Reviews tagging 'Sexual content'

Home Before Dark by Riley Sager

8 reviews

hannahpings's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

great construction. great case study (studies) in (un)reliable narration. whole lotta hill house references. maybe too many hill house references. who knew there was such a thing?

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Death, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail, Alcohol, Blood, Suicide, Child death, Death of parent, and Murder

Moderate: Dementia and Grief

Minor: Stalking, Sexual content, and Adult/minor relationship

chasingpages1's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Mental illness, Misogyny, Death of parent, Death, Dementia, Gaslighting, Stalking, Medical content, Suicide attempt, Violence, Panic attacks/disorders, Child death, Suicidal thoughts, and Murder

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Animal cruelty, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, and Domestic abuse

Minor: Sexual content, Chronic illness, Adult/minor relationship, Alcohol, Animal death, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Pregnancy, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Cancer, Cursing, and Religious bigotry

kfquarium's review

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Murder, and Child death

Moderate: Cursing, Suicide, and Grief

Minor: Injury/Injury detail, Adult/minor relationship, Sexual content, Dementia, Alcohol, Blood, Death of parent, and Infidelity

its_erin's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

My first Sager book, and it was very enjoyable! 

I enjoyed the format Sager utilized, the "book" chapters juxtaposed with the current story. While I found the beginning to be a little slow, the pace quickly accelerated and the tension increases as we delved further into the mystery. 

And I can't say I predicted the ending, that's for sure. All in all, solid writing, a great mystery, and just enough uncanny unsettling feelings to make you nervous.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Murder

Minor: Grief, Mental illness, Sexual content, and Death of parent

bookishgoob's review against another edition

dark emotional lighthearted tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

Riley Sager does it again. and by does it again i mean writing a “not like other girls” main character and using “ample bosom” as a descriptor for no apparent reason. Maggie was so annoying to me. she oozed pick me energy to a point where it made me want to DNF. another thing i don’t like about sagers writing is that he literally waits until the end of the book to do the final twist which is predictable but often annoying. plot twists are fine at the end once in a while but damn, every book? i don’t know man. i have a lot of problems with riley sager and his writing. i would almost recommend you watch haunting of hill house (5/5 show) than read this but i do have to admit that the atmosphere was creepy and would be a great “spooky szn@ read. it’s quick. it’s creepy. it involved and old house. so i’m torn.  either way the characters were so bland but the story was good. do with that information what you want. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death of parent, Mental illness, Death, Gaslighting, Grief, Cancer, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual content, Stalking, and Suicide

shelfofunread's review against another edition

mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

Having previously read and enjoyed The Last Time I Lied, I was excited to see that Riley Sager’s latest thriller came with some additional spooky stylings. The former novel was packed with growing tension and page-turning plot beats so I was keen to see what the addition of some trademark horror tropes would do to that mix. The answer, it turns out, is to make it even more page-turning – and to provide more than a few ‘sleeping with the lights on’ moments!

Maggie Holt’s life has been defined by The Book – the tell-all memoir that her father Ewan wrote after her family’s fateful stay at Baneberry Hall. According to The Book, the vengeful ghosts of Baneberry Hall drove Ewan, Jess, and five-year-old Maggie away from their dream home, never to return. But after her father’s death, Maggie discovers that her parents never sold Baneberry Hall. Despite being warned to never go back there, Maggie is determined to make the most of her unexpected inheritance – she’s going to renovate and sell her family’s cursed legacy; but not before she gets to the bottom of why her family really fled all those years ago.

When the body of a missing teenager falls out of her kitchen ceiling, however, Maggie gets far more than she bargained for at Baneberry Hall. Could her parents really have been involved in a murder? Or are the strange noises and fleeting shadows of Baneberry Hall really signs of the supernatural? As Maggie starts to delve into the history of her father’s House of Horrors, she finds herself wondering if he was telling the truth about Baneberry Hall all along.

Whilst Home Before Dark continues to showcase Sager’s command of pacing and plotting, it serves up some genuinely spooky and atmospheric moments alongside the more familiar mystery-thriller territory of its main storyline. If you love ghost stories and ‘true life’ tales of the paranormal, you’re sure to love Home Before Dark which alternates between excerpts from Ewan’s Amityville Horror-style memoir and Maggie’s own investigations in the present day.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child death, Death, Death of parent, and Suicide

Minor: Car accident, Dementia, Grief, Mental illness, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, and Sexual content

j_squaredd's review

mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Death of parent, and Murder

Moderate: Sexual content

chellbear's review against another edition

emotional mysterious fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Child death, Death of parent, Gaslighting, Grief, Suicide, and Murder

Moderate: Mental illness, Cursing, and Dementia

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Blood, Cancer, Car accident, Chronic illness, Infidelity, Vomit, Violence, and Sexual content