I am a huge fan of the thriller books of Riley Sager, he is one of my go to auto buy authors. I’ve spoken a lot about his latest book Home Before Dark and I am pleased to say that it lived up to all my spooky expectations.

His last book #LockEveryDoor had creepy #RosemarysBaby gothic vibes and Home Before Dark is Sager’s foray into the haunted house genre. If you think along the lines of #theamityvillehorror and classic haunted house stories then you are in the right ballpark.It’s a thrilling, rollercoaster of a book. It is has genuine spooky scares and plenty of twists and turns that will keep you on your toes and guessing up to the final pages.

An absolute belter of a thriller. Perfect for dark Autumn nights ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ out of five

Home Before Dark was my first ever Riley Sager read and I'll tell you right now that it definitely won't be the last. His books have been incredibly hyped up in the reading community and so I was a little apprehensive of reading this book in case it didn't live up to the hype or I just didn't like it and then felt like I was the odd one out. I'm sure most of you can understand that pressure ha ha...
Home Before Dark is told on a dual time line following the story of Maggie Holt. Her story as a child is told through extracts from her Father's book about their families time living in the House of Horrors and her story as an adult is told as it happens as she moves back into the 'haunted house' and tries to discover what really happened there. Adult Maggie doesn't believe that anything in her Father's book happened and she is fed up of having the story attached to her and so returns to Banebury Hall as a complete sceptic. That is, until creepy things start to happen and her life is once again put in danger by supernatural forces.
Let me tell you, haunted houses don't scare me. At all. But I thought I'd give this one a try purely based on the author and hype. And I went in to this book adamant that it wouldn't scare me. But then I found myself running upstairs in the dark back to the safety of the lit bedroom when I took a break from late night reading to grab a drink! This book is full of atmosphere and tension and it just gets in your mind. I couldn't help myself. In fact, you could say I was a bit like Maggie, a total sceptic, until I wasn't!
I thoroughly enjoyed this book and can't wait to get my grubby little mitts on another Sager story.

This was a thrilling and inexpected read. I really enjoyed this overall and thought that the characters and the plot were done really well.. The final 15%, i was on the edge of my set and i could not believe the turn that happened and how it progressed. I would read more by this author as i really enjoyed this and it was a great thriller overall.

Another brilliant read by Riley Sager, and yes, each and every book gets better and better!
This was a great haunted house read and was perfect to read over Halloween.

Following Maggie, as she returns to The House of Horrors - a house that she lived in for a short while and also the setting for the true-life ghost story that made her father a best selling author.

Told from Maggies point of view with chapters of her dad book interwoven it was a brilliant adaptation of the dual timelines and multiple POV storytelling method and honestly, is the best book structure I have read to date.

Home Before Dark has plenty of mystery and a creepy atmosphere, this was a brilliant read with a headstrong independent main character hell-bent on finding out what her parents have been keeping from most of her life and also what is making things go bump in the night as she continues to investigate now.

Complex thriller with excellent characters. A twisted storyline which was exciting and fast paced full of surprises. An unexpected ending.

This is one of the best books I’ve read all year! I loved every single second of this creepy, suspenseful story and the spooky vibes throughout the book. It was a perfect Halloween read for me.

This is my favourite Riley Sager book to date, focusing on a creepy (possibly haunted) house and unfolding the mystery of said house, alternating between present day and splices of the book Maggie’s dad wrote about the house 25 years ago. This read like a book within a book which I was OBSESSED with. I loved the two story lines and there was always a twist or turn that I didn’t see coming!

At first glance this book sounds like a horror, but it was definitely a thriller that kept me guessing and wondering if there really was something paranormal going on, which made for a great old fashioned ghost story!

I would 100% recommend this to anyone.

Thank you to NetGalley and Hodder & Stoughton for an early copy.

I was really hoping I'd get a copy of Home Before Dark, so I could read it for Halloween and guess what? I did!

I really love Riley Sager's work. It's just the good kind of creepy, gory, and suspenseful, something that I'm struggling to find in thrillers.
So a book that promised not only a good thriller, but also some creepy, haunted house vibes? Yep, perfect read for Halloween.

