Home Before Dark
Home Before Dark Book Review by Riley Sager
Happy Halloween!
Just in time for the spookiest of months, I read Home Before Dark by Riley Sager as a part of my school’s monthly book club. As I discussed in my last book review, I have been on a journey of sorts. A book club journey.
As a part of this odyssey, I’ve been reading books far outside my normal fare, novels that I wouldn’t pick up for myself because it falls outside of the YA category or simply because they don’t seem interesting to me.
Home Before Dark follows this trajectory. Lauded as a psychological thriller that takes inspiration from the book The Amityville Horror, Sager’s novel would have been the last thing I would ever pick up.
I am not a fan of horror.
In fact, I actively dislike horror in almost every case, even benign ones. The only slightly horror-ish novel I’ve even consumed in the past few years is Stephen Chbosky’s Imaginary Friend, which ended up being more surrealist and bizarre than anything else.
However, Home Before Dark is a true horror novel, one that I surprisingly enjoyed.
This book is about a haunted house, a missing 16-year-old girl who disappeared 25 years ago, and the main character, Maggie, is determined to find answers to questions that have plagued her whole life.
Namely: is Baneberry Hall truly haunted?
The beginning starts off slow. I didn’t want to read the book and it certainly didn’t help me along. The chapters switch between adult Maggie Holt returning to the home that has destroyed her life—Baneberry Hall—and 25 years earlier when she was a child at Baneberry Hall with her parents.
From the beginning you are told that Baneberry Hall is haunted, that Maggie and her family fled the house under mysterious circumstances never to return, and that Maggie’s father, Ewan, wrote about their “true” experiences in the haunted house and turned it into a bestselling novel, a novel that has shaped Maggie’s whole life for the worst.
The chapter switches, at first confusing and annoying, become fun later on as they parallel each other 25 years apart—30-year-old Maggie living in Baneberry Hall and discovering the truth and Ewan buying Baneberry Hall, moving in, and finding his family’s life turned upside down because of the spooky misgivings that occur.
The beginning, while slow and meandering, turns into a middle that delves into the mystery of Baneberry hall, Maggie’s involvement, the suspicious townspeople, and her parents’ secrets, which then in turn pivots and becomes an action-packed ending with snake-like twists and turns.
Maggie and Ewan, while not the most interesting or likable of characters, get the job done as double protagonists. They’re not that deep, nor are they that smart or complex, but this novel isn’t about character progression and growth.
It’s about a haunted house filled with snakes, ghosts, and an abominable past filled with death that has cursed a girl for most of her life (among other girls).
The other characters are also simply pawns to be moved around by this book’s plot. However, that’s fine. I felt similarly to the characters in Agatha Christie’s Murder on the Orient Express. They were interesting, sure, but not deep and layered. But that wasn’t the point of Christie’s mystery novel and it’s also not the point of Sager’s.
The purpose of Sager’s novel is to thrill and entertain. While I never found myself scared, which is saying something since I’m the most easily scared person on the planet, I did find myself enthralled by the plot’s “thrill” and the “spooky” moments that present themselves.
This book was really fun. More fun than I anticipated, especially considering the dull origin. The ending’s action and double twist solidified this book as a juicy story that made me gasp out loud and giggle in simultaneous delight and ludicrousness.
I’m sure most horror fans would disagree, but as a horror novice, this book is pleasurable and downright fun in its originality and uniqueness compared to other books I’ve consumed the past few years.
Recommendation: If you’re a wimp like me, but craving something bewitching for the Halloween season, then you will love Home Before Dark. It has things that go bump in the night and contain moments that are silly and mysterious, but not terrifying.
It’s a perfect Halloween read that won’t leave you plagued with nightmares for weeks to come.
Score: 7/10
Score: 7/10
