what I’m reading: home before dark by riley sager.

When Maggie Holt was 5 years old, she and her family lived at Baneberry Hall. They only lived there for 3 weeks until they were forced to leave by the supernatural spirits in the house, at least according to Maggie’s father and the best-selling book he wrote of their time in the home. When her dad dies, she discovers that not only did he never sell Baneberry Hall but that he still returns there once a year and now Maggie has inherited the property. Maggie was too young to remember any of the events mentioned in her father’s book; she has never believed his stories about the haunted house and her mother has never spoken about it. It’s been 25 years since she last stepped foot in the house but now Maggie will return to Baneberry Hall to figure out what happened there all those years ago.

I really liked this story. I was not intending to read something scary during October, but this book came up on my library holds so I went ahead and checked it out. I’m glad I did because I found it to be an enjoyable read.

This is a ghost story. It’s also a book within a book. The chapters alternate between the present – Maggie returning to Baneberry Hall – and chapters from the novel that Maggie’s father wrote about the three weeks or so that the family lived in the haunted house. I definitely found her father’s book to be highly entertaining and I couldn’t wait to get to the end to find out if any of it was true. It was frightening and this might be a spoiler, but there was a part in the book with snakes that I found to be truly horrific. If I were Maggie, I would not have stayed in Baneberry Hall alone, haunted or not!

The book does have a bit of a slow start. But after Maggie’s been at Baneberry Hall for a few days and starts noticing things happening around her, it starts to pick up.

I thought this book had just the right amount of creepy in it. There were definitely times when I was wondering, “Should I be reading this at night in the dark?” I told myself that if I got too scared then I would put the book down. Luckily it never got too spooky for me, which is a surprise because I do not like scary movies about haunted houses. There is some paranormal in this book but a lot of it is more on the psychological thriller side.

I thought this was a fun book with lots of twists and a good read for the Halloween season.

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