What if your father wrote a best-selling memoir about your family’s time in a haunted malevolent house, but you couldn’t remember any of those experiences? Is your father a liar? Or have you blocked out the past because it’s too terrifying?

Maggie Holt has always thought her father’s non-fiction book, House of Horrors, was full of lies. She has spent her life being treated like a freak and dodging questions about what really happened at Baneberry Hall when she was five. She resents her father writing the book, although its huge success provided her family with financial stability. Now her father is dead, and Maggie learns she has inherited the house in Vermont that her father never sold. Before his death, Maggie’s father warned her never to return, but as a home renovator, Maggie is drawn to the house’s history and the secrets within its walls. Upon her arrival, she soon learns that not everyone or everything is happy with her return. As Maggie starts to remember more about her terrifying time at the house, she traverses a slim line between fact and fiction.  Was her father who she thought he was?  Will the truth set her free or destroy her?

Riley Sager’s ability to use horror genre tropes and give them a new twist makes him a shining star in the genre. HOME BEFORE DARK is no exception, using the haunted house trope to provide a scary, terrifying account of one family’s supposed experiences. Told in dual narratives, we see two separate timelines unfolding. One is Maggie’s father’s recollections told through the pages of his book. The other is Maggie’s return to the house and her struggles to clarify what really happened. This constant balance between what was real and what was fiction keeps readers on their toes. As the revelations keep coming, the story takes on a whole new direction and Maggie must face some hard truths about what really happened the night her family fled the house in Vermont.

The writing is clear and concise and the pacing provides a nice buildup to the big reveal at the end.  Part horror story and part mystery, HOME BEFORE DARK pulls you in and takes you along for a terrifying and scary ride.  When you think you know the truth, it throws yet another twist at you.  Reminiscent of THE AMITYVILLE HORROR or THE SHINING, Sager’s latest gives us some serious scares and memorable scenes. You may even check your coffee twice after reading this novel.