“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.”
If you couldn’t put down Home Before Dark by Riley Sager, you’re not alone. This spine-chilling thriller masterfully blends haunted house horrors, family secrets and unreliable narrator, keeping readers on the edge of their seats throughout. But, what do you do when you come to the end of such an atmospheric and suspenseful read? Thankfully, there are plenty of books that capture a similar vibe. Whether you’re drawn to gothic thrillers with eerie settings, mysteries shrouded in secrets or suspenseful tales with dual timelines, What We Reading have you sorted. From psychological thrillers to stories packed with unexpected twists, these are the best books like Home Before Dark that promise to deliver the same chills, thrills and nerve-jangling suspense as Riley Sager’s bestseller.
Lock Every Door – Riley Sager
First up on our list of books like Home Before Dark is another one of Riley Sager’s most gripping reads, Lock Every Door. The story follows Jules, a young woman who takes a high-paying job as an apartment sitter at the luxurious yet eerie Bartholomew building in New York City. To begin with, the opportunity looks like a dream come true; but, Jules soon discovers the Bartholomew’s sinister history, including mysterious disappearances and tragic deaths.
As she delves deeper into the secrets hidden within its walls, Jules becomes an unreliable narrator of her own story, unsure of who to trust and whether she can survive this nightmare. With its mix of gothic suspense, hidden truths and a foreboding setting, Lock Every Door is Sager at his best and captures the same atmospheric mystery as Home Before Dark.
Check Out The Best Books Like Lock Every Door
The Invited – Jennifer McMahon
Looking for a simpler life together, Helen and Nate abandon their suburbia neighbourhood in exchange for a new home across forty-four acres of land. There, they plan to embark on the ultimate DIY project of building their own home. When they discover that the land has a dark and violent past, Helen becomes consumed by the lingering legacy of Hattie Breckenridge, a woman who lived and died there a century ago.
With her passion for artefacts, Helen also begins to incorporate objects from the past into the couple’s designs – objects that draw her deeper into the story of Hattie and her descendants, all of whom died suddenly and suspiciously. As the building project progresses, the new home becomes a haunted place of unfinished business that beckons its owners and their neighbours with unimaginable danger.
We Used To Live Here – Marcus Kliewer
Young queer couple Charlie and Eve can’t quite believe their luck when they get their hands on an old house in a picturesque neighbourhood. As they’re working on the estate one day, they receive a knock on the front door. A man and his family stand on the other side. The man claims he used to live in the house and asks if it would be alright to show his kids around. As a devout people pleaser, Eve has no reason to say no to the request.
But, as soon as the strangers enter the home, things begin to feel off. The family’s youngest child disappears, a ghostly presence materialises in the basement and the family don’t seem capable of realising their welcome has reached its expiry. And when Charlie vanishes too, Eve slowly starts to lose her own grip on reality. One of the best haunted house books like Home Before Dark, Marcus Kliewer’s debut novel, We Used to Live Here is a mind-bending thriller that every Riley Sager fan will devour.
Check Out The Best Books Like We Used To Live Here
The Ghost Bride – Yangsze Choo
Li Lan is the daughter of a genteel albeit bankrupt family within the sleepy port town of Malacca in British-controlled Malaya. Fate intervenes when she receives a bizarre proposal from the wealthy Lim family: they want her to become the ghost bride of the family’s only son, who died recently under mysterious circumstances. Such a union would guarantee Li Lan a home for life but at a terrible cost.
After visiting the Lim estate, Li Lan soon finds herself haunted by the ghost of her would-be suitor and the Lim’s handsome new heir, Tian Bai. Each night, she is pulled into the shadowy parallel world of the Chinese afterlife. There, she must uncover the Lims’ darkest secrets and the truth about her own family before she is trapped there forever. Full of ghostly hauntings and family secrets, The Ghost Bride is the perfect fantasy follow-up for anyone who loved Home Before Dark.
The Turn Of The Key – Ruth Ware
When she comes across the posting, Rowan Caine arrives at Heatherbrae House convinced that the live-in nannying position is too good an opportunity to miss. Initially, she is taken aback by the luxurious estate kitted out with all modern conveniences nestled within the Scottish Highlands. What follows, however, is a hellish experience that ends with a child dead and herself in prison awaiting trial for murder.
Writing to her lawyer from prison, Rowan recounts the unravelling events that led up to her incarceration. She is aware that she made plenty of mistakes, but knows that she is no murderer. But, if she isn’t, that means someone else is. Similar to Home Before Dark, The Turn of the Key features unreliable narrators, a creepy house and a murder mystery, making Ruth Ware’s take on The Turn of the Screw is gripping, suspenseful and addictive.
Check Out The Best Books Like The Turn Of The Key
