Review - Home Before Dark

Home Before Dark

by Riley Sager

Release date 06/30/2020

416 pages

5 out of 5 stars

According to the publisher, "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."

Back in May, I was gifted a subscription to Book Of The Month as a birthday present.  When I saw this book listed, I knew it would be absolutely perfect to read for Halloween.  I ordered it, and it's been sitting on my shelf since then, waiting for its big debut into my life!

To say this book did not disappoint would be a wild understatement.  From the moment I started this book, I was totally on the edge of my seat!

The author chose a unique storytelling technique of combining two different books to give us two different timelines.  We are reading Maggie's present-day story, but we also alternate chapters with House of Horrors, which tells the story of her childhood, and has defined her for most of her life.  

Both stories center around Baneberry Hall, which was the site of multiple tragedies before Maggie inherits it and decides to remodel it.  As soon as Maggie moves in, she starts experiencing the same strange happenings that originally chased her family out of the home.  

To find an explanation for all of the different bumps in the night, Maggie must decipher what's true and reconcile her own memories with her father's version of the truth in his book.  Home Before Dark is an insane ride, both for Maggie and the reader.  The story ends with an incredible plot twist that none of us saw coming!

This is my first Riley Sager book.  However, he has accumulated a huge legion of fans over the last few years from his super popular thriller books.  And - fun fact for my New Jersey readers - he lives in Princeton!  It is so cool knowing so much talent lives nearby.  I absolutely plan to give his other books a try; if they are even half as good as Home Before Dark, I know I am in for a real treat!

Without giving anything away, this book has its truly terrifying moments; if you adamantly dislike horror, this is not the book for you.  But if you are able to sit through an averagely scary movie, you can make it through this book, and I promise the ending is worth it!  I 100% recommend this book to read for Halloween, or any other time of year!