Book Review: Home Before Dark by Riley Sager

Home Before Dark by Riley Sager

Length: 409 Pages
Genres: Thriller, Mystery, Horror

Rating: 4 out of 5 Stars

"Every house has a story.
Ours is a ghost story.
It's also a lie.
And now that yet another person has died within these walls, it's finally time to tell the truth."

Read for the Literally Dead Book Club!

This is my first book by Riley Sager and I will definitely be checking out more (I've got my eye on "Lock Every Door"...)! From the beginning it was everything I wanted in a ghost story - I only wish the ending would have been as spectacular.

Home Before Dark is told in a book-within-a-book fashion and we are treated to the point of view of Maggie Holt and also chapters of the infamous "Book", a supposedly true account of her parents' stay at Baneberry Hall. Maggie doesn't remember hardly anything from the time they lived there, she was only five after all, but it has haunted her whole life. After twenty days in Baneberry Hall her parents up and left, leaving behind their clothing, her toys, everything. They claim it was ghosts, Maggie thinks otherwise.

When Maggie's father dies she finds out something shocking. They never sold Baneberry Hall, and now she's the owner. She returns claiming she wants to fix it up and sell it, but really she wants the truth. And not even the promise she made to her father, where he tells her never to return to Baneberry Hall, that is isn't safe for her, will stop her.

This book reminded me so much of Netflix's "The Haunting of Hill House" and "The Amityville Horror", making it a sure winner, and I thought all the encounters with the ghosts, Mrs. Pennyface and Mr. Shadow, were spine-tingling! It even took me quite some time to come up with theories as to what exactly happened at Baneberry Hall. I adored the history of the house and I ate up every detail we got about the "unfortunate accidents" that plagued the house. Unfortunately, for me, the ending was unsatisfactory, even cliche, and knocked this book down from a solid five stars to four. I think this would have even been better as a regular old ghost story.