Look. I’m very likely ‘Riley Sager’s’ #1 fan girl. Since reading an early copy of Final Girls, I’ve anxiously waited for the next book because these are the types of books that I love. There’s suspense, there’s thrilling elements, there’s hints of pop culture - of classic horror novels and movies. This is someone who LOVES horror. Scream, Rosemary’s Baby, Friday the 13th, Halloween - they are classics for a reason - and Riley’s book are destined to be the same.
Okay - enough fangirling.
The blurb for this book “In the latest thriller from New York Times bestseller Riley Sager, a woman returns to the house made famous by her father’s bestselling horror memoir. Is the place really haunted by evil forces, as her father claimed? Or are there more earthbound—and dangerous—secrets hidden within its walls?” - okay - sure. Does this tell you everything you need to know - absolutely not.
Home Before Dark is two books. There’s…”Home Before Dark” and then there’s “House of Horrors” . House of Horrors is part ‘'House on Haunted Hill” part “Amityville Horror”.
Maggie comes back to Baneberry Hall reluctantly. She’s not been in the house since she was 5 years old - and not since her family ran away in terror after less than a month. She wants to fix the house up and sell it to someone - finally ridding herself from the nightmare that has followed her for years. Her father’s book, House of Horrors” hangs over her head and has for her entire life.
Baneberry Hall is a character itself. The chandelier, the Indigo Room, the kitchen (oh, god….I can’t with the kitchen.”. The ivy covered walls, the third floor, the gate, the dark woods….. It’s the perfect setting for a ghost story. It’s the perfect hiding place for a body….
Maggie attempt to figure out the truth of her father’s book - and the truth of her life. Strange things start happening - many things similar to her father’s book. She reconnects with other people who were affected by ‘the book’,: the housekeeper and her daughter, the handyman’s nephew, the former owners wife. Maggie wants to know what actually happened. What is the truth? Has the past and the house finally come back to claim Maggie as their own.
Look - it’s hard to be to be unbiased - because I LOVE Riley’s writing so much. The books are an escape - and they are written in a way, that I can see the house, the girls, the ghosts. I can hear the music “You are sixteen…going on seventeen….”. Riley creates the atmosphere that it so often overwritten in thrillers.
Thank you to Penguin Random House, Dutton & Plume and my #1, Riley Sager, for the opportunity to read and review this book.
Home Before Dark will be released on June 30, 2020.