Genre: Thriller
Published: June 30, 2020
Pages: 397
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 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.
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.
I listened to the audiobook version of this book through my library. This is my honest review.
My initial view of this book is that it's a poor imitation of the Netflix series Haunting of Hill House, which is one of my comfort shows that I put on specifically to go to sleep at this point. Both stories feature a family moving into a big spooky house, fleeing in the night, and then publishing a book about the experience. But Haunting of Hill House fleshes out the children's time in the house way more than Home Before Dark does.
The scare factor had a distinct Scooby Doo vibe to it. Even though things were going bump in the night, so to speak, they were all things that could be explained as relatively innocent, like it's just an old house and old houses make noises.
I was definitely fooled by the twist. I didn't see the ending turning out the way it did, but I also feel like the parents should have been a bit more forthcoming with Maggie and all of this would have been a moot point.
Overall I give Home Before Dark 3.4739 out of 5 stars. - Katie
Riley Sager is the New York Times bestselling author of seven novels, most recently The House Across the Lake and Survive the Night. His first novel, Final Girls, has been published in more than 30 countries and won the ITW Thriller Award for Best Hardcover Novel. His latest book, The Only One Left, will be published in 2023 by Dutton Books.
A native of Pennsylvania, he now lives in Princeton, New Jersey.
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