Home Before Dark

Name of Book: Home Before Dark

Author: Riley Sager

Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton

Publication Date: 17 Sep 2020

No. of Pages: 402

Format: Digital

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 a rambling Victorian estate called Baneberry Hall. They spent three weeks there before fleeing in the dead of night, an ordeal Ewan later recounted in a memoir called House of Horrors. His tale of ghostly happenings and encounters with malevolent spirits became a worldwide phenomenon.

Now, Maggie has inherited Baneberry Hall after her father's death. She was too young to remember any of the events mentioned in her father's book. But she doesn't believe a word of it. Ghosts, after all, don't exist.

But when she returns to Baneberry Hall to prepare it for sale, her homecoming is anything but warm. People from the pages of her father's book lurk in the shadows, and locals aren't thrilled that their small town has been made infamous. Even more unnerving is Baneberry Hall itself - a place that hints of dark deeds and unexplained happenings.

As the days pass, Maggie begins to believe that what her father wrote was more fact than fiction. That, either way, someone - or something - doesn't want her here. And that she might be in danger all over again . . .

Home Before Dark by Riley Sager is a terrifying haunted house tale. The author gives a remarkable description of Baneberry Hall, the haunted house, giving the right amount of chill to the readers. The story made its impact right from the start, pushing us into a creepy mansion with a trapped family. Secrets are poured over time, and as a reader, I was trying to figure out whether it was a horror or a thriller. With multiple POVs, each character is presented wonderfully. Every chapter gives you the chills of a perfect horror book.

Maggie Holt's character was wonderful, but Ewan Holt's was amazing. The father stole the limelight, and at the moment, I thought he was the real culprit. The climax was absolutely mind-blowing with a twist. It just came out of nowhere. The book is definitely one of my best horror reads of the year and deserves 5 stars.