“Every house has a story. Ours is a ghost story. It’s also a lie. And now that yet another person has died within these walls, it’s finally time to tell the truth.” – 4.5/5 stars!

Attention! This book contains: best-sellers, haunted houses, family history, poisonous berries, snakes, and creepy paintings.

What was it like? Living in that house.
Maggie Holt is used to such questions. 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 three weeks there before fleeing in the dead of night, an ordeal Ewan later recounted in a nonfiction book called 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.
Today, Maggie is a restorer of old homes and too young to remember any of the events mentioned in her father’s book. But she also doesn’t believe a word of it. Ghosts, after all, don’t exist. When Maggie inherits Baneberry Hall after her father’s death, she returns to renovate the place to prepare it for sale. But her homecoming is anything but 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 era that hint at a history of dark deeds. As Maggie experiences strange occurrences straight out of her father’s book, she starts to believe that what he wrote was more fact than fiction.
In the latest thriller from New York Times bestseller Riley Sager, a woman returns to the house made famous by her father’s bestselling horror memoir. Is the place really haunted by evil forces, as her father claimed? Or are there more earthbound—and dangerous—secrets hidden within its walls?

This was one of the thrillers I picked up randomly this month, and it turned out to be an amazing, wild ride! I can confidently say it has become one of my favorite Riley Sager books. I absolutely loved the haunted gothic mansion vibe (possibly paranormal) and the mysteries waiting to be uncovered.
The story was incredibly creepy and suspenseful, and I kept wondering what really happened in Baneberry Hall—I just regret reading it at night because of how scary it was! The main character, Maggie Holt, has just inherited an old mansion where she lived when she was five. Her father wrote a best-selling book about their time in the house, but Maggie has no memory of it and doesn’t know why they left in the first place. Her parents purposely kept the reason from her. Before he passed away, her father warned her never to return to the house—which, of course, she does. Determined to renovate and sell it, she ends up on a journey to uncover the truth about what really happened there and whether her father’s book was fact or fiction.
As for the characters, they were well-developed but not particularly likable (though not terrible either). Maggie could be a bit annoying at times, and I didn’t care much for Dane. However, I was very intrigued by her parents and the secrets they were hiding from her!
The writing was excellent—fast-paced, full of surprises, and packed with plot twists that kept the story engaging. While it starts off a bit slow, it quickly becomes impossible to put down. One of my favorite aspects was the way the author incorporated chapters from Maggie’s father’s book within the main story—essentially a book within a book. These chapters were inserted at just the right moments, adding an extra layer of depth without being confusing!
The ending was fantastic—I was constantly trying to piece the story together, but it kept taking unexpected turns! I never would have guessed the truth until I read it.
For a random pick, this turned out to be an incredible and unexpected read. Definitely one of my favorite Riley Sager books—I highly recommend it!