Home Before Dark by Riley Sager

Do you need a readable, thrilling, chilling and entertaining terrifying horror thriller with a fun compelling ghost story? This is the one for you!!

Lindsay’s review

Maggie Holt returns to the home her family abandoned twenty-five years earlier when she was five-years-old. Her father wrote a book that made her family famous. The book revealed the eerie and haunting experiences her family faced while living in the house. Maggie has no personal recollection of the happenings in the house that caused them to flee one night and never return. After inheriting the house, she wants to renovate and sell it to move on with her life.

This story is told through two narratives: Present Day with Maggie at the house and chapters from the book her father wrote. I LOVED the way this flowed! A book within a book was so clever! It kept me gripped and invested from start to finish. Maggie was an awesome character who I loved rooting for. The house was an amazing character in itself! The writing was so powerful – highly atmospheric and chilling. I instantly connected with the writing and it kept me completely engrossed until the very end.

There were some elements that were unrealistic, but I could easily overlook them and go with the story because the writing was so smooth and engrossing. I was completely wrapped up in the mystery surrounding this old “haunted” mansion. I will never think of snakes or bedroom furniture the same way.

So glad I gave this author a try. I’m looking forward to reading his backlist.

Brenda’s review

What a surprise this one was for me!! Riley Sager hooked me right from the start and pulled me into this perfectly paced, chilling, thrilling page-turner, escapism read!! He nails it here with this horror thriller by weaving in a modern-day ghost story and a mystery within a mystery with creepy, terrifying elements to it.

I loved the creepy, spooky mansion buried deep in the woods, the mysterious and questionable characters, and our compelling main character Maggie. While I could have done without one creepy, terrify part of that house, I loved the secrets the mansion had buried in the walls. I loved how the ghost story was told through Maggie’s father’s best selling nonfiction book House of Horrors.

I read this one before bed, and it kept me wide awake reading later into the night than I normally do, and I had trouble putting it down to get some sleep. I kept an eye on my closet in fear of what might come out and loved that creepy feeling.

I enjoyed how the story all came together in the end for me and highly recommended this compelling, readable, and frightening read!!