The one thing I love about the books from this author and his back and forth mechanism. There always seems to be a vehicle of present-day context and contacts from the past and they merge with each other so seamlessly it is amazing. the characters in his book, even the ones that might not be main characters are always flushed out in the book in a way that your brain will always give them distinctive personalities. Unlike other books you may read where you just kind of get a picture of what is going on, you will literally get a movie unfolding in your mind while you read these books. As with all three of his other books oh, you are on the edge of your seat, thinking you know what is happening, thinking you know what the twist is but realizing the twist is not what you thought because he has an uncanny ability to lead you to believe the incorrect assumption. When you finally realize what is happening at the end you cannot help but still be surprised because of this author's amazing style. I cannot wait for his next book to come out and this is easily my favorite author at this time.

Thank you to NetGalley for an advanced copy of this book! I loved the last two that I read by him and once again, this one did not disappoint!!!! I was on the edge of my seat the whole time I read. I must admit I was scared/freaked out at times and had a hard time reading this at night or alone. That is why it took me longer to read it. I will continue reading Sager’s books! Every time I thought I had something figured out another twist was thrown my way! Great read that I wanted to see what happened, but was also sad to have it all come to an end! Thank you again NetGalley!!

The book within the book was super tropey, but that worked in a way that's difficult to explain. I also could have done with one fewer plot twist in the whiplash inducing conclusion, but that also kind of worked.

Riley Sager has always been amazing but seriously gets better with every book he writes! It’s like he’s in my head and knows exactly what *I* want to read and is hitting the target every single time. Home Before Dark was beyond unputdownable. It was such a creepy, jump scare, thrill ride. I will be recommending this title to every customer!

Well. Riley Sager is still one of my favorite authors and he's done it again. This book was a rollercoaster from beginning to end. He’s a master storyteller.

Riley Sager really knows how to scare a person. There were a few times reading Home Before Dark where I was downright frightened. Do you like sitting down with a book by an author that you enjoy or do you get nervous that the author might let you down and his or her book won’t live up to your expectations? Because I loved Lock Every Door, I was a little nervous that maybe Home Before Dark wasn’t going to pack the same literary punch but happily I can report, IT’S FANTASTIC.

In Lock Every Door, the apartment building was creepy, here its the childhood home of Maggie, a large rambling old house that holds scant memories for her. Her recently deceased father left her the house in his will, she thought he sold it long ago. Since Maggie renovates homes for a living, her goal is to come in and make some improvements then sell it.

The house is a sore spot for Maggie, she carries with her some anger over the fact her father capitalized on the house with his best selling book about their time living in the “House of Horrors” which made him both famous and rich. This is a book within a book as the chapters alternate between present-day Maggie and the House of Horrors book which details the bizarre activities that occurred when Maggie was a little girl.

Maggie feels that her father exaggerated much of what happened and is bitter about it. But when she moves into Baneberry Hall, she begins to wonder if her father wasn’t telling some truth about the house.

Here’s the official synopsis:

“What was it like? Living in that house.”

Maggie Holt is used to such questions. Twenty-five years ago, she and her parents, Ewan and Jess, moved into Baneberry Hall, a rambling Victorian estate in the Vermont woods. They spent three weeks there before fleeing in the dead of night, an ordeal Ewan later recounted in a nonfiction book called House of Horrors. His tale of ghostly happenings and encounters with malevolent spirits became a worldwide phenomenon, rivaling The Amityville Horror in popularity—and skepticism.

Today, Maggie is a restorer of old homes and too young to remember any of the events mentioned in her father’s book. But she also doesn’t believe a word of it. Ghosts, after all, don’t exist. When Maggie inherits Baneberry Hall after her father’s death, she returns to renovate the place to prepare it for sale. But her homecoming is anything but warm. People from the past, chronicled in House of Horrors, lurk in the shadows. And locals aren’t thrilled that their small town has been made infamous thanks to Maggie’s father. Even more unnerving is Baneberry Hall itself—a place filled with relics from another era that hint at a history of dark deeds. As Maggie experiences strange occurrences straight out of her father’s book, she starts to believe that what he wrote was more fact than fiction.

Needless to say, this is a captivating book and I enjoyed it tons, at least when I wasn’t scared. I remembered watching an episode of The Walton’s as a child and there was a poltergeist which freaked me out so much that I remember it to this day, over thirty years later. So yes, I do get easily spooked and yes, this book is creepy and chilling!

