Home Before Dark

 Synopsis

Bells that ring themselves.

Record players that turn on and play music to empty rooms.

Ghost that climb out of wardrobes . . . 

Maggie Holt doesn't believe in these things, even though they are the details of the story that made her family famous. Twenty-five years ago, she and her parents, Ewan and Jess, moved into Baneberry Hall, a rambling Victorian estate in the Vermont woods. They spent twenty days there before fleeing in the dead of night, an ordeal Ewan later recounted in a horror memoir, House of Horrors. His tale of ghostly happenings and encounters with malevolent spirits became a worldwide phenomenon, rivaling The Amityville Horror in popularity- and skepticism.

Maggie has lived her life in the shadow of her father's book, so when she inherits Baneberry Hall after his death, she returns to renovate the house to prepare it for sale. However, her homecoming is anything burn warm. people from the past, chronicled in House of Horrors, lurk in the shadows. And locals aren't thrilled that their small town has been made infamous thanks to Maggie's father. Even more unnerving is Baneberry Hall itself- a place filled with relics from another ear that hint at a history of dark deeds. As Maggie experiences strange occurrences straight out of Ewan's book, she starts to wonder if what he wrote was more than fiction. 

Alternating between Maggie's uneasy homecoming chapters and chapters from her father's book, Home Before Dark is the story of a house with long-buried secrets and a woman's quest to uncover them- even if the truth is far more terrifying than any haunting.

Loved

• The spookiness. Now I'm a wimp when it comes to the thriller/horror genre, but this book was pretty spooky. Ghosts that watch you when you sleep, a witching hour every night, and a violent history of the house all serve to make this story plenty scary. This was everything you could want in a ghost story or haunted house story. Imagine if Six Sense took place in a haunted Victorian mansion, and that's this book. This was a delicious kind of spooky, especially for October, that gave me all the creepy feels.

• The overlaid mysteries. Even more interesting than the haunted-ness of this story were the many threads of mysteries woven throughout this story. Throughout the book we have strange event after strange event that has us thinking we know what's going on- and then a huge plot twist is thrown in every time. Up until the very last chapter there were new mysteries being threaded and unraveled, which kept the story moving very quickly.

• The writing. This was very cleverly written, with every other chapter switching from Maggie's real time events to the events of twenty-five years ago that her dad wrote about in his book House of Horrors. Getting both perspectives gave the story even more suspense as we had foreshadowings and suspicions that grew with each chapter. This also kept the story moving very quickly as it gave us new questions as quickly as we were getting answers.

• The setting. This was a delicious spooky setting- a secluded Vermont forest, a rambled Victorian mansion, and a deeply religious and suspicious small town. Pretty sure I just described Dracula if you trade Vermont for Romania right? :) This setting was perfect for both the spooky supernatural events and even more disturbing real life events and secrets this small town harbored for years and years.

Didn't Love

• My only complaint about this story is that I was such a wimp that at times it was too spooky and I couldn't read it at night! There were a few times it kept me up in the night because I was thinking about the ghosties and the creepiness. But that's just me being a wimp- the book was awesome ;)

Content

• Language: 
• **Very frequent use of "f***."
  
• Frequent uses of "sh**," "damn," and "hell."
  

• Sexual content: 
• A man and woman are in a hotel together- she's wearing a towel and they both have thoughts of letting the towel fall off and sleeping together, but it doesn't happen.

• Violence
• A father kills his daughter and then himself- there is much talk about this, and gritty details provided by his wife.
• Much talk of the history of the house where many people have been murdered or killed in strange accidents.
• A girl's remains were found in the house and much of the plot is figuring out who murdered her.
• Some fighting with hostile ghosts.
• A ghost makes a man try to strangle his daughter.
• A woman tries to kill another by poison and smothering.


• Other themes:
• There is a very creepy feeling to this book and could be disturbing for some. Creepiness involves ghost activity- lights turning on, noises in the night, strange occurrences, ghosts watching people sleep, ghosts threatening live people, and music blaring from rooms where no one has been.
• Much talk of supernatural activity- ghosts and communicating with ghosts. Characters use a Ouija board at one point to communicate with the spirits.

Overall Thoughts

Overall, this was the perfect October spooky read and I loved it. The haunted mansion/Six Sense vibes just hit the spot for this time of year, and it was delicious. The spookiness was perfect- a combination of supernatural with ghosts and spirits, but also creepy real-life events that added to the thrill of the story. The mysteries were fascinating and mind-boggling, and the plot twists completely unpredictable, which I found refreshing. This is quite a scary story (at least for wimps like me), and there is a lot of disturbing material, as well as strong language, so I would not recommend it for younger audiences. But for those who love the thriller/horror genre or want a fun Halloween read, I definitely recommend this and guarantee you will get a few chills and a kick out of figuring out the mysteries of this haunted house :)