This was a great read. It was fast paced and had a ton of unexpected twists. This is the first I’ve read of this author and will be looking for more!

I really enjoyed the atmosphere of this book. There was defiantly a few twists I didn't see coming which is always good in a thriller. Solid Sager book.

I received an ARC of this book via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Maggie Holt is shocked to learn that she has inherited from her father the haunted house that her family lived in when she was a child. Against her parents wishes, she returns to the house to renovate and disprove that the house is actually haunted. When mysterious things begin to happen, she quickly realizes that nothing is as it seems and her life is in danger. Told from the alternating viewpoints of both Maggie in the present and her father in the past, the house’s very dark secrets come to light.

This was a suspense/horror with supernatural elements but not over-the-top unbelievable or scary. Sager deftly depicts the perfect horror scene: an old Vermont mansion where multiple murders have taken place. The narration includes some very cringeworthy scenes, including one with a huge nest of snakes emerging from the kitchen ceiling. The plot held my attention and made me want to keep reading to find out what happens. The ending had several twists and was completely unanticipated. This is a book that I will especially recommend at Halloween time.

Many thanks to Netgalley, Dutton Books and Riley Sager for my complimentary e-copy ARC in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Riley Sager does it again. So spooky!! This book reminded me a lot of the Netflix adaptation of The Haunting of Hill House, and I loved it! My only complaint is that the writing in the chapters of Maggie’s father’s book seemed much more elementary and sort of overly suspenseful than the writing throughout the main story, but that could’ve definitely been purposeful.

Thanks to Netgalley and Penguin Group- Dutton for the advanced copy!

This was a great novel. Sager writes a riveting story that combines Stephen King’s The Shining with Gillian Flynn family drama based mystery. What really happened twenty years ago when they fled the haunted house, never to return? After her father, the author of the famous haunted house book that basically shaped Maggie’s life, dies And she inherits the mansion- she has the opportunity to find out. Really well written with so many twists I’ve read a lot of horror, suspense mysterIes and I never figured out the ending! Highly recommended

(3.75) Haunted house with a gothic feel are one of my guilty pleasure. I liked that the author plays with timelines in his books and we're never sure if it's supernatural or other people that are responsible.

I liked how even though I had an inkling of "who did it" there were still some other credible possibilities and the ending was still satisfying.

Personally I felt like the main female character was the weakest part (the descriptions of Dane, the mansplaining bit, the telling all her secrets after knowing him for 24h which gave me flashbacks of Lock Every Door.)

There once was a house filled with ghosts.
A family moves in filled with hopes.
Snakes creep through the halls.
Music plays in the walls.
What will finally make them say NOPE!

This book was atmospheric and creepy.
Tension had me turning pages quickly
Haunted house or a dream?
The book made me scream!
Perfect bone chilling page turning ghost story.

The scariest movies I've ever seen were Rosemary's Baby and The Amityville Horror. I'm frightened, but darkly intrigued by blend of lies and secrets with supernatural horror. Plus, no gore. (My distaste for blood and gore is extra funny, since my husband is a horror writer.)  Lock Every Door was Riley Sager's Rosemary's Baby, not a direct retelling by any means, but a suspense novel with similar themes and beats. Now, his Home Before Dark brings The Amityville Horror to mind.

In Home Before Dark, Maggie's father turned their weeks living in Baneberry Hall into a famous tell-all book about the real haunting they experienced. It's basically The Amityville Horror, culminating in the family escaping in the middle of the night, never to return. Maggie was only 5, and although she's a key figure in the book about the haunting, she remembers almost nothing from this time. When her father dies, she discovers than he never sold the house, and he left it to her.

Maggie rehabs and flips old houses for a living (I know, right? The shrink thought it was an interesting career path for a little girl from a haunted house, too.) and she decides to go back to Baneberry (I know, right? Her mom tried to talk her out of it, too.) to fix it up.

Of course, Maggie almost immediately starts finding strange things at the house. Baneberry Hall is almost too perfectly creepy.  It's got all the haunted-house standards, with generations of dark secrets, laconic New England caretakers, poisonous baneberries and a graveyard on the property, mysterious sounds, just everything. There's a fascinating dual storyline, with chapters alternating between Maggie's time in the house, as an adult, and her dad's book about the house, both describing strange events.

I enjoyed this one, although not quite as much as Lock Every Door. There's the same strong suspense in both novels, but I think that upscale Manhattan facade in Lock Every Door, with dark exploitation underneath, is more my style than creepy countryside of Home Before Dark.

"Every house has a story to tell and a secret to share. Twenty-five years ago, my family lived in a house named Baneberry Hall...We moved in on June 26. We fled in the dead of night on July 15."

Maggie Holt has just inherited a house after the death of her father. It's not just any house nor does it carry any treasured, happy memories for Maggie. In fact, she never intended to see it or step foot inside again after that fateful night. She is, however, a designer and she intends to work on the place and sell it. The house has caused her nothing but pain as it ruined the relationship she had with her parents when her father decided to turn their short time living there into a bestselling book -- in fact, a ghost story -- that Maggie has come to believe was all a total lie. So, she seeks truth. What did happen in that house? NO SPOILERS.

Oh, how I love a book that features an old house -- possibly haunted -- or at least one with all the Gothic influences and menacing atmosphere. This well-written suspense thriller is my favorite of all the Sager books (so far) and I believe it's best read without reading too much about it ahead of time. It's a fun, quick read that you will find hard to put down. I enjoyed the details and the way the author interspersed the present events that Maggie was experiencing with past excerpts from her father's book.

