Reviews tagging 'Alcohol'

Home Before Dark by Riley Sager

22 reviews

meeklovestoread's review

adventurous dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.25

Honestly this book was such a fun time! The back and forth between chapters work so well. And I love how each chapter correlated with the present events that the main character was going through. I personally found the whole book entertaining. Even the twist at the end, even though it was pretty messy. I still enjoyed it. And it did spook me a little bit too!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gaslighting, Death, Death of parent, and Murder

Moderate: Stalking, Child death, Suicide, Alcohol, and Body shaming

Minor: Cursing, Cancer, and Adult/minor relationship

kfquarium's review against another edition

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

julienicole1106's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Cursing, Death, Grief, Cancer, Suicide, Vomit, Murder, Stalking, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, Car accident, Child abuse, Blood, and Death of parent

violetsonata93's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious

5.0

This was such a fun read! A perfect book for fall, with twists and turns and spookiness and family drama, kept me guessing until the very end. I loved it.

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Content Warnings

Minor: Violence, Suicide, Gaslighting, Murder, Dementia, Alcohol, Death, and Vomit

kaylasbookgram's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

When I read Lock Every Door I wasn’t super impressed with Riley Sager but decided to give his books another chance and I’m so glad I did! 

This book was amazing! Kept me on the edge of my seat the entire time & had a surprise ending I should’ve seen coming but definitely didn’t. And I’m always here for a surprise ending! This is a haunted house type book which made me nervous because I don’t believe in ghost and the last “ghost” story I read I wasn’t a fan of but Sager definitely wrote this one magnificently and had me shaking in my seat! I highly recommend this one if you haven’t read it yet. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Alcohol, Car accident, Child death, Death, Death of parent, Dementia, Grief, Murder, and Suicide

shereadsmysteries's review

dark mysterious sad 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? Yes

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Grief

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Gaslighting, and Alcohol

cwallace1005's review

dark mysterious tense medium-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? It's complicated

4.0

 Haunting of Hill House vibes 👻

I really enjoyed this book! The POV switches between Maggie's current-day and what sounds like her Dad's famous book "House of Horrors." I loved the chilling encounters with the house, both in the past and current day and how they paralell. The non-chemistry chemistry between Maggie and Dane seemed out of place and the fact that her parents just continually avoided talking about the past were some things that snagged me, but ultimately were ignorable. I was constantly flipping back and forth about whether the end of the book would reveal if the house was truly haunted or not. I won't spoil, of course, but I'll say that I was satisfied by the ending.

Gotta go borrow Sager's other books now. 

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Content Warnings

Minor: Alcohol, Blood, Child death, Death, Murder, Suicide, and Violence

annelihghh's review

adventurous dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child death, Murder, Death, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, and Death of parent

Minor: Adult/minor relationship and Alcohol

seawarrior's review

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

emmaruth223's review

dark mysterious 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail and Death

Moderate: Death of parent, Gaslighting, Violence, Suicide, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, Death, and Child death

Minor: Alcohol