Home Before Dark is Sager's best work by far. It's everything readers love about the haunted house genre with a dash of psychological horror that Sager does best. I'll be recommending this to lots of patrons!

Twenty five years ago, Maggie Holt moved into Baneberry Hall with her parents, Ewan and Jess. They only lived there for three weeks before they fled in the middle of the night never returning again. Ewan later writes a book about their time in Baneberry Hall called House of Horrors that he claims is completely true. When Ewan dies, Maggie inherits Baneberry Hall and decides to return to renovate it and sell it. She also wants to find out what truly happened and why her parents decided to flee in the middle of the night. Is the book her father wrote fact or fiction?

I love Riley Sager so when I saw I had been approved to review Home Before Dark, I was so excited! I knew it was inspired by The Amityville Horror, but other than that I didn't know much about the book. When I found out that there was a book (House of Horrors) within the book, I was a little nervous. I've read a book within a book before and did not like it at all, so I didn't think I would like this book. Wow, I was wrong! Sager nailed it! It actually was one of my favorite things about the book, I loved the alternating chapters with House of Horrors and the present day. This was definitely a unique storyline that was really well done and well written!

As with all of Sager's books, this one was also fast paced and I couldn't put it down! I loved how it read like a thriller and the fact that it's horror inspired (which gave it all the creepiness). I should have known better when I thought I had guessed the first twist in this book. Sager always makes you think you figured out the twist and then turns around and adds another twist! This time he had more twists than usual, which I really enjoyed since I didn't expect all of them!

This is now my new favorite book by Riley Sager! If you're a fan of his, you will love this one too. If you haven't read anything by him yet and you love thrillers/mystery (with a dash of horror), I definitely recommend reading this! 4.5 Stars!

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the e-arc!

Not as intense as Riley's other books but still grabs you from the beginning. Love the writing style of going back and forth in time.

Riley Sager does it again with Home Before Dark.
The book within a book, give two stories coming together as one.
I couldn't put it down.
The ghost stories, the thrills, the turns at every corner - five stars.

I received an advanced copy of this book through NetGalley for an honest review. This book may seem like a house of horrors, if you are afraid of ghosts/spirits and/or slivery reptiles but if you can get past that squirminess you will enjoy the clever mystery behind Banneberry Hall. Maggie presented through flashbacks in her father's book which are unreliable in relation to the truth, and present day Maggie, who doesn't believe in haunted houses or ghosts but seeks the truth about why they left will have you reading into the night.

Stepping into Baneberry Hall can often leave the visitor traumatized or dead. Maggie Holt recently inherits her former home after the passing of her father, Ewan Holt. Growing up in the now famous house known from his bestselling nonfiction novel, House of Horrors, Maggie fails to remember the events that had taken place. Alternating between the chapters of the famous book and Maggie’s point of view, Sager creates a thrilling and terrifying ride as the main character tries to discover the truth from her past. Fans of the ghost classics, such as Amityville Horror, will enjoy Home Before Dark as there are many twists and turns that will make readers question of what lurks in the shadows of their own home.

Scheduled to post 6/27/20.

I'm pretty torn on HOME BEFORE DARK. 

The good parts? It was really well-written and certainly creeped me out in spots. It toed the line of supernatural and Sager really used the house as its own character, giving it its own role in this story. He amped up setting and ambiance amazingly and I was hooked from the beginning. After my disappointment of LOCK EVERY DOOR, I was glad to see so much of what I loved about Sager's first two books back in this one. It felt like a thriller. It provided a ton of surprises and ultimately I did really like the ending. It didn't leave me wanting like the last book did. It didn't leave me disappointed and I powered my way through the book like it was nothing. I particularly enjoyed how the timeline alternated between Maggie's current one and the past/House of Horrors book chapters.

However, I really, really wish it weren't such an obvious dupe of Netflix's The Haunting of Hill House. Like so incredibly obvious it was unoriginal and borderline insulting. From the house itself with its devastating past and that "it remembers" thanks to its mentally imbalanced original owners  to the flipper taking over the home to sell it only to find out it really is haunted to the book that launched the story and made a spectacle of them all to the polaroids to how Maggie can never go back because it's not safe for her, especially for her, and so many other things. Yeah, Sager wrote a compelling story. But it was The Haunting of Hill House with some slight changes. What am I supposed to do with that? Praise Sager or Netflix/Shirley Jackson?

