors of this genre.

The idea of the house being another character in these types of books is beginning to wear thin as a current trend (looking at you Ruth Ware and J. P. Delaney). “Home Before Dark” did better than most, but frankly I’m ready for a break from the sub genre.

The main character, Maggie, was likable and I did care what happened to her. The writing was well done. This is a good summer read that I’m sure others will devour. Three and a half (or 3 and 3/4) stars for me with this one. I’ll still be eagerly awaiting Sager’s next book.

FANTASTIC!!! Do you like ghosts? Creepy atmosphere? Monsters? Spirits? Unreliable characters? Clearly you do if you're still reading! A dazzling & creepy ghost story with more twists than a bag of pretzels. And if that's not enough, he throws one more last one in for good measure. Riley Sager is one of my new favorite authors! I'd read a phone book if he wrote it!

Another great, creepy tale by Riley Sager. I like the backstory of the house and the Amityville Horror-vibes that "Home Before Dark" has. Definitely a must read!

I’ve heard so much buzz about Riley Sager but haven’t had a chance to read any of his books until I received this ARC from Netgalley. “Home Before Dark” starts off eerily like “Haunting of Hill House” but quickly diverts to telling the story of Baneberry Hall through dueling timelines and perspectives of father and daughter. The supernatural elements are creepy and seemingly unexplained at the beginning, perfect for fans of thrillers. Something about this plot unwinds like a Scooby Doo episode, slowly pulling the masks off the characters to reveal their true motivations, and Sager even makes a little Scooby reference within the text! The twists and reveals were fun for me, I wasn’t able to predict anything before it was revealed. I really liked this book and its mystery elements.

I am only removing one star because sometimes the twists were just sooooo convenient. Of course something would be discovered hidden in plain sight that explains a whole plot point! Those convenient revelations just kept happening.

While I really enjoy Riley Sager's writing, this isn't my favorite. While I did enjoy it better than "Lock Every Door" it felt to me that it had the same fatal flaw. The ending of both stories felt rushed. They felt rushed to the point where all the mystery reveal details come at you so fast it feels like a Scooby Doo episode. I mean I enjoyed the entire buildup, the parallel stories, but I was wanting more. Now, three stars may seem unfair considering I did in fact like it and it was a reasonably good mystery (I was even often scared) but Sager's first two books seemed so well constructed and jaw dropping endings (that were longer and more fulfilling) that I couldn't justify more stars

Here are my early thoughts: overall I really enjoyed this book. I’m a big fan of books like The Shining, or Hell House, etc. and this book is very evocative of them up to the point that I thought it was kind of schlocky. Some things seemed ripped from other haunted house books. However, when you read the book, you understand why! Definitely a nice, quick read that will keep you interested. I can’t say that I really liked the main character, and there’s something a little hollow about all of the characters. It was entertaining.

This book is not like any thriller I've read! It's two stories within one and I loved that aspect! It's about a woman trying to discover what happened during her childhood when her family lived in a supposedly haunted house. Her father gets famous when she's a kid for writing a nonfiction ghost story and the book follows her throughout her life.

I really enjoyed the atmospheric quality of the book. I liked the back and forth between the main character's story and the book her father wrote. I think Riley Sager fans will like this book a lot.

I was never fully invested in the main character. I just couldn't suspend disbelief to truly love it. I am a huge Riley Sager fan but this was not one of my favorites.

Home Before Dark is a creepy thriller that I really enjoyed. It had supernatural elements, a strong protagonist, and truly engaging twists and turns. A definite must read!!

HUGE thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for my copy of Home Before Dark by Riley Sager. All opinions are my own.

I am a huge fan of Sager. He's honestly probably found himself at the top of my favorite authors list. That being said- and I've said this before- he's one of the authors that I always get a little nervous when I read their new material. I feel like I have them up so high on a pedestal that one of these times, something is bound to flop and send them crashing down. Luckily, that wasn't the case. In fact, I think this might be Sager at his best.

Any time I see something involving a potentially haunted house, I'm ecstatic because I truly love that stuff. Ghosts, ghouls, whatever you want to call them- sign me up. This book's creep-factor is through the roof, and I can say it honestly scared me, which is difficult to do. About halfway through the book, I was fully convinced I knew what the ending would be and was a little bummed by it. I was completely wrong and shocked.

If you're a thriller lover like myself, this is the book for you. Riley Sager is the master of this genre and keeps getting better.

When I requested this book I was not sure what type book it was going to be. Horror,,paranormal,romance? This book was so full of twists and turns that I had no idea who did it. It did tie all lose ties up in the end and had a surprising ending. I enjoyed reading this book very much. Thank you NetGalley for letting me read this book