In the latest thriller from New York Times bestseller Riley Sager, a woman returns to the house made famous by her father’s bestselling horror memoir. Is the place really haunted by evil forces, as her father claimed? Or are there more earthbound—and dangerous—secrets hidden within its walls?What was it like? Living in that house.Maggie Holt is used to such questions. Twenty-five years ago, she … 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.
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What could be better than a haunted house with ghosts aplenty? Home Before Dark is equally superb and terrifying. Buckle up for a wild ride. This book should come with a warning not to be read after dark.
Last Halloween, I binged The Haunting of Hill House & The Haunting of Bly Manor on Netflix and LOVED them. I picked up this book hoping to fill the void finishing those shows left, and it was the perfect substitute. I loved the story conceit and the mix of the present day narrative and the chapters from the book within a book about the haunting that took place nearly 25 years before. All of my early predictions about the plot resolution were continually proven wrong in the best way, and I found this to be a super engrossing read from start to finish – and definitely not something to read alone at night!
I’ve come to realize the great thing about a Riley Sager book is that they’re all so different. This time around, he delivers a good old-fashioned ghost story. No gore or horror, just plenty of eerie happenings that deliver goose bumps, shivers and chills.
Maggie Holt has inherited Baneberry Hall, a house she and her parents fled in terror in the middle of the night when Maggie was five years old. She has no memory of the supernatural events that occurred in the house, but thanks to a best-selling nonfiction book her father wrote (think Amityville Horror) the whole world knows what took place during the twenty days her family lived there. Her life has been defined by “the Book” as she has come to think of it. Neither parent will talk about that time. Now, with the passing of her father, Baneberry Hall comes to her. The house has been uninhabited since the night her family fled, leaving all of their belongings behind.
Maggie plans to renovate the house and sell it, but in the process, she is determined to discover what really happened during those twenty days and nights depicted in the Book.
The story alternates chapters between Maggie’s POV in the present and chapters from the Book. The latter are told in her father’s POV and cover the supernatural happenings at Baneberry Hall.
Once again, Sager delivers a twisty page-turner. It’s difficult to say much about this one without giving away spoilers. I will mention that I loved the creepy ringing of room bells, the chandelier in the Indigo Room, and the session with the Ouija board. The ghosts—Mister Shadow and Miss Pennyface—are the definition of eerie, and the history of the families that occupied the house previously is played for massive goose bumps.
Numerous twists and turns near the end had me trying to pick up my jaw from the floor. As soon as I thought I was on firm footing, Sager yanked the proverbial rug out from under me again. This is mind-blowing storytelling at its best, especially if you are a fan of ghost stories that twist like a corkscrew and prickle your skin. Another stand out read from a stand out author!
As I read it I thought ‘this book is a combination of The Amityville Horror and Netflix’s The Haunting of Hill House, but it’s so good that I don’t care.’ It had all the standard haunted house stuff, but in a new way. I listened to the audiobook and it held my attention every second.
“Things have happened in that house. Tragic things…and all those things, well, they…linger.”
“Are you telling me Baneberry Hall is Haunted?”
“I’m saying that Baneberry Hall remembers…and sometimes history has a way of repeating itself.”
So many twists in this story it’s impossible to review without giving too much away! If you are a fan of haunted house tales, then you will devour Home Before Dark! Loved & highly recommend!
I’ve read all of Riley Sager’s books so far, so when I saw that he had released Home Before Dark, I knew I had to read that book too. While it wasn’t Sager’s best work, I still enjoyed reading it.
After Maggie’s father dies, she inherits Baneberry Hall, a place Maggie and her family escaped many years ago when she was 5 years old. Maggie’s father has written a best seller about their stay in Baneberry Hall, but Maggie doesn’t believe it. However, when she returns to Baneberry Hall, strange things start happening…things that Maggie’s father wrote about in the book. Could it be ghosts or is Maggie just imagining things?