And then the ending. Or actually, not quite the ending, which I need to talk about. So consider this a spoiler warning.

SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS

So that shocking "twist" where it's revealed that Maggie was the one who killed Petra? My face reading that part was like

[image]

Because Sager made Maggie's parents the stupidest people on the planet in order to fuel the entire plot. So her parents leave to screw in peace at the by-the-hour motel down the road while five-year-old Maggie is babysat by Petra. They come back to find Petra in a dead, twisted heap at the bottom of the stairs with Maggie at the top crying about how she didn't do it. And because she had punched out Hannah the other night, Maggie's parents' first thought was 'my daughter's a cold-blooded killer.' What. She's five.

And then they start spiraling. THIS IS GOING TO RUIN HER LIFE. She's five. SHE'S GOING TO GO TO JAIL. She's five. OUR BABY'S A MONSTER. WTF are you assholes talking about? So the first place they all go is our daughter is an absolute killer and not, hey maybe the babysitter tripped down these raggedy stairs on accident? Like, it was just so ridiculous and so over the top and the fact that this moment fueled this entire escapade of a book was just flabbergasting. I wish Maggie's dad was having an affair and he killed Petra in some kind of lover's quarrel. It would have made more sense than whatever this particular scene was. And then their answer to hiding the body in the house was to tell a story that would draw people to the house for decades to come because Ewan wrote a damn book about it for the money. What.

END SPOILERS

So yeah. I don't know whether my conflicting opinions make my feelings a wash or what. I mean, I liked the book, but it's The Haunting of Hill House with some things changed. So how do I rate this? A neutral 3 maybe? The thing is, Sager can construct a story. I've seen it. I've read it. So to get something like this . . . It's not a disappointment because HOME BEFORE DARK is much closer to the quality of book Sager wrote before LOCK EVERY DOOR. But it's a disappointment because it's not wholly his story. And I'm not going to get into the "there are no original stories anymore' conversation because that's not an excuse. Yes, this is your generic haunted house story. Or rather "haunted house" story. There are only so many things you can do with that, but there are infinite ways to make it your own. HOME BEFORE DARK is very obviously The Haunting of Hill House to the point where not comparing it is impossible.

3

The story is told in alternating chapters between what Maggie is experiencing and remembering and corresponding chapters from her father’s book. I really loved that approach to telling this story, especially because the similarities between the chapters increase as the book goes on.

I also love how Maggie’s character approaches the entire history of the house. She doesn’t believe it’s haunted and goes through every logical explanation that she can. Some of her explanations are so solid that even the reader will be questioning her dad’s book before long. This is an awesome device as you are reading, because it essentially turns her father’s book into an unreliable narrator.

I loved how many twists there were! Twists on twists on twists. It is a thriller reader’s paradise. All of the twists are believable and you have the information in there to parse a few of them out if you pay attention. I will tell you that I pegged a villain pretty early on, then retired that guess when one twist made me re-evaluate, only to get some vindication for my guess in the end. On the other hand, I also have to admit that I pegged another character as a villain, only to be completely wrong. He wasn’t a villain, he just annoyed me and acted in a somewhat creepy manner.

This was a fine thriller. Didn't hate it but didn't loved it. I think I like Riley Sagar's previous novel better.

Super dark and creepy. Lots of snakes, so many snakes! True to form, Riley wrote another page turner!

REVIEW | Home Before Dark by Riley Sager

When Maggie’s father dies, she’s inherits Baneberry Hall- the home her and her family fled when she was 5 years old. After the infamous fleeing, her father wrote a famous book recounting their paranormal experiences in the house. The only problem is, Maggie doesn’t remember any of them.

This was my first Sager book and it will not be my last! I don’t step out of my romance bubble often, but I’m so glad I did. This book had me scared to death at 3%!! Ghosts and paranormal activity always scares me the most, which is probably why this one got to me.

Things I loved:
🐍The back and forth snippets between Maggie’s POV and her dad’s book
🐍Excellent twisty backstory of the house and it’s descriptors
🐍The creepy music! Man that got me. I’ll never listen to the sound of music soundtrack the same way 😅
🐍There is a kitchen scene. It was terrifying. That is all.

Reviews for thrillers are tough without spoilers so I’ll stop there. But if you’re looking for an excellent spooky read, pick this one up! It kept me guessing until the very end.

