Home Before Dark: A Novel Kindle Edition

** spoiler alert ** Riley Sager is an author that I will automatically buy. I remember reading Final Girls when it first came out and throwing it across the room when it got to the climax, not because I was frustrated, but because I was excited for the story that Sager was spinning. I am a devoted fan, and while I acknowledge that Sager's writing leans toward reboots of horror tropes, I still seek out the thrill I get from reading his books. All this to say that I was incredibly surprised to find that I was dragging my feet to finish one of my most anticipated books of 2020 - Home Before Dark.In Home Before Dark, Sager plays to his strengths of reconfiguring one of our canon works in the horror genre, The Amityville Horror. This is familiar territory for Sager. Each of his previous books stands as a tribute to similar horror sub-genres or a specific work. Final Girls was a slasher throwback reminiscent of the movie Scream, The Last Time I Lied can be tied to Friday the 13th and Sleepaway Camp, and Lock Every Door was a clear love letter to Ira Levin and Rosemary's Baby - in a fitting tribute, the book is even dedicated to him.I've seen other reviews compare this book to The Haunting of Hill House, and I think that is an apt comparison. It is worth noting though that, if we are using the show as our example, the first episode lays out exactly what the older brother experienced and then wrote about that made the estate - and his family - famous. As the show reveals through all the following episodes is what the rest of the family experienced that was left out of his book. In Home Before Dark, we do see a similar play between constructed truth, the faultiness of memory, and the apparently supernatural.Maggie Holt is the daughter of Ewan Holt who wrote 'House of Horrors', the book that has plagued her life since she was a child. In 'House of Horrors', Holt explains why his family fled in the middle of the night from their recently purchased home in rural Vermont - Baneberry Hall. Holt weaves a story of a haunted house that is doomed to repeat its tragic past with each family that occupies its walls. The problem is, while Maggie is a starring character in her father's book, she remembers next to nothing about when her family lived at Baneberry Hall. Convinced her parents lied about the contents of the book, she has grown-up frustrated and hurt by their chicanery.The book opens when we learn that Maggie's father has recently died and she discovers that Baneberry Hall now belongs to her. Determined to uncover any repressed memories she has of her time at the house, Maggie decides to return to Baneberry Hall to not only flip the house for resale, but to do some much needed soul-searching. Once back at Baneberry Hall, Maggie connects with the locals who remember when the Holts lived there and help Maggie put some of the pieces of her memories back into place. Consequently, Maggie learns what parts of 'House of Horrors' were fictions and which hold up as truth.Following the pattern of Sager's previous works, Home Before Dark jumps between the present day and flashback scenes. However, unlike the previous novels, Home Before Dark exercises this plot device to excess. The structure of the book is arranged so that nearly every other chapter is from Maggie's present day perspective punctuated by Holt's original text - 'House of Horrors'. While this effectively syncs up the events and peculiar happenings we experience with Maggie, with her foreknowledge of her father's book, it ultimately leaves readers deflated and following irrelevant and unnecessary red herrings. In fact, it isn't until the last 20 pages of the book that "all becomes clear" in an almost too tidy fashion that left me incredibly unsatisfied while Maggie is finally at peace with her past.An added frustration I noticed with this plot structure was that, if the fonts had not changed to indicate to me whose story I was readying - Maggie's or Ewan's - their 'writing' voices were exactly the same. It's not clear if this was intentional because Maggie had internalized her father's book, or just a bad choice on Sager's part. Either way, I would have liked to see more distinct characters emerge from these pages.Near the end of the book, when Maggie does finally learn the full truth of her past, what does she decide to do with that knowledge and her newfound sense of agency? She writes a sequel to 'House of Horrors', and in a bait and switch ending, we realize that we've been reading Maggie's book ' House of Secrets' alongside the text of 'House of Horrors'. I cannot decide if this was a brilliant literary move on Sager's part...or manipulative. Yet again reinforcing that information has been withheld from the reader all along. Regardless, there might have been a more engaging ways to have set up this frame narrative more along the lines of The Golden Notebook or even an interactive approach like in S..Lost somewhere between uninspiring character development, withheld information, the split timelines, whiplash frame stories, and the grand reveal, Sager didn't leave much for readers to hold onto. However, Home Before Dark is still an enjoyable read for what it is. It still has many of the typical Sager marks of excellence, but I nearly DNF'd this book and only my loyalty to the author kept me going.