A must read! Pre-order it here and get it on June 30.

First line: Every house has a story to tell and a secret to share.

Summary: Maggie Holt has lived in the shadow of the book, <i>House of Horrors</i>, written by her father about the time they spent living at Baneberry House. She has no memories of their time there and cannot get answers about what really occurred there twenty-five years earlier. When she learns that she has inherited the house from her father she decides to go back, against the dying wish of her father, and try to find some answers.

My Thoughts: I think this is one of my favorite books by Riley Sager. He does a phenomenal job of creating a tense and thrilling story. I find it interesting that he always writes women but he does it so well.

From the very beginning I was hooked on Maggie’s story. I needed to know what happened just as much as she did. I could not turn the pages fast enough. I liked how the chapters alternated between “the Book” and Maggie in present day. The parallels made me want to keep reading with all the foreshadowing. There were several scenes where I had to set the book down and breathe a little bit to get past it.

This definitely has a The Haunting of Hill House vibe to it. A big scary house where a family it tormented. What could be better? But Sager does a great job of making this story his own. He has his classic twists and turns. I could not recommend this enough to anyone who loves a good thriller/ghost story.

FYI: Perfect for fans of The Haunting of Hill House.

I really enjoyed Home Before Dark. The story is about a family that runs from their home in the middle of the night. The father of the story, Ewan, writes a famous book about the house being haunted. 26 years later their daughter, Maggie, returns to the home to finally face what happened all those years ago. It goes back and forth in time from passages of Ewan's book to what Maggie is currently discovering about the house and it's story. It's a story about a home' the remembers and how it affects a family. I found the story compelling and suspenseful. It kept me guessing to the very end.

I loved Riley Sager's take on a popular trope of the haunted house story. It had all the elements you come to expect from that kind of story, but done with gis own flair. Home Before Dark was perfectly paced and thoroughly enjoyable.

Wow. Just wow! I’ve enjoyed Riley Sager’s books but I think Home Before Dark takes her writing to a whole new level. A Scary, creepy, page turning plot that has more twists than a roller coaster.
Just when I thought I had it all figured out, something else would happen in the book that added another twisted level of intrigue, and the story kept getting better and better.
At the age of 5, Maggie’s parents bought a huge, old mansion in Vermont that already had old terrible stories attached to its history. Pegged as a new start, they lasted only 20 days before they fled for their lives. Vowing never to return Maggie’s father wrote a book about their ordeal that became an international best seller. As Maggie aged she constantly asked her parents is what happened in the house and written in the book, true or false, as she can’t remember anything. But her parents won’t discuss what happened. This book defined her life making her the weird girl who saw ghosts, and an outcast. After her father dies she finds she’s inherited the house although her father begs her never to go again.
Of course, Maggie goes, hoping to renovate and sell the home. But most of all to find the truth. Were there ghosts, and what really happened during their 20 day stay?
I alternately wanted to read fast so I could find out what happened next, and slowly, so I could savor every twist and turn. Thanks for the ARC. I highly recommend.

This book has been on my Amazon wishlist for a month or so; since I first saw it in my recommenadations. I found the concept utterly fascinating, and couldn't wait to find out how the author made the storyline work. I was not disappointed. Chapters alternate between first person Maggie and her father's best-selling book, so it was kind if like two books in one, entwined into one amazing novel. I don't want to spoil anything, but I will say that this book had the perfect balance of everything I look for in a novel. It kept me up way past my bedtime at night, looking for Miss Pennyface or Mister Shadow....and because I just didn't want to put it down. Definitely one I will recommend and will probably even read again, which is something I rarely do.

I was enamoured of Riley Sager 's first two novels, FINAL GIRLS and THE LAST TIME I LIED. His third mystery, LOCK EVERY DOOR, I've not yet read. The description for HOME BEFORE DARK really excited me, because I love a Haunting above all else.


However: the pre-Prologue, told from contemporary (adult) Maggie's point of view, didn't set me up for the story. Now the Prologue, when Maggie was five and the family freshly moved into the unusual, if not quite, unique, Baneberry House in a significantly rural region of New Hampshire: oh, yes. Bring It On.
Sigh: the author at some point decided to make this a two-era story, interweaving the events of 21 days, 25 years earlier, with the contemporary narrative: Adult all-business nothing-to-see-here Maggie Returns. That could work, might work, has worked. But not here, and not for me. Think I'll reread this book, but differently, reading all the past-tense events as one smooth flowing narrative, then all the "now" sections as a narrative. This back-forward-back-forward just disjoints my grasp of the narrative (and has cost the novel a Star).