Massive thank you to Penguin, Sager, and Netgalley for this ARC.

To give you a little background on my reading relationship with Riley Sager, he was an author I’d pretty much written off after DNFing Final Girls. But after the Lock Every Door was getting ALL THE HYPE, I, one who isn’t typically drawn by that, had just read a string of really good Mystery/Thrillers and tried, once again, to jump on the bandwagon. I elbowed my way in and made room for myself, because Lock Every Door was everything I wanted it to be and more! So, of course I was going to read Home Before Dark. And what a thrilling ride this was! The story is relayed from two different narrators - Maggie, when she returns to Baneberry Hall in the present day, and her father, via his best selling novel chronicling their short-lived time at the residence. It was an interesting way to tell this story, and I could never wait to return to each POV to find out what happened next!
When her father dies, Maggie Holt is shocked to learn that she’s inherited Baneberry Hall, the bane of her existence. After her family left Baneberry Hall with an immense amount of fanfare when she was a little girl, their experience in the house as a family was turned into a bestseller of a book. And much like the events that took place there, the book has haunted Maggie her entire life. Maggie returns to Baneberry Hall to restore it so she can rid herself of the residence once and for all, but the longer she’s at Baneberry Hall, the more she believes the spooky story in the pages she’d always assumed her father had exaggerated. This book was such a fun ride. The atmosphere the author created here was phenomenal; I was so creeped out that even though I wanted to put it down when darkness fell, I just couldn’t. It was so all consuming that I couldn’t stop thinking about it. There were some twists and turns that I didn’t see coming, and I was constantly on the edge of my seat wanting to know what was going to transpire. It was just so exciting! Also, props for this cover. Not only is it stunning, but the chandelier plays a prominent part in the story, and I love that the publisher took that into consideration and made it center stage on the cover.
I will say that while I absolutely loved this story and felt like the journey was a five star ride, I found the end to be a bit anticlimactic. While I may not have predicted it, it wasn’t that surprising, and for as exhilarating as the story was, I wish the end had been, too.
At this point, I will definitely be going back to give Final Girls another chance. With the way this author writes, I can’t help but feel like it was my ‘newness’ to the genre that may have had me not enjoying the book as much as I wanted to. While Lock Every Door solidified Riley Sager as an autobuy for me, Home Before Dark made me even more excited for what this author has in store for readers next. I am in it for the long haul!

Riley Sager does it again! I binged this book in one day, and let me just say that staying up very, very late to finish a very spooky book can cause your imagination to do creepy things... I sleep with my blinds up so I was scared someone was out there 😳.

I think how scared I was shows how talented Sager is. I was reading as fast as my little brain could and trying to get more & more of the story with every page. 🤐no spoilers from me but definitely keep this one on your radar.

From my @yuki.reads post on Instagram.

Wow. This one kept me guessing the entire time. And even the ending was just a crazy ride. I really loved this one. It was creepy and left you wondering at every turn what was really happening. Loved it!

Thank you Dutton Books for my review copy.

Riley Sager does it again with another stellar and compulsive psychological thriller. The inspiration behind HOME BEFORE DARK is the Amityville Horror, but let’s not stop there. The supernatural element of the house, which has a jaded past, is a prominent character in the story. And finally, the “book within a book” style, all adds up to a bookish girl’s dream come true.

Maggie Holt just lost her father and is trying to come to terms with her grief. Psychologically scarred from growing up in the shadow of her father’s horror memoir, she has a rocky relationship with her divorced parents. Maggie doesn’t believe the house she grew up in is actually haunted and is confident her father made up the story to sell a book, giving no thought to how the unwanted attention twenty-five years earlier would affect her life. Now through her father’s passing, she learns he still owned this Victorian estate. And not only did he never sell it, but he has also now willed it to her. Wanting nothing to do with the house, she plans to renovate it and put it on the market. Of course, nothing is that easy, and unfortunately, Maggie must confront the ghosts of her past.

As I have come to expect, Sager writes accessible characters with a plot that goes down nice and smooth. He is a writer I tend to recommend to every type of reader because his stories are entertaining, captivating, and well-executed. One of my favorite aspects of Sager’s writing style is the horror inspiration behind his books. By no means does he write horror but his thrillers often capture some of my favorite horror movies, and that my friends is solid gold. Oh, and did I mention the hardcover glows in the dark?! You bet your sweet butt I preordered my copy, and I can’t wait until its arrival in June. Bravo to another standout from one of my favorite authors!