I've read all four of Riley Sager's novels. I've liked them all and thought all four would make fantastic movies. But I think Home Before Dark is his best work to date. It's not as throwback or fun as Final Girls and it didn't have the same romantic ambiance of Lock Every Door, but this one was really balanced and well crafted. There's something about Sager's work I've realized the fourth time in. His work always seems "familiar" to me, as though I've read or seen the concept before. But I actually had a realization in this book that this style may actually be on purpose. I actually love a homage and, in this book, it's just too obvious to miss. So yes, it's like an idea you've seen, but a completely fresh angle.In this one we have Maggie, a thirty year old interior designer, who is famous for being the surviving child/victim in a non-fiction book written by her father about a haunting they experience in a rambling Victorian home they lived in 25 years prior. The book has defined her and she despises it. She has no memory of the actual events and is convinced her dad made the whole thing up just to profit. And profit they have. The money has paid for her education and their lives and she's just inherited the entire share after her father's death.... including the house itself.She makes the decision to go back to the house, despite a death bed promise to her father that she won't, and her mother's insistence as well (who offers to buy the house off her, as she's now remarried to a realtor). There was a tiny lapse in logic here. It was clear her parents are desperate for her to NOT return to the house. So I found it amazing they left it to her in the estate. But lapse of logic aside, and putting myself in Maggie's shoes, I would ABSOLUTELY go back to the house to see if I could figure out what happened. Especially to see if the memories would come back from living in the house.So off she goes with a double agenda. To realize the mysteries of her past while being productive and renovate the house to sell. The cast of characters from her perspective is largely limited to the people from the book itself, people her family knew as a child... neighbors, police, locals, etc. She has a female friend and business partner but that interaction is limited to cell phone communications. The friend, Allie, was the weakest link character as she only serves as a plot device to give updates and is not a realized character.Another Riley Sager style is the flashbacks. I did not like the device in Lock Every Door (the story is told from the same character's POV but from a future self and a current self told side by side). But in this book, it really worked. As Maggie is going through the motions of the current day mystery, etc., we get to read portions of her father's book in which she is the main character. So her father, in present day deceased, is the other main character and his story of the haunting is told from his perspective. There was only one moment I lost track of the POVs but, overall, Sager did a great job of giving both characters a unique voice.I had a small issue with the ending simply because it was super rushed. Just BAM, BAM, BAM. That being said, Sager pulls off the difficulty of giving us a satisfying ending in a horror novel. And, yes, I've seen the other reviews in which it's questioned if this is a horror novel. I say, yes, absolutely. It's more horror than any other genre. I would not expect to be "scared" as it's not that type of novel. It's more like atmospheric horror with a mystery at the center. And it leaves enough open that we are left to wonder and question, while still being given a very solid conclusion.Overall highly recommended if you love all the stuff I love... old Victorian houses, trips to libraries to do research, mysteries and investigations, old love letters, family and town folklore, ghosts, etc. I think this book is a real treat and absolutely to be enjoyed.

Lots of action and unexplained happenings. Good characters good storyline. Leaves you wondering what is real and what is a lie. Unexpected ending

Absolutely loved this book, I am sad it wasn't as supernatural as I thought it was going to be but it had so many twists and turns that I never expected. What a truly satisfying book.

No idea what I was in for. This was someone's book group pick for the month. Lots of suspense. So many unexpected twists! I don't want to spoil anything. But just when you think you've got it figured out, you don't! My only concern is the use of unnecessary language. Too many f-words.

Every time I thought I had it figured out a new twist happened. The first half was slow but the second half more than made up for it

First person narration that switches between the female character and her father’s book. Essentially, you will be reading two books — a book within a book. There is a duel timeline. Short chapters. Despite the duel narration, the book is easy to follow. Each book has a different tone and writing style.A great introduction paranormal-mystery-horror book. There are many jump scares in the book, which I found entertaining.I’m not entirely sure why some people dislike Riley Sager. I find his books enjoyable and fun. Overall, I think this is one of his best books.If you enjoy paranormal HGTV/creepy mansion or father-daughter issues, then give this book a chance.