The plot of Home Before Dark is certainly intriguing. However, the first three quarters of the book were a bit too slow of a pace for my liking. I only kept reading because I was hoping the book would get better. My patience was rewarded in the last quarter of Home Before Dark when the pacing sped up, and I couldn’t put this book down. I kept trying to figure out if Maggie was experiencing a haunting and who the ghosts could be. Home Before Dark has a great plot twist (that I didn’t see coming). Even its plot twist had a plot twist which was exciting! I also thought it was pretty cool how Home Before Dark reads as two books since we get to read the book Maggie’s father wrote as well as what is happening to Maggie in the here and now. Both stories flow together smoothly. At the end of the book, my jaw was left on the floor after what all had happened. All loose ends are tied up nicely, and there are no cliffhangers.
I enjoyed the characters in Home Before Dark. Each character was fleshed out well and had enough backstory where it was easy to picture each individual one. I enjoyed reading about Maggie. Her skepticism was a nice touch, and her thought process was interesting. I could totally relate with her wanting to know if her father’s book was actually true and wanting to find out the mystery of why her family actually left Banebury Hall when she was 5 without taking any belongings. I also loved reading about Maggie’s father and her mother Jess through Maggie’s father’s book. (I felt like their story was a bit more interesting than Maggie’s.) I get why they did what they did many years ago even if I didn’t agree with what they did.
Trigger warnings for Home Before Dark include violence, death, murder, talks of suicide, attempted murder, some profanity, and the occult.
Although Home Before Dark starts out slow, it definitely makes up for it towards the end. With an intriguing plot and well written characters, Home Before Dark is a book worth reading. I would recommend Home Before Dark by Riley Sager to those aged 16+ who are after a creepy thrilling read.
If you love a good haunted house book, give this one a try. It hooked me from the first page. Yes, it has some familiar flavors, but they are all the ones I love in a book like this. Love it so I just downloaded two more from this author.
Flawless pacing, a dexterous dual narrative, and character through the roof. But the biggest revelation to be found in Home Before Dark is this: There’s nobody writing scarier books than Riley Sager is right now.
Part ghost story, part murder mystery, Home Before Dark is a nightmare ride of haunting terror and suspense. Dripping with atmosphere and danger, Baneberry Hall is the new Hill House. I couldn’t turn the last 100 pages fast enough.
Houses breathe. Some have a heartbeat. None forget. Grabbing you from the first page, Riley Sager crafts a devilish plot, twisted timelines, and horrors that linger in this haunting thriller that needs to be on your reading list! HOME BEFORE DARK releases July 2020.
In October I read this gem and I was very happy in my decision for my first Riley Sager book. All though I wouldn’t say this book scared me or anything I did enjoy the story line and that is what matters. Everything I thought about this book turned out to be completely different!
I really enjoyed the back and forth between present day and the past with reading the book her father wrote. It explained what happened in detail and I still couldn’t guess what the ending would have brought.
Riley Sager kept me in suspense and continued to build onto this story to unravel an interesting tale of a haunted house. I am very interested in reading future books of Sager’s, especially if they have such a twist in the story. I really enjoyed his writing style.
This book is for you if:
You enjoy twists and turns
Unsuspecting plot
A tinge of haunting not too much horror
A story that unravels as it builds
5 stars *****
This was a fun paced thriller for a Halloween read! Ghosts, ghouls, murder, bones, noises in the night- this book has all the spooks but what is really going on at Baneberry Hall? Maggie and her family fled in the middle of the night, after just residing at the new house for 20 days. What drove them to leave everything behind to never return? The house has a dark past and and it only adds to the mystery of it all. Her father wrote a book about what happened over the course of the few weeks they lived there but Maggie feels it is all a hoax. It’s all lies and has been struggling since she was a child to understand why her father did this. She doesn’t remember a lot of what is in the book and every time she asks her parents if its the truth, they shut down and refuse to talk about it. Her father has passed and she finds out that he never did sell the place, and it is now hers. She knows she must go back, she has to . That is the only way she can find the answers and get to the bottom of whether her fathers book was truth or not. This was a very fast read and I was second guessing and questioning my guesses the whole time. Another great novel of his that will keep you on the edge until the very end.
While I can almost always accurately guess “who done it”, this time I kept second guessing myself! The book was such a fun read, I think reading Maggie’s sequel might be fun too! I only wish Dane hadn’t gotten so jammed.