Every time I open a Riley Sager book I'm afraid that this will be the one that doesn't quite live up to the previous novels. But HOME BEFORE DARK is yet again a fun, suspenseful, and well crafted thriller from a gifted author. I loved the comparisons to the Amityville Horror/Hoax, and how Sager focuses on the way that Maggie's story isn't allowed to be her own because of the fame and notoriety that came with her father's book. Maggie is sufficiently damaged and hurt, and I thought that Sager really dove into the psyche of this kind of traumatic experience, both in the house and after the house, and pulled it off, making it believable. I also really liked how the mystery of Baneberry Hall, whether or not it's haunted, and if it's not what is going on to make it seem as such, kept me guessing and kept me reading. Experience with Sager's stories has usually veered away from supernatural outcomes, but I really didn't know what to expect with this book. As the mystery slowly unfurled, and the solutions that were both in Ewan's book and in reality came to light, I felt like I got two awesome and well done reveals for the price of one. And honestly, we get another homage to genre in this book, as it's clearly lovingly paying tribute to haunted houses, and AMITYVILLE.

Another excellent scary story from Riley Sager!

Favorite Sager read hands down!! Love a great ghost story and this manor is like another character itself. All the ghosts and ghouls were freakishly frightening - exactly what I was hoping for. Lots of twists and turns I didn't see coming!

3.5 STARS - Riley Sager has quickly become a must-read author for me. I've read all of his backlist (except Final Girls which is on my TBR list) and he's an author I can trust to consistently gives me twisty, tension-filled reads.

In Home Before Dark, Sager weaves a story around a creepy old house called Baneberry Hall (awesome name, right?), giving the book a wonderfully Gothic feel. You can easily envision the old mansion with its strong ghostly vibe, long-held secrets, and nasty beasties. You'll swear you can hear the creeeeeeak of a door opening, the whisper of a breath on your neck and feel the goosebumps creeping up your arms. *shiver* "Better beware, be canny and careful" because you'll also find yourself suddenly humming an earworm you've picked up during this read. You have been warned.

The story alternates between two POVs: Maggie's part is set in current day as she tries to get to the bottom of what happened twenty years before when she and her parents briefly lived at Baneberry Hall and what happened to cause them to suddenly leave. Maggie has no memories of those few weeks, but her father definitely does. The second part of the story is told by Ewan, Maggie's father, who gained notoriety after writing a book about his family's experiences in the creepy mansion. But is his book fact or fiction? Maggie isn't sure. But she wants to find out.

This was a good read and I enjoyed the creepy setting Sager has constructed but I had a few issues. First, I found the pacing was a bit dodgy and parts of the story were predictable. Second, I would have preferred for Maggie and Ewan to have more distinct voices. I didn't find Maggie's portion nearly as compelling, but I still felt the changeovers between their POVs were often unclear and their voices too similar. And finally, gah … I wasn't a fan of the last few chapters. They felt rushed and a little confusing.

While this wasn't my favourite Sager book, it is still an enjoyable thriller with an eerie cover that sets the tone for this ghostly whodunnit, set in a creepy old mansion with a sinister story that may have you believing in ghosts before you turn the final pages. I look forward to seeing what Riley Sager comes up with next.

My reviews of other books by Riley Sager:
Last Time I Lied
Lock Every Door

Disclaimer: My sincere thanks to Dutton Books for providing me with a complimentary advanced digital
copy of this title in exchange for my honest review.

Okay, this is my first Riley Sager book and I completely get what the hype is about. I loved this book. It was just the right amount of spooky and I definitely did not guess the ending. The story is told in two parallel timelines - Maggie’s present and the past as told in a book by Maggie’s father. (The structure reminded me a lot of The Sundown Motel.) The only thing I did not like was the snakes!!! But I guess that’s one way to make sure my heart is pounding.

This book did not disappoint in any way! Once I started I could not put it down. I read half of it on one day and the last half the next day. The parts written by Maggie's father Ewan, were scary and whether they were fiction or nonfiction, they were enough to make you want to turn the light on if you were reading in the dark. Maggie's confrontation of her demons also had it's creepy parts, but it had just enough doubt to make you wonder if this story, the House of Horrors was a fictional story. Really great read!! Keep them coming Riley Sager!!