Home Before Dark - A Horror Novel

 "Every house has a story to tell." 

Author: Riley Sager

Title: Home Before Dark

Genre: Horror

Publication Date: June 30, 2020

Number of Pages: 389

Geographical Setting: Baneberry Hall, Vermont

Time Period: Present Day; 1990s (25 years ago)

Plot Summary:

 "We moved in on June 26. We fled in the dead of night on July 15." 

Ewan and Jess Holt moved into the luxurious and rambling Victorian structure Baneberry Hall one summer in the mid-90s. After the realtor reluctantly reveals the home's dark past, the Holt's begin experiencing strange events that hint towards the home's bloody history. Coupled with their five year old daughter's strange imaginary playmates - Mister Shadow and Miss Pennyface (named for the pennies on her eyes, according to Maggie) - Ewan is compelled to investigate the house's history, assisted by the teenage daughter of the housekeeper. 

After a structural collapse in the kitchen, Ewan discovers hidden love letters that detail a forbidden love affair between Indigo Garson - the daughter of the original owner - and a painter. The more Ewan reads, the more he discovers that the local lore about the Garson's got it all wrong. Indigo was murdered, and now her spirit comes back to take revenge by killing young women in ways that puts all the blame on their fathers. Before Maggie can be her next victim, Ewan packs up his family and flees the house, never to return. 

At least, that's the story Ewan details in his best-selling nonfiction book House of Horror. However, Maggie, now an adult, has never believed a word her parents told her of those few weeks at Baneberry Hall. Now, Maggie has returned to the house, intent on restoring and selling it with the help of Dane - the son of the prior caretaker. 

As Maggie begins experiencing strange occurrences in the home, she realizes that everything in her father's book might not have been a lie. However, when she discovers that her old babysitter, Petra Ditmer, disappeared the night Maggie and her parents fled the house, Maggie becomes dead set on discovering the truth behind what happened that summer. When Petra's bones are discovered tucked within the walls of the house and Maggie realizes who was hired to make repairs that summer, Maggie must unravel the complicated histories and uncover the truth within the ghost stories that have haunted her family and the town for decades. 

Told through a split narrative, readers are taken on the journey of discovery between learning what Maggie is going through in the present day and what her father detailed in his book. There are two sides to every story and the truth lies somewhere in the middle. 

Subject Headings: 

- Haunted houses - fiction

- Ghost stories - fiction

- Paranormal phenomena - fiction

- Horror fiction

Horror Appeals:

- Tone: According to our textbook, "The atmosphere in horror  novels must evoke an emotional response: dread and chill, a sense of menace, a feeling of terror" (Wyatt & Saricks, 2019). Sager gives all of this in this book. As readers, we are brought along as we meet the house and its history through different perspectives and stories. Through Sager's storytelling and split timeline narrative, the house becomes a character itself, much like in The Amityville Horror, which this book is inspired by, and Sager's previous book Lock Every Door. Setting the story in this house and town that have been defined by their bloody, tormented histories creates a tone reminiscent of Shirley Jackson's The Haunting of Hill House. In each of these stories I've mentioned, the author created an environment that not only became its own character, but also created a haunting tone for each of their narratives. 

- Frame/Setting: The main setting for this book is Baneberry Hall tucked away in Vermont. It evokes a sense of foreboding for the readers, because we really don't know what happened in that house, but we know that something awful happened, and that Maggie suppressed it. 

- Storyline: the storyline consists of a split narrative that the author jumps between. One narrative features excerpts from Ewan Holt's nonfiction book about his family's experiences in the house. The second narrative features Maggie's version of events as she renovates the house and discovers its secrets. 

- Characterization: "Protagonists are openly vulnerable to the events of the story and often lack control" (Wyatt & Saricks, 2019). The only character we really actively follow is Maggie. We follow her dad's actions in a secondary sense, since it's just excerpts from a book he wrote. Since Maggie was only five during the events of her dad's book, as an adult her narration is unreliable at best. She does not believe what her father and mother always told her, so therefore, she believes nothing about the house's sordid history. Sometimes that makes the twists even more intense for the readers. 

- Pacing: The pacing of  this story is interesting. The stories and events in the split narratives mirror each other to help the reader to decipher what really happened to all of these families who were unfortunate enough to enter Baneberry Hall. However, it reads much like  Imagine a screenplay would for a scary movie. There are moments of normalcy before tensions ramp us. There are jump scares and twists and turns. 

Three Terms that Best Describe this Book: Creeping, Menacing, Compelling

Fiction Read-Alikes:

The Villa by Rachel Hawkins

How to Sell a Haunted House by Grady Hendrix

The Invited by Jennifer McMahon

Non-Fiction Read-Alikes:

The Amityville Horror by Jay Anson

The World of Lore: Dreadful Places by Aaron Mahnke

Weird Hauntings by Joanne Austin

References

Wyatt, N., & Saricks, J. G. (2019). The readers’ advisory guide to genre fiction. ALA Editions.