Home Before Dark by Riley Sager

Star rating: 3.5/5

Riley Sager's highly-anticipated fourth novel is, at first glance, a ghost story. The true story turns out to be a bit more complicated than that. 

Summary:

Maggie Holt is famous. As a young child, she and her parents lived in a house called Baneberry Hall. She doesn't remember any of her time there, but the book that her father published recounting the "true events" of what took place there has ruled her life. She believes none of it. 

Now as an adult, her father has died, leaving her the house, which she didn't know was even still in his possession. She is determined to find out what really happened there, and why her father made up so many lies to tell this ghost story. Told in alternating chapters from Maggie's present and her father's book, we slowly learn the truth behind Baneberry Hall. 

Review:

I love a good ghost story. I am a true ghost believer. So when I opened the jacket of this book and read the summary, I was instantly disappointed that it said,"the truth is far more terrifying than any haunting." I could surmise that this book would pretend to be about ghosts and then have another explanation in the end. Eye roll. Spoiler alert - the truth was not terrifying. The twist in the end was, honestly, pretty underwhelming. I am torn on the rating for this because the story was overall a page-turner for me, and there were times when I was seriously creeped out, in the best way. But the characters, especially the main character, annoyed me the whole way through, and the twists fell flat. I also kept feeling like it was a knockoff of a combination of AHS Murder House and The Haunting of Hill House. Overall, I don't think this was Sager's best work, but if you've enjoyed his past books and other thrillers, you will probably enjoy Home Before Dark.