Take a photo of a barcode or cover
theidlereader's Reviews (354)
Right off the bat reading Home Before Dark felt just like it had the same intensity as The Haunting of Hill House, so if you liked the show you'll definitely like this book.
The story follows Maggie Holt through two periods of her life as she lives at Baneberry Hall. Half of the book is told from Maggie's perspective as an adult as she tries to renovate Baneberry Hall to sell it after inheriting it from her father. The other half is told as a novel, "House of Horrors", written by Maggie's father, detailing the haunting that their family experienced after they moved into the house twenty-five years prior. The book has hung over Maggie's head since her father wrote it and her parents refused to tell her the truth of what actually happened during the twenty days they lived at Baneberry Hall.
I loved this two-fold story of past and present. The two parts worked brilliantly to build each other up, increasing the anticipation with each chapter and leaving me reading well into the night to figure out what happened next. I do have to say that I enjoyed the book excerpts more than Maggie's POV. The novel was so packed with action and drama that when Maggie's parts were slower they seemed to drag on compared to the faster pacing of "House of Horrors". Plus there was just something about the way that "House of Horrors" unfurled itself, the slow piecing together of clues by Maggie's father that was much more satisfying to read about than Maggie trying to figure out what was fact and what was fiction in her father's- book.
That's not to say that I didn't like Maggie's parts too. I felt like the characters in her parts were more fun to read about because they were fleshed out more. They felt like people you knew and people you'd want to know more about. Which is why it was sometimes disappointing when we would go long stretches without those secondary characters making an appearance. There were several times when I was reading the story where I would think to myself 'what happened to the best friend Allie?' or 'where did Dane the hot handyman next door go?'. Still, the strange events that Maggie experienced quickly pushed away my thoughts of any missing secondary characters.
I think the pacing for this book was fantastic up until the last fifty pages or so. The book kept building and building, dropping enough clues where I could piece together some of the story- but not all of it- but then the last couple of chapters of Maggie's story felt rushed. Where I felt like there should have been this big reveal, the final puzzle piece to fit everything together, instead there was one twist, and then another, and then another. While in the context of the story each of these twists make sense and do help to neatly wrap up the story, I just felt like it was one twist too many to be enjoyable.
I wanted to give this book five stars, but while I loved the first 300 pages the last couple of chapters dropped the ball for me. Still, this was a wholly enjoyable read that kept me on the edge of my seat. I will definitely be checking out more stories from this author in the future.
The story follows Maggie Holt through two periods of her life as she lives at Baneberry Hall. Half of the book is told from Maggie's perspective as an adult as she tries to renovate Baneberry Hall to sell it after inheriting it from her father. The other half is told as a novel, "House of Horrors", written by Maggie's father, detailing the haunting that their family experienced after they moved into the house twenty-five years prior. The book has hung over Maggie's head since her father wrote it and her parents refused to tell her the truth of what actually happened during the twenty days they lived at Baneberry Hall.
I loved this two-fold story of past and present. The two parts worked brilliantly to build each other up, increasing the anticipation with each chapter and leaving me reading well into the night to figure out what happened next. I do have to say that I enjoyed the book excerpts more than Maggie's POV. The novel was so packed with action and drama that when Maggie's parts were slower they seemed to drag on compared to the faster pacing of "House of Horrors". Plus there was just something about the way that "House of Horrors" unfurled itself, the slow piecing together of clues by Maggie's father that was much more satisfying to read about than Maggie trying to figure out what was fact and what was fiction in her father's- book.
That's not to say that I didn't like Maggie's parts too. I felt like the characters in her parts were more fun to read about because they were fleshed out more. They felt like people you knew and people you'd want to know more about. Which is why it was sometimes disappointing when we would go long stretches without those secondary characters making an appearance. There were several times when I was reading the story where I would think to myself 'what happened to the best friend Allie?' or 'where did Dane the hot handyman next door go?'. Still, the strange events that Maggie experienced quickly pushed away my thoughts of any missing secondary characters.
I think the pacing for this book was fantastic up until the last fifty pages or so. The book kept building and building, dropping enough clues where I could piece together some of the story- but not all of it- but then the last couple of chapters of Maggie's story felt rushed. Where I felt like there should have been this big reveal, the final puzzle piece to fit everything together, instead there was one twist, and then another, and then another. While in the context of the story each of these twists make sense and do help to neatly wrap up the story, I just felt like it was one twist too many to be enjoyable.
I wanted to give this book five stars, but while I loved the first 300 pages the last couple of chapters dropped the ball for me. Still, this was a wholly enjoyable read that kept me on the edge of my seat. I will definitely be checking out more stories from this author in the future.
