Book Review: "Home Before Dark" by Riley Sager
“Home Before Dark” by Riley Sager
Synopsis: 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.
Alternating between Maggie's uneasy homecoming and chapters from her father's book, Home Before Dark is the story of a house with long-buried secrets and a woman's quest to uncover them--even if the truth is far more terrifying than any haunting.—Dutton Books
Rating (out of 5): 4
Review: Sometimes, you just need a good murder plot to keep you reading. Throughout shelter in place, it hasn’t always been easy to focus on books. My phone is a constant distraction, work hours bleed into the night, I wander around obsessively taking walks and running instead of sitting down, I have no commute, it’s too hot to take a bath…so many excuses. So I was deliberate in picking a book I knew would keep me entertained. Riley Sager books are not exactly intellectually challenging, and they’re not great literature by any stretch. However! Not every book we read needs to make us smarter or better people.
I love a good haunted house narrative. I’m all about spooky, and the only supernatural creatures I’ll tolerate are ghosts. This setup has a Shirley Jackson feel to it, and though my Riley Sager ratings have ranged from good to DNF to lukewarm, I was more than ready to give this one a try.
Maggie is a likeable and interesting-enough narrator—again, we’re not expecting high literature here. She was smart and compelling enough to carry the novel. The book is interspersed with “Amityville Horror”-style chapters from her father’s book, giving us an account (whether reliable or not) of the family’s original stint at Baneberry Hall.
With thrillers, I find it’s best to keep reviews spare, as I don’t want to spoil anything for you! The plot is sufficiently twisty and turny, and while no thriller is going to clock in on anyone’s list of most realistic reads, nothing is too far-fetched, and I did not guess the ending before it came. Both major selling points for a spooky read! Also, a haunted house immediately lends some major atmospheric bonus points to any book, and the creepy happenings are definitely enough to put a chill up your spine!
This is the perfect book to read beach or pool-side (if you are able to go near a beach or pool this summer, that is)! A solid, smart, spooky book that plays on familiar themes in a new and interesting way.
TL;DR: A fun and compelling thriller perfect for when you’re struggling to make it through a book.
If you liked this, try:
“Lock Every Door” by Riley Sager (my review here)
“The Haunting of Hill House” by Shirley Jackson
“The Stranger Diaries” by Elly Griffiths (my review here)
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