I love a good thriller, especially when it dives into the paranormal and/or supernatural. This book delivered in so many ways and I loved every minute of it.
Maggie Holt’s father recently died and, to her surprise, left her Baneberry Hall, a home in the woods in Vermont. The family lived in the home two decades earlier, but were only there for a whopping 20 days before fleeing the property in the middle of the night. Her father wrote a book about Baneberry Hall, House of Horrors, which covered the events of the family’s 20 day stay in the house and documented everything that happened. Maggie has always been skeptical about how truthful her father was in the book and, seeing no reason to keep Baneberry Hall for herself, decides to renovate the home and sell it.
I enjoyed how Sager set the book up and told the story. The book alternates chapters between present day, told in Maggie’s POV, and excerpts from her father’s novel. I liked how this offered me a look at what was happening in real time but also told the story of what took place when the family lived in Baneberry Hall all that time ago. As with every Sager novel I’ve read, I was on the edge of my seat the entire time. I didn’t want to put the book down and though I could have easily finished it off in a day, I read it in a week.
This one will keep you guessing as you move through. I thought I had it all figured out and then boom, Sager pulled the rug out from under me and threw me for a loop. There weren’t a ton of secondary characters in this book but, the few that were there played a role and I felt like Sager did a good job of developing them and making sure I knew what the backstory was. The town didn’t exactly welcome Maggie with open arms. Her fathers book was somewhat of a blessing and a curse, bringing all kinds of attention, both good and bad.
Sager’s writing is impeccable. He’s detailed and vivid and left me feeling like I was living within the pages of the book. I could picture Baneberry Hall, the woods surrounding it, and the small town nearby. He dropped twists in at the perfect time and when things got suspenseful my heart would start to race and my palms would get sweaty. Not every author an stir up that type of a reaction and I think that speaks to Sager’s talent when it comes to crafting thrillers.
Five stars to this novel!
A house with a past? Possibly haunted? Left abandoned for twenty-five years. All the makings of a good ghost story.
Upon her father’s death, Maggie Holt inherits Baneberry Hall, a place she lived with her parents for twenty days. Maggie was only five when they fled the house in the middle of the night, so her memories there are vague. If not for a book her father wrote, she might night remember anything of it.
Ewan Holt’s book about the brief time they spent in the house became a best seller and the family was a media sensation. The pressure destroyed her parent’s marriage and over the years Maggie asked both of them if the book was true. She became convinced it wasn’t, even though she’s suffered from night terrors all her life.
Maggie’s plans to renovate and sell the house require her to return to Baneberry Hall, but her primary reason is to discover the truth about what happened. She soon learns her father made an annual pilgrimage there on the anniversary of their leaving. Maggie discovers more secrets about the house that “remembers.”
The book is written in two points of view—Maggie in the present day and her father’s account of what happened in “The Book.” There are a lot of strange happenings, such as ringing bells, a chandelier that mysteriously turns on, and mysterious figures seen at the edge of the woods.
This was definitely a page-turner and Sager kept me guessing right up to the end. One of the best ghost stories (without all the ghoul) that I’ve read in a long time.
Maggie Holt does not have many memories left from living in Baneberry Hall. Whenever she tries to discuss the past with her parents, they give her bland answers. The only “true” resource she has is her father’s ghost story novel about their time at Baneberry Hall. Now that her father has passed away and Maggie has inherited Baneberry Hall, she decides to return to her past home to renovate it, and maybe even try to uncover some of her memories, and why her family truly fled Baneberry Hall…
This book gave me the jitters yet I could not put it down! I would definitely call this a page-turner, and there were so many good twists that I did not see coming. If you’re looking for a thrill with possibly some spooky stories, I recommend this book to you. I will definitely be reading more novels from Riley Sager in the future!
Every book by sager has me wanting more!
You think it’s a typical haunted house, but nothing is as it seems.
This book was so amazingly creepy! I love ghost stories and this one was great. I had chills and one night couldn’t quite sleep
If you want to jump at each and every sound your house makes in the dark… Pick this one up!
I stayed up half the night to finish this book.