A Return to Baneberry Hall: My Thoughts on Home Before Dark by Riley Sager
Ever since I picked up Riley Sager’s Final Girls, I knew he had a knack for weaving thrilling narratives filled with twisty plots and intense atmospheres. Home Before Dark promised to be another deep dive into the world of suspense, but with a unique twist—ghosts, or rather, the questioning of their existence. As a lifelong lover of haunted house stories, I couldn’t resist picking up this novel, and let me tell you, it did not disappoint.
The novel centers around Maggie Holt, who inherited her family’s infamous Baneberry Hall after her father’s passing. For those unfamiliar, Baneberry Hall is steeped in paranormal history, famously chronicled in her father’s sensational memoir, House of Horrors. What’s intriguing here is that while the world knows the horrors she experienced as a child, Maggie has little memory of them, and she’s determined to strip the house of its ghostly reputation—if only to sell it. This set-up is rich with potential, and Sager utilizes every bit of it, taking us through a maze of memories, local legends, and psychological hauntings that kept me guessing.
Sager’s dual narrative structure—flipping between Maggie’s contemporary journey and excerpts from her father’s book—adds layers to the storytelling. It allows readers to simultaneously experience the present tension and past traumas, making Maggie’s unraveling journey all the more compelling. As I followed her excavation of both the physical and emotional layers of Baneberry Hall, I felt every palpable whisper in the air and every creaking floorboard.
One of the remarkable aspects of Sager’s writing is his ability to evoke feelings of both nostalgia and fear, sometimes within the same paragraph. I recalled my own childhood fear after reading a ghost story alone, that feeling of racing down to my mother for comfort. In Maggie’s journey, Sager captures that essence perfectly. The atmosphere he conjures is both familiar and unsettling—there were moments when I had to pause to process my own heartbeat quickening at the thought of what lurked in Baneberry Hall.
While the pacing starts off slow, a set of meticulously placed twists catapults the novel into high gear as the climax approaches, reminding us that nothing is ever as it seems. A few testimonials highlight this element beautifully; one reader mentioned how she “couldn’t put it down," and I felt the same. The anticipation builds like a tightly wound spring, ready to snap by the final chapters.
However, the concluding moments left me with mixed feelings. The quick unraveling of mysteries felt slightly rushed, and I sometimes wished for a more leisurely reveal to prolong the tension. Despite this, Sager delivers a satisfying ending that ties together the complex web of relationships and secrets while lingering just enough in the realm of the unknown.
If you love atmospheric thrillers filled with relatable characters, family secrets, and the creeping doubt of supernatural occurrences, Home Before Dark invites you into a world where the past and present collide hauntingly. I emerged from this novel not only entertained but also reflective about the nature of belief and the stories we let define us.
In a time when we often seek escapism in literature, Sager’s latest is a haunting reminder that sometimes, going home might be the most terrifying journey of all. Grab a cozy blanket, dim the lights, and get ready to lose yourself in the mystery of Baneberry Hall; you won’t regret it!
You can find Home Before Dark: A Novel here >>