Spoiler review: I mark where I discuss the ending, so if you haven't read just look for the bold text!
I finished Home Before Dark about a week ago, and the book still lingers in my mind. Which I can assure is good. This means that the pages left an impact!
If you've already read Home Before Dark, you'll know all about the twists and turns! In case it's been awhile, the basic premise is Maggie Holt has inherited a home made infamous by her father's best selling novel. A detailed account of the twenty days the family lived within the manor walls. Why only twenty? Snakes, and ghosts drove them away!
As with Final Girls, Sager has returned to multi-point of view. This time, however, we read both Mr Holt's bestseller, and a much older Maggie's perspective.
Maggie's intent was to put her profession to use, and flip the house. Those plans unfurred when Maggie and the groundskeeper's son find bones in the ceiling. From that point on, Sager puts the reader right on an emotinial rollercoaster.
Thoughts on the writing:
As I mentioned in my Goodreads Review, Riley Sager uses adverbs. To some extent, we all do. I believe this is a stylistic choice because by using them; he creates fast pacing. According to Stephin King, the road to hell is paved with adverbs. Though is sager's case we could make the argument that by using them, the writing goes faster. In a fast-paced book like this, it needs such prose.
That being said, there were a lot. Some adverbs could have been cut, and I don't fault Sager. His editor could have made suggestions to cut them.
Though, I don't know their relationship. Perhaps Sager insisted that they remained.
I don't think the critique above makes Sager a bad writer, or his editor poor. Once readers are given time to adjust, the Adverb abundance fades into the background. Kind of like how 'said' does when used in dialogue tags.
Another critique I would offer is that Sager seems to struggle with character voice. Maggie doesn't read differently from any of the girls in his debut. Nor does Ewan's writing throughout the book, which for me was disappointing, Not enough to stop me from reading! No, far from it. Sager has made me a fan despite my critiques. I plan on picking up all his books because I find the stories themselves engaging, exciting, and he's mastered the art of the plot twist.
A last word of caution. This review will spoil the entire book. So if you haven't read the book and continue reading now is your chance to look away.
Spoiler related thoughts
This is not so much a criticism, as it is a personal disappointment. Which, in Riley's defense, the reader knows. I hoped for this to be one of those rare instances of an unreliable narrator, or a character misdirection. The house wasn't haunted. Most of what Ewan wrote was a lie. A lie to cover a lie. Which did end up being a red herring! Maggie didn't murder Elsa. Though I understand why Ewan made the choice. He thought by keeping people away, he was protecting his daughter from prison. A parent's love out shined his honesty.
Should he have done it? Not from a moral or ethical standpoint. Ewan didn't just save his daughter from a lifetime jail sentence, because he believed the lie. He gained quite a fortune by writing the book. All throughout the book, Maggie expresses deep resentment of the book. An opinion shared by the town.
Elsa's mother suffered from Alzheimers, and Elsa's older sister had suspicions herself. It's a shame for them because it took them so long to get the closer they needed.
I kept wishing that those paintings described in Ewan's book would appear on the walls. Sager gives readers the gift of interpretation, though. Maggie believes Elsa's ghost saves her from a terrible fate. I can forgive him.
But enough about what I thought! I want to hear yours!
-B.L. Koller x
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