Reviews with content warning for Mental illness - Home Before Dark

4.5/5 stars. I wish GR had 1/2 star options.

“Every house has a story to tell. Baneberry Hall is no different. Its story—the real one—might still be there. Why we left. Why my father felt compelled to lie about it. What I actually experienced there. All of it might be hiding within its walls, waiting for me to find it.”

It’s very rare that I read a horror book that genuinely spooks me. However, Riley Sager has managed to do just that with this book. And that twist at the ending. Phew. I truly didn't see that coming.

The entire book is spent with Maggie Holt trying to differentiate between the facts in the book her father wrote, The House of Horrors, and what truly happened to her family during the 20 days they lived at Baneberry Hall, named for the lethal baneberries that surround the estate. When strange things that Maggie cannot explain, even though she doesn’t believe in the supernatural or the events of her father’s tell-all, she starts to question what truly happened on the night of July 15th, 25 years ago.

What happens next is shocking and the perfect set up for this horror novel. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book!

Content Warnings

its_erin's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

My first Sager book, and it was very enjoyable!

I enjoyed the format Sager utilized, the "book" chapters juxtaposed with the current story. While I found the beginning to be a little slow, the pace quickly accelerated and the tension increases as we delved further into the mystery.

And I can't say I predicted the ending, that's for sure. All in all, solid writing, a great mystery, and just enough uncanny unsettling feelings to make you nervous.

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leebeeloves's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.25

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francesturpin's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

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blouviere4's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.75

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bookishgoob's review against another edition

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dark emotional lighthearted tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

Riley Sager does it again. and by does it again i mean writing a “not like other girls” main character and using “ample bosom” as a descriptor for no apparent reason. Maggie was so annoying to me. she oozed pick me energy to a point where it made me want to DNF. another thing i don’t like about sagers writing is that he literally waits until the end of the book to do the final twist which is predictable but often annoying. plot twists are fine at the end once in a while but damn, every book? i don’t know man. i have a lot of problems with riley sager and his writing. i would almost recommend you watch haunting of hill house (5/5 show) than read this but i do have to admit that the atmosphere was creepy and would be a great “spooky szn@ read. it’s quick. it’s creepy. it involved and old house. so i’m torn. either way the characters were so bland but the story was good. do with that information what you want.

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seawarrior's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

Home Before Dark is an engaging read that glued me to its pages, but began to lose my suspension of disbelief near the end. The title is narrated by the text of the notorious House of Horrors and the inner thoughts of its now grown feature character Maggie Holt, who lived her life in the shadow of her father's writing. Early on it becomes obvious that we're not reading a story of a haunting, but rather one of a series of lies that spirals into a decades old "whodunnit". Sager presents just the right amount of description for us to richly imagine Baneberry Hall without losing momentum in the plot, or creating something that felt like a drudgery to read. Yet to me, the ending twists were more annoying than satisfying, as the sheer amount of them seemed unnecessary and almost silly. I would still recommend this book to others who enjoy a mystery novel that it almost effortless to read. There was never a period where reading this book felt tedious, and I repeatedly looked forward to spending more time with it.

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shelfofunread's review against another edition

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mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

Having previously read and enjoyed The Last Time I Lied, I was excited to see that Riley Sager’s latest thriller came with some additional spooky stylings. The former novel was packed with growing tension and page-turning plot beats so I was keen to see what the addition of some trademark horror tropes would do to that mix. The answer, it turns out, is to make it even more page-turning – and to provide more than a few ‘sleeping with the lights on’ moments!

Maggie Holt’s life has been defined by The Book – the tell-all memoir that her father Ewan wrote after her family’s fateful stay at Baneberry Hall. According to The Book, the vengeful ghosts of Baneberry Hall drove Ewan, Jess, and five-year-old Maggie away from their dream home, never to return. But after her father’s death, Maggie discovers that her parents never sold Baneberry Hall. Despite being warned to never go back there, Maggie is determined to make the most of her unexpected inheritance – she’s going to renovate and sell her family’s cursed legacy; but not before she gets to the bottom of why her family really fled all those years ago.

When the body of a missing teenager falls out of her kitchen ceiling, however, Maggie gets far more than she bargained for at Baneberry Hall. Could her parents really have been involved in a murder? Or are the strange noises and fleeting shadows of Baneberry Hall really signs of the supernatural? As Maggie starts to delve into the history of her father’s House of Horrors, she finds herself wondering if he was telling the truth about Baneberry Hall all along.

Whilst Home Before Dark continues to showcase Sager’s command of pacing and plotting, it serves up some genuinely spooky and atmospheric moments alongside the more familiar mystery-thriller territory of its main storyline. If you love ghost stories and ‘true life’ tales of the paranormal, you’re sure to love Home Before Dark which alternates between excerpts from Ewan’s Amityville Horror-style memoir and Maggie’s own investigations in the present day.

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