Home Before Dark, A Review

Every house has a story.

Riley Sager’s (Final Girls, The Last Time I Lied, Lock Every Door) Home Before Dark follows Maggie Holt, a woman with an infamously dark history. When Maggie was only five years old, she and her parents moved into the supposedly haunted Baneberry Hall and then after only twenty days the family fled from the house and vowed never to return. From the family’s trauma came a best selling novel which forever put Baneberry and the Holt family on the map. Now years later, Maggie works as a home restorer yet she is still haunted by Baneberry. Despite the house’s fame, Maggie is unable to recall a single detail from her time spent there and whenever she asks her parents they refuse to tell her anything.

After her father dies however, Maggie inherits the house and sees it as her one chance to finally gain some answers into her family history. Alternating between her father’s novel recounting what happened in the past and Maggie’s chapters in the present, Home Before Dark tells of a house with many buried secrets. But does Baneberry truly hold a supernatural prescence? Or is there something else going on? More importantly, why can’t Maggie remember anything?

I loved the haunted house premise of Home Before Dark– it was very The Haunting of Hill House meets AHS. Having the Holt family move into Baneberry and then flee after only 20 days set up an intriuging mystery straight away- what made them leave? And why where Maggie’s parents so against telling her the truth. From almost page 1 the mystery is set up and established and going in, I couldn’t wait to see what really happened all those years ago, it was a real page turner.

I really like when the horror and crime genres are blended together because you’re never quite sure whether what is happening is geuinely supernatural or just a complex ruse (eg While You Sleep, High Seas, The Pale Horse). The uncertianty makes reading more fun because you get to work what is really going on, often with the help of some very clever writing of a massive plot twist. In Home Before Dark, the ‘book’ chapters support the supernatural theory, but Maggie herself is more convinced of something a lot more ordinary. Whilst reading, the alternating chapters give support to both arguments, meaning you’re never quite sure of the truth until the very end.

I really liked the book within a book aspect of Home Before Dark, with the narrative following both Maggie’s journey back to the house in the present and the fictional book that made her famous in the past. Each narrative slowly revealed secrets about the house and what really happened when the Holt family first fled twenty five years ago. I liked how the alternating chapters would almost mirror each other, both looking at the same parts of the house at the same time. The two narratives would also clash with each other- with the book revealing something, only for Maggie to then disprove it- meaning you never quiet knew who was telling the truth.

The book within a book aspect also meant that certian parts of Home Before Dark’s narration could be seen as unreliable. Maggie straight away establishes that the events told in House of Horrors did not happen and despite being sold as non-fiction, was infact all made up. Her then returning to Baneberry Hall establishes this further when she begins noticing several discrepancies between the book version of the house and the real life house. Maggie’s inability to remember her time spent at Baneberry also further muddies the waters, meaning that despite the two view points, readers are never 100% sure what really happened. I liked this uncertianty throughout, I was never quite sure who to believe- Maggie or the book- giving the book an overall more intriuging twist.

Overall, I really enjoyed reading Home Before Dark, Riley Sager has done it yet again, he really is becoming one of my all time favourite authors. I loved the initial premise and mystery and the mix of supernatural and crime. The book within a book aspect was clever and I liked how the conflicting narratives made it harder to work out what was really going on. The final reveal and the reason why the book was written in the first place was all so clever, just another brilliant Riley Sager thriller.