And it sure delivered!
I absolutely loved that we got to read The Book (or at least part of it) in-between chapters of the real novel – if you follow me. This was what really managed to differentiate Home Before Dark from the plenty other thrillers that we see.
It made for a nice, well-rounded mix between thriller and supernatural horror, and I have no doubt that Riley Sager would be brillant at writing a paranormal novel too – if you hear me, know that it sounds like a really good idea, Mr. Sager!

The cast was also really interesting, with a badass, takes-no-shit main female character that made a nice change from scared main characters in thrillers (not that I'm judging them for being scared – they usually have very good reasons for that). Some of the secondary characters could have benefited from a bit more background story, but it would have made the novel quite a bit longer and probably less engrossing.

Though you can kind of guess the plot twist early on, there are enough twists-before-the-main-twist to keep you hooked and guessing. Is it what we think? Is it a ghost? WHO DID IT, for christ's sake!!

An awesome read for Halloween (or for those times where you need to read something scary), with an appropriately creepy cover. My love for this author only strengthened!

Loved this book. Read it as part of my book group and we all loved it. Riley’s books never let me down. Always have me hooked throughout.

I've absolutely adored every single Riley Sager book so far and this is no different because this was incredible! I loved the creepy atmosphere the entire book, and the characters were just so fascinating I could hardly put it down. It was such a great read! Reminded me a lot of The Haunting of Hill House!

Riley Sager has written a book that is on my list of best 2020 thrillers.

What a truly fabulous read! Home Before Dark was creepy, spine-tingling and left me feeling slightly terror-stricken. This gothic, haunted house mystery, set in Baneberry Hall, a Victorian estate in Vermont, used a dual timeline narrative in the past and the present. The darkness of the book was very unsettling and also provided the stimulus for the macabre atmosphere. The author kept me alert and on my toes, offering many possibilities and creating a nerve-wracking undertone to the story. Riley Sager's writing style continued to impress me in this wonderfully atmospheric, well-plotted, and compulsive thriller with its added touches of horror and the supernatural. Home Before Dark was clever and exciting with many twists and redirections. A definite must-read!

I received a complimentary copy of this novel at my own request, from Hodder & Stoughton via NetGalley. This review is my own unbiased opinion.

This book was good well no it wasn’t actually good it was flipping fantastic. I started this book and after a few chapters I just wanted to keep on reading. This is a very creepy and eerie read and at times my heart was in my mouth. This book will chill you and send shivers down your spine but at the same time it is a must read.

I am a first time reader of this author’s books and honestly did not know what to expect. It’s fair to say I was not disappointed. The characters are deep and very interesting- the plot was gripping. This book was full of mystery and suspense and pretty chilling too!

Thank you to the Publishers and Netgalley for this copy in exchange for an honest review.

This was my first horror novel and I loved it!

Home Before Dark tells the story of the Holt family who purchase a mysterious grand home that has a dark history. The book moves from past to present. Normally when books are like this I find one part more interesting than the other but with this book both past and present were intriguing. I loved the twists in this book and when everything was finally revealed my mind was still catching up with the story.

This was my first horror novel and I always thought you had to watch horror to actually get scared but just reading this book and with Halloween around the corner it was a perfect read and it did creep me out!

4 Stars.

I enjoyed this book to a certain degree but found it really slow to get going. It wasn't as scary as I'd hoped, going on other reviews but I am quite hard to scare! It was a good read though.
Thanks to NetGalley for the opportunity to read this book.

Settling in for Home Before Dark was… Unsettling!

***Received from Netgalley in exchange for review, but I’m the one trembling with excitement about this book!***

Welcome, welcome! Today I have a treat for you if you like something a little tricksy- let me show you around. Here we enter into a story that has all the hallmarks of a spinechilling thriller: a haunted house vibe, a tensely told plot and even hints of creepy children in the flashbacks.

Step over the threshold and this is a multi-storied narrative. It contains a story within a story in a unique way. For this is a story that takes place over two timelines- a mystery that unfolded twenty-five years earlier and led to a family fleeing in the middle of the night… and the present day where the daughter tries to uncover what the hell happened. Problem is, the main clue she has her (now deceased) father’s bestselling, “true” account… which she’s a little sceptical about.