This was soooo good! This was my first horror novel, and I definitely want to read books similar to this one!Twenty-five years ago, Maggie Holt and her parents lived in Baneberry Hall, a massive Victorian estate in the Vermont woods. They only managed 20 days before fleeing in the middle of the night. Her father recounted these events in his bestselling book, House of Horrors, a ghostly tale of their encounters with malevolent spirits. Today, Maggie returns to the house in order to renovate and sell it after inheriting it upon her father's death. Adamant that she doesn't believe a word that her father wrote, she is unnerved when she begins to experience strange occurrences straight from her father's book...Maggie was one of those characters I sometimes liked and sometimes didn't. Having said that, I really don't know what I would have done if I was in her shoes. I think I'd be inclined to stay the hell away from Baneberry Hall, but I understand her reasons for wanting to return. I did really like Dane, but I don't understand why Maggie told him all of her secrets after only knowing him for 24 hours. I think that most of the other characters weren't written as well as they could have been, and only served to move the plot along, excluding her mother and father.I loved the setting of this book. Riley Sager did a brilliant job of blending the past and present; things that happened in House of Horrors happen to Maggie, and she along with the reader has no clue what to believe. There were times when I was genuinely scared! I didn't start to really enjoy this book until I reached around the 15% mark; up until this point I was more interested in reading Maggie's father's chapters. I began to enjoy it a lot more as soon as the strange things started happening to Maggie. I don't know how I felt about the big reveal at the end; I really wasn't expecting it. The book built up a lot of suspense and I felt a bit let down. Having said that, I do feel satisfied with the ending - it was actually quite clever.All in all, a great read which I really enjoyed, and I'm definitely going to read more by Riley Sager.8/10

When her father dies, Maggie inherits the house her family fled from one night 25 years earlier when she was a young child. She has no memories of the night, and although her parents refuse to talk about it, their reticence didn’t stop her father from writing a bestselling account of their days in the haunted house. The book makes the family rich and, to Maggie’s disgust, famous. Her whole life has been tainted by strangers knowing who she is. She’s always been convinced her father made up the entire story in an elaborate hoax, but she thinks there’s something else her parents haven’t told her. As the new owner, she decides to visit the house and discover the truth.Excerpts from her father’s bestseller appear alongside Maggie’s no-nonsense narrative. Two ghost stories for the price of one – a genius approach.And I have a big, fat, smug grin on my face because I guessed the denouement early on. How crazy-warped am I?Highly recommended.

This is very different to other Sager novels. It's still brilliant, but this book is truly frightening. It made me nervous and on edge reading it,even though I couldn't wait to read the next chapter. As per usual,the book switches between the past and present. It keeps you guessing all the way through,right up to the end,there are twists and turns literally throughout.I wasn't fussed on the central character,Maggie, compared to Sagers other characters,she pales in comparison. There's not enough characterisation with her other,other than her desire for truth.The other characters in the book are all strong and much more likeable. I'd recommend this book to anyone who likes a good gothic ghost story. Also,anyone who likes a very taut thriller. Though some things I saw coming a mile away ,others were shocking and superb. I love Sagers writing and can't wait for his next novel. A really well written and brilliantly plotted book. Very creepy in parts.

I've loved this author ever since I discovered Final Girls through a Facebook ad when it was first published. Have eagerly awaited every book since and not one has disappointed; this might well be my favourite yet. I particularly like how this male writer consistently creates such strong female protagonists in a subtle way. I enjoyed the modern twist on the traditional 'haunted house' story and it is very well written. While it's not scary as such, I don't believe that's what the author intended (it was certainly creepy enough to be unsettling - Miss Pennyface crossed my mind on a couple of occasions before bed). I struggled to put this down (only at work, where they made me) and finished it in a couple of days. I was a little disappointed by the twist at the ending as I was enjoying the ghostly element so much but still a satisfying conclusion. Can't wait for the next novel!

📖: 25 years ago, 5 year old Maggie and her parents fled Baneberry Hall vowing never to return. Her father's bestselling book, House of Horrors, detailed the spirits which forced them to flee and the dark history of the house, however Maggie has no memory of anything her father has written. Upon her father's death Maggie discovers that he still owned Baneberry house, and decides to return in an attempt to discover what really happened to her family all those years ago.👍: Whilst I can watch true crime and read about murders within thrillers, I don't watch horror films and the ones that I would most definitely avoid involve ghosts, so this book did creep me out a bit. One night I noticed my wardrobe door was open and had to close it, I didn't want a visit from Mister Shadow!This was very easy to read and I did race through interested in what would happen.👎: Maggie's continued adamance that the Book is must all be a lie becomes tiring very quickly. It all got very repetitive and I wasn't left amazed at the end.💬: "Every house has a story. Ours is a ghost story. It's also a lie"