Time to Read: 5 hours
Review
Like many of my reads lately, Home Before Dark landed on my TBR thanks to BookTok. It’s pitched as a must-read haunted house novel, and I cracked it open expecting ghostly chills, creaky floorboards, and maybe a sleepless night or two. What I got was all of that — and a story that twisted itself into something much bigger than I expected.
What Worked
Riley Sager introduces Maggie as a skeptic weighed down by her father’s legacy. Her father wrote a bestselling book about their family’s time in Baneberry Hall, branding it as one of America’s most haunted houses. Maggie, who grew up resenting both the house and the book, insists it was all a fabrication. From the start, she’s cynical, grieving, and deeply conflicted — a multidimensional character you want to follow, even if you don’t always like her.
One of the most effective choices in the novel is its dual narrative. Maggie’s present-day return to Baneberry Hall is woven together with excerpts from her father’s infamous book. His chapters read like a sensational, cheap haunted house cash grab — and that’s the point. The contrast between Maggie’s skepticism and his exploitative storytelling adds tension and layers to the mystery, leaving you toggling between disbelief and dread.
As the story deepens, it pivots into a whodunnit, and that’s where the tension really sharpened for me. The number of possible suspects kept me guessing, and I found myself flipping pages faster, eager to see where the trail of clues would end. On top of that, the atmosphere absolutely worked. There were moments that genuinely got under my skin — the kind that had me curled up under my Halloween blanket, jumping at shadows.
What I Thought Didn’t Work (But Actually Did)
While reading, I often felt frustrated with Maggie’s stubborn denial. She’s plagued by night terrors, yet insists her father fabricated everything about Baneberry Hall. At times, her willful ignorance made me want to grab her by the shoulders and shout, “It obviously happened, you dolt!”
The horror itself also gave me mixed feelings. Some scares mirrored her father’s novel so closely that they started to feel repetitive, even predictable. I caught myself wondering if the book had already shown its best hand.
But here’s the thing: what I thought were weaknesses turned out to be part of the misdirection. By the final chapters, I realized the book had been playing me all along — and that was half the fun.
Final Verdict
By the end, Home Before Dark pulled the rug out from under me. Just when I thought I had the twist nailed, Sager spun the story again, leaving me blindsided and questioning all my life choices. It’s a blend of haunted house atmosphere, whodunnit intrigue, and double-crossing reveals that will satisfy readers who want both chills and surprises.
BookTok told me this one would deliver, and the hype was right.
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