Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time


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No more Riley Sager books *pour moi*.

Home Before Dark by Riley Sager

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I do not understand why people like this author so much. Is it the guaranteed twist at the end? The cliched story elements? The flavorless writing? The overblown dialogue? I’m sorry, everyone who loves this dude* (which is like 90% of Goodreads apparently), but his whole thing just does not work for me. Everything in this story has been done, and done better, in other books. For me, this book wasn’t scary or thrilling at all. I finished it because it’s the literary equivalent of […]

The House, It’s Haunted

Home Before Dark by Riley Sager

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I did not intend to follow one Riley Sager book with another, but since what I was reading wasn’t working for me, and since my rental of this one was due to expire soon, I decided to give it a go. This one is weird. In some ways, it’s better than what Sager has written but in others, it’s probably my least favorite. It’s a haunted house tale and he gets the atmosphere of a haunted house down pat. I’m not a horror guy; I […]

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Final Girls by Riley Sager

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My second Riley Sager book and I think I understand now why I’m coming around to his work… He’s the Lee Child of these kinds of thrillers. I kind of mean that as a compliment (he says with some trepidation in his voice). Child is far from my favorite author and I find Jack Reacher to be a stereotypical character in broad strokes. But Child is a talented writer who knows how to craft a thriller. Every book is the same yet the story still […]

The Rich Eat You

Lock Every Door by Riley Sager

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Read as part of CBR13Bingo: Home. The book takes place in an apartment complex where the protagonist is house sitting.  Riley Sager’s thing never seemed to be my thing. I tried Final Girls but quit after thirty pages because it gave me that airport bestseller page-ripper vibe. Nothing against those kinds of books but they’re not for me. I don’t fancy myself (hah!) as a high brow sophisticate when it comes to my reading tastes. But I usually enjoy stuff with more substance than what you get […]

Home Before Dark

Home Before Dark by Riley Sager

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This is my #home square for CBR13 bingo.  Home Before Dark was incredibly fun to read! It reminds me of the kind of meta consideration of true crime documentary subjects in a book I recently reviewed, Every Last Fear. This time, it’s a meta consideration of the subjects of a haunted house book.  Along the lines of Amityville Horror, the book at the center of this narrative tells the story of a small family who moved into a large estate called Baneberry Hall in Vermont. […]

Maybe I’m just too familiar with thrillers…

Home Before Dark by Riley Sager

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Even 25 years after her father published his “non-fiction” book about their time at Baneberry Hall, Maggie Holt still gets asked what it was like. Receptionists, deliverypeople, everyone wants to know. What was it like to have an imaginary friend named Mr. Shadow? Did she really see all those dead people? How scary was it on the night her family fled what was supposed to be their home? Well, Maggie was 5 at the time, so she doesn’t remember. And also, her dad made it […]



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