Reviews tagging 'Animal death'

Home Before Dark by Riley Sager

9 reviews

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

kukucocoreads's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.25

I enjoyed this! 

I really liked the way that the father’s book was used as a framing devise for the plot and as a lens to the past. Gothic is one of my favorite genres of horror so the spooky ghost parts were fun. I enjoyed the MC’s reactions to them as well as the juxtaposition of her father’s experience. 

I didn’t really like the main character in the beginning of the story. They had a bit of an abrasive personality for me because of the huge chip on her shoulder. However, as the story developed and I got a glimpse into the MC’s thoughts and feelings behind the book and how it impacted her life, I understood how she became that way. I actually ended up liking her more than I anticipated at the end as her character worked through her trauma. 

The other characters didn’t really leave an impact on me and the twist at the end was ok. The pacing started going at blinding speed in the last few chapters and I feel like the twist didn’t have as much impact as it could have had. 

One thing I really did not like was the snake hate. I understand why snakes are used in horror. People are scared of them. And this species specifically was likely used for their coloring. However, I really dislike when media perpetuates the fear of snakes. Especially harmless ones like those in this novel. I also don’t like descriptions of them (or any animal) getting hurt, so I got upset during a few scenes. 

Overall, I would recommend this to anyone who enjoys gothic horror or mysteries. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death and Child death

Moderate: Animal cruelty

jessspeake's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Dementia, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, and Death of parent

Moderate: Blood, Mental illness, Suicide, and Animal death

Minor: Grief, Stalking, Car accident, and Alcohol

seawarrior's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

3.0

Home Before Dark is an engaging read that glued me to its pages, but began to lose my suspension of disbelief near the end. The title is narrated by the text of the notorious House of Horrors and the inner thoughts of its now grown feature character Maggie Holt, who lived her life in the shadow of her father's writing. Early on it becomes obvious that we're not reading a story of a haunting, but rather one of a series of lies that spirals into a decades old "whodunnit". Sager presents just the right amount of description for us to richly imagine Baneberry Hall without losing momentum in the plot, or creating something that felt like a drudgery to read. Yet to me, the ending twists were more annoying than satisfying, as the sheer amount of them seemed unnecessary and almost silly. I would still recommend this book to others who enjoy a mystery novel that it almost effortless to read. There was never a period where reading this book felt tedious, and I repeatedly looked forward to spending more time with it. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Animal death, Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Death, Death of parent, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Murder, Stalking, and Suicide

toorsdenote's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.0

Solid ghost story, cool plot twist.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Blood, and Murder

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Child death, Gaslighting, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Suicide, and Violence

Minor: Alcohol, Animal death, Car accident, Chronic illness, Dementia, and Vomit

toofondofbooks_'s review

dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

I don't even know what to say y'all
I don't know what I expected but it wasn't this. This book scared me so much. I'm scared of armoires now. I feel like I can't really talk about this book effectively while still keeping it spoiler free, but I think what I will say is that I did not see the ending coming and I can't tell if I was disappointed by it or not. I opted for the 4 star rating bc of my confusion in relation to that, but overall this was a very immersive and well written book that I think you'll love if you're into horror.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Violence, Suicide, Cancer, Body horror, Toxic relationship, Stalking, Medical content, Injury/Injury detail, Gaslighting, Fire/Fire injury, Emotional abuse, Death of parent, Death, Cursing, Child abuse, Animal death, and Grief

Moderate: Infidelity

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Excrement, and Forced institutionalization

davidrb's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious sad tense slow-paced

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

2.5

Oy vey. Just...not my favorite. Twists weren't fun, story didn't go anywhere...it had some interesting things to say about the lengths that men will go to justify their actions, and then it just didn't use them for anything. But, despite all that, a fun and easy read. Definitely good fodder for this time of year just to get into the mood.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Alcohol, Animal death, Cancer, Child death, Death, Death of parent, Gaslighting, Grief, Mental illness, Murder, Stalking, Terminal illness, and Violence

embow's review against another edition

dark 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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Minor: Animal death

sonygaystation's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

3.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death and Animal death