And it’s this motivation that makes it such a compelling read. Not only is she clearly haunted by what happened in this house, she’s also troubled by her father’s runaway success story. Thrusting her into the spotlight, it made me think of the troubling trend of child stars. Her foundational motivation for getting involved in this case is unshakeable. Even better, her character is intrinsically built around resolving her childhood trauma. It really strengthens the story.

Of course, it’s not a cut and dry situation. Unlocking what happened uncovers revelation after revelation. The key is elusive. I kept feeling like I had all the pieces to the puzzle… yet couldn’t quite put it together. To complicate the matter even further, Sager proves that memory is not always to be trusted. The narrative becomes lost in the labyrinthine passages of Baneberry Hall. Then- suddenly- the answer pounces on you and throws you into a frenzy of “aha”s. This is, after all, the kind of thriller that makes perfect sense when you think about it.

So, needless to say my visit was an experience… one I won’t forget in a hurry! 😉 I hope you enjoyed that quick open house and got a taste for what’s inside! Do come back and visit any time! Please take some bananas for the road…

Rating: 5/5 bananas

Another haunted house, or is it? Set in modern-day Vermont, Maggie Holt returns to Banebury Hall, the house made famous by her father’s bestselling horror novel. As a child, she spent three weeks there before her family fled. She’s convinced the ghosts in the book aren’t real and the story is just that – a story – but when she returns to renovate the house, strange things start happening…

Home Before Dark is one of the best ‘scary’ thrillers I’ve ever read. Gripping from its premise to the very last page, with more twists and turns than a helter-skelter. Best read with all the lights on.

Books by Riley Sager are always one of my most anticipated reads of the year. This time the author came back with a haunted house story which fits perfectly with the long Autumn evenings.

In the newest novel we follow Maggie who inherited an infamous “House of Horror” which tore her family apart years earlier. She has no memories of her time at Baneberry Hall and becomes desperate to find out the truth behind their quick departure in the middle of the night after only spending there 20 days.

The haunted house story is not the most original idea however Riley Sager managed to create an incredible atmospheric, creepy and engaging novel that totally blew my mind. I loved “book within book” format and alternative chapters which made reading experience more interesting and scary. Without giving any spoilers the ending was fantastic and tied everything together and I most definitely did not expect it. So kudos to the author for the brilliant plot.

Home Before Dark will be one of my top read this year without doubt and I highly recommend it to everyone.

Absolutely delicious ghost mystery/thriller full of unexpected twists, especially at the end.

This was perhaps the most highly anticipated mystery / thriller of the year and I was all here for it.

Basically, it is about a young woman named Maggie who unexpectedly inherits a home in which her family lived in when she was just five. The twist is that it's not just any house - some may say it's a HAUNTED house because... when Maggie was a child, her father wrote a book about how their family had lived in this house for only a few weeks until they just couldn't take the creepy things happening anymore. So it's not just haunted, but famously haunted.

This book gave me all the creeps and I was absolutely lost in the world Riley Sager introduces us into. I think Sager did a splendid job introducing elements of horror into this novel through the well-interwoven back stories. I would even say it's a low-grade horror story, which is absolutely perfect for a reader like me who usually devours thrillers but has been looking for something stronger.

The best thing about Home Before Dark is that we actually don't know if the story is real or fake while reading it, which is totally crazy because we don't know what and whom to believe. Even the main character is an unreliable narrator because she may not even trust her own memories, since she lived in the house as such a small child. This made for a crazy good reading experience.

*Thank you to the Publisher for a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

An absolute rollercoaster of a book, this had me hooked from the very beginning. I have read other books by Sager however this is absolutely one of their best. It builds the tension perfectly, and skips between past and present with elegance. It keeps you guessing from start to finish. I cannot recommend this enough, especially so close to Halloween!

This is another great read from Riley Sager. This was a real page turner and I read this book in a day. I absolutely love anything set in a haunted house so this book ticked all the boxes for me. It was sinister, creepy, full of twists and I would highly recommend! Many thanks to the publisher, author and NetGalley for an advance copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.