| Title: | Home Before Dark |
| Author: | Riley Sager |
| Genre: | Horror, Thriller, Mystery, Suspense, Fiction |
| Published On: | 30 June 2020 |
| No. of Pages: | 400 |
This is a review of “Home Before Dark” by Riley Sager without any spoilers.
Home Before Dark Summary/Plot
Maggie Holt goes back to her childhood house after 25 years where they lived for just 3 weeks. Her father published a nonfiction horror memoir of those 3 weeks inside that house, which he claimed to be haunted.
Maggie was too young to remember any of those events mentioned in her father’s book. She also doesn’t believe in whatever he wrote in that novel.
Now she is a restorer of old homes. After her father’s death, she inherited the house and returned to renovate the place to prepare it for sale. Soon she starts to experience strange things that are mentioned in her father’s novel.
Is the place really haunted, as her father claimed? Or are there some secrets hidden within its walls?
Home Before Dark Book Review
It is an engaging read and will keep you guessing.
The book is written in two perspectives – Maggie’s POV and her father’s novel.
Reading chapters of her father’s novel in between Maggie’s perspective keeps you engaged in the story like what is the truth.
Reading her father’s novel ‘House Of Horror’ was just fantastic. I really wanted to know what was written in it. I’m not going to lie at one point I did read 2 chapters of it continuously by ignoring Maggie’s perspective which I of course read after reading 2 chapters of the novel.
It’s like we’re reading two books at the same time and we’ll get two endings. The novel’s ending is something we already know but reading the horror events was really exciting and thrilling.
The main twist was great. I didn’t expect that at all. I had doubts that something was not right but I wasn’t able to point out that thing. But the revelation was surprising.
At some point I was convinced it was a haunted house then I was like no it can’t be. Then something happened and I was like ‘Maggie shouldn’t live in this creepy haunted house’. Or ‘Is she stupid why she is not leaving?’.
The guessing part is the best. Whether what’s written in her father’s novel is true or not. If not then how she is coming across those horror incidents now?
I have rated this book 4.7 stars. It could have been 5-star. But reading the novel was more interesting in comparison to Maggie’s POV. So it made me a bit uninterested in her POV and felt like something was missing in her character.
Other than that the book is brilliant. The pace is good. The writing is easy to read and engaging. Also good for beginners.
If you want to read a thriller horror story that is related to a haunted house then this is a good choice. Even if you’re not a thriller or horror reader you should try reading this one because it is really good.
