Home Before Dark

When I am in the mood for a fast-pasted thriller, I find myself coming back to Riley Sager again and again. I have read so far, I have read Final Girls, Lock Every Door, The Last Time I Lied, and am currently reading Survive the Night. So, when people recommended his book Home Before Dark and noted that it was most likely his best book yet, I instantly had to get it.

It follows Maggie Holt, who learned upon her father's death, she has inherited the infamous Baneberry Hall, a Victorian Estate that has a dark past. During her childhood, her family moves into this estate just to flee in the cover of darkness under the guise that it is haunted, a story that later her father utilizes to write a best-selling book, the House of Horrors. This book is the only linkage that brings up the memories of this house for Maggie and it outlines the murder-suicide and deaths that haunt the halls. From snakes coming from the walls to a chandelier that magically turns on by itself, everyone knows that Baneberry is a house that remembers...

Flipping back and forth between Maggie's current experience of fixing up the old house and her father's book, it uncovers layer after layer, what happened the night that her family fled, is the house truly haunted and cursed by the sinister past residence of the home, and who exactly where Maggie's “imaginary friends”, Mr. Shadow, Mrs. Pennyeyes, and the girl with no name, when she was little.

Overall, this book was enjoyable for what it was: a pop thriller book that you can easily read in a day. One thing that stuck out to me is that it follows a similar plotline of Shirley Jackson's Haunting on Hill House and is eerily similar to Netflix's rendition of the book and the series Haunting of Bly Manor; however, the ending was crafted in the typical style of Sager with a delicious twist at the end that you do not see coming that makes it worth the read. Overall, for readers interested in this book just be forewarned that this book follows common “haunted house” troupes, has little character development, and if you have seen the Netflix shows noted above follows a very similar plotline that will leave you sitting there in a déjà vu moment.

Although there might be negatives for this book, it is a quick read to get you in the mood for the spooky season, but personally, for me, I would recommend reading Shirley Jackson's Haunting of Hill House instead. She does an eloquent job of keeping the reader at the edge of their seat through her gothic haunted house-inspired prose. Also, just to note her book is nothing like the Netflix series (and in true bookworm opinion) the book is waaayyy better than the series.