Something else that gripes me about HOME BEFORE DARK is how extensively skeptical adult Maggie is. Perhaps psychologically this is a logical result of "slamming the door" on unwanted or terrifying belief. But it's not scientific method: when confronted with the seemingly inexplicable, one doesn't leap off the opposite deep end trying to explain it away. Sherlock wouldn't like that.


Finally, the Denouement: again, sigh. Maybe I'm simply too old and locked into my preferred patterns. I want to shake the characters senseless, screaming bansee-like, "Can't you fools see?"


So in conclusion, I'm sorry, but the best I can give is not even 3.5. 3 stars.

I love an author’s vivid creativity and trying something unexpected to exceed his or her previous writing performances by taking a challenge and trying something brand new.

Riley Sager is one of the most brilliant authors raises the bars and waltz between genres and serves us fresh baked from oven kind of delicious, soul crushing, mind numbing, exhilarating, surprising stories with WTF I just read kind of twisty, the rug pulled out from your feet kind of endings.

This time he dances between horror, supernatural, ghost stories and mix them with true crime, murder, whodunit elements. You sense Amityville Horror, Haunting of Hill House and a little bit “Exorcist”, “Shining” and “Conjuring” vibes. At some parts you sense the author’s tribute to Stephen King novels by using his favorite elements like dysfunctional family dynamics, small town mystery, the thin line between madness and reality.

So get ready to freak out because you’re reading two books at the same time:

One of them belongs to Megan Holt’s POV, inherited a so called haunted house from her father after his sudden death and advised her not to go there again.

Other book belongs to Megan’s father Ewan telling us their 20 days of horrifying experience at the house with his soon to be ex-wife and 5 years old Megan.

Ewan’s part of the book published and haunted Megan’s life forever, prevented her forming normal relationships and having a real social life. She only have one close friend and business partner Allie helps her renovating houses and now she decides to move to Baneberry Hall: the haunted family Victorian estate and learn the truth her family is hiding because she never believed that ghostbusters against paranormal activity bullshit. But as soon as she takes her first step in the house, unbelievable and spooky things start to happen! Megan still has no idea about what happened when she was little and she insisted her parents to come clean but they denied her.


And Ewan’s book is more entertaining and horrifying than Megan’s POV, making you feel like any time Winchester Brothers appear out of nowhere to help the family pouring salt on the floor and put the ghosts on fire. Especially the creepy song plays at the night time gave me so much creeps and huge desire to scream till my throat burns.

I don’t’ want to give more spoils but I may only say the ending is satisfying and some parts are foreseeable but you still want to ask yourself: “What! Why! WTH?” yes, you partly expected some parts but not the whole picture! (I filled like my spidey senses out of juice!)

I also have to add: last two books’ covers of the author are fantastic! They give you a brief warning that something terrifying and disturbing is waiting you as soon as you flip the pages.

Overall: Pacing is good. However, at some parts I lost my interest for Megan’s POV and I enjoyed Ewan’s book so much more, it is still riveting, heart throbbing, nail, elbow, hand, arm biter, unputdowable, creepy story that I’ve dreamt of! I was so ready to sell my not so precious soul to get an ARC COPY and my wish came true.

So I’m giving 3.5 stars rounded up to 4!

Special thanks to NetGalley and PENGUIN GROUP/Dutton Books for ARC of one of the most anticipated thrillers of this year in exchange my honest review and thanks to Riley Sager, I loved this book more than “Lock Every Door”

There are some authors I wait for, anticipating their new book long before its published. Riley Sager is in that category because her books are so clever, so intricately plotted and so shocking that they are completely addictive. In her latest, Maggie Holt, a house restorer, inherits Baneberry Hall when her father dies. Years before, when Maggie was a young child, she and her parents live in the old Victorian. They were there for only three weeks before they fled in supposed terror. Maggie’s father’s book about the events were chronicled in a book called House of Horrors. Maggie remembers nothing of those days and she doesn’t believe in the paranormal, so the inheritance seems like a windfall, She can fix up the place and sell it for a tidy profit. But Maggie isn’t back in the house for long when she begins to wonder if her father’s book was more truthful that she ever believed. I loved this book and its exploration of the Amityville Horror syndrome. Creepy, intense and impossible to put down