Thank you to NetGalley and PENGUIN GROUP Dutton for this e-book ARC to read, review, and recommend. Enjoy!

Riley Sager's books keep getting better! The Last Time I Lied got me hooked, Lock Every Door was more than I thought it would be, and now Home Before Dark made me a fan! The plot twist was very well done. The perfect read as we move into the fall, and spooky Halloween season., I will definitely be recommending this one to all my bookish friends and followers!

I loved this book so much! I loved the parts of the book that were from the book the main characters father wrote - they gave me all the haunted house vibes!! Like Riley Sager's other books I've read, this one was full of fun twists and turns that kept me guessing until the very end. I also love the strong female lead. I always think Riley Sager creates realistic women characters and Maggie was no different. Riley Sager is now officially one of my favorite authors and I will always look forward to his next release.

Riley Sager publishes the types of thriller novel I enjoy reading, so it was a great time. The pace is just right, and the reveals at the end hit the right notes. The only thing that would have made this better is if my time reading this novel had featured a dark and stormy night!

Riley Sager remains the best author in horror fiction today. Home Before Dark is an excellent story in the vein of a haunted house horror story. The writing is atmospheric with perfect pacing for horror. The mystery is solid and setup in an intriguing way. The twists throughout take the plot to surprising places. This is definitely up there in terms of top Sager novels. If you haven't read any by the author yet, start here and check out Home Before Dark today. Highly recommended!

***Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for providing me with a digital copy of this book in exchange for an honest review***
If you like the Haunting of Hill House, then you'll love Riley Sager's Home Before Dark. It has creepy happenings and a decent mystery that I never figured out until the end. I switched from audiobook to digital copy and both are highly recommended.

This is a fun, fast-paced thriller! I enjoyed the dual timeline and unexpected plot twists! A must read!

True confession: I requested this book because I misread the author’s name and thought it was a different author whose work I had enjoyed. So, I was totally clueless about this author going in, and if I had read the blurb carefully it is unlikely I would have requested it. TBH, creepy old houses, particularly the haunted variety, are just not my thing. But, here we are…

Despite my lack of affinity for haunted houses, the book was a fast read and I liked it. It alternated between a story about a creepy old house (haunted?) told by a woman in the present day and the nonfiction book the woman’s father had written about the same house following the family’s stay there years ago. I admit I really wanted to know the truth (even after the woman came to believe the truth was that the house was truly haunted.

Didn’t guess the ending — not unusual for me! Not really my thing but fun. Home Before Dark by Riley Sager gets 3.5 stars rounded up to 4.

Maggie was just five years old when she and her parents moved into Baneberry Hall, an old Victorian house. Twenty days later, the family left and never returned. In the aftermath, Maggie’s father penned a non-fiction book that detailed the family’s ordeal with the ghosts and evil spirits they encountered while living there. This wildly popular book made the family famous.

Fast forward 25 years. Maggie is shocked to discover that her father never sold Baneberry Hall and now, after his recent death, she is the sole heir. Ignoring her mother’s plea to stay away, Maggie returns to the house she can barely remember in order to renovate it for sale. Even though she never believed her father’s claims that the house is haunted, she begins to question her assumptions when she has unsettling experiences in the old house.

Riley Sager is a master storyteller. As with his previous books, Mr Sager weaves a story that is spooky, interesting, fast-paced, and original. This book would be perfect for someone who enjoys a mystery with a touch of the supernatural. All in all, Home Before Dark is quite good and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing a copy of this book for review.

"Every house has a story to tell."

This book was a winding ride, whipping the reader from haunted house horror to murder mystery and back again. I LOVED the alternating chapters of reading the horror book Maggie's father wrote and back to the present day 20-some-odd years later. Sager did double the work writing literally two books, which is DANG impressive! The scary, haunted house elements of the book were really good, and I wasn't even mad when I realized the book was turning into a murder mystery - don't hauntings often come from those wronged in life? It combined two really compelling story lines rather seamlessly, and made for a truly creepy read. I mean, a five-year-old who sees ghosts called Mr. Shadow and Mrs. Pennyface really is fodder for a scary story no matter how you spin it, and I really loved the allusions to "Haunting of Hill House" and "Amityville Horror," along with the vibes of "Paranormal Activity" and "The Babadook."

This was my first Riley Sager book, and I look forward to going back and catching up on what else I've missed from this powerhouse of horror/thriller crossover.

Home Before Dark is everything I want in a classic haunted house tale; a strong (yet flawed) female lead, a fascinating (re: murderous) history and a surprise twist. While I read this book earlier in the summer you can guarantee it will be showing up in my recommendations for the rest of the year, because I think it's a perfect fall read. Also, let's talk about how cool it is that it's a glow in the dark book cover!

Maggie Holt has lived in the shadow of Baneberry Hall since her father famously penned his book, House of Horrors making their story a worldwide phenomenon. Except, Maggie doesn't believe any of it happened which is why she's returned to the house to flip it and get it out of her lie forever. Yet, as she uncovers the house's history she'll find her father may have be the deceiver she believed him to be.

One of my favorite things about Sager's writing style is his pace. It takes no time for me to swept into the story, yet he does not lose details in the process. I read this cover to cover almost instantly AND did not guess the ending which is always a delight.

I am now a fan of Riley Sager. I think my patrons are going to love this book, so I've ordered several copies and named it an upcoming book club title. Thank you for the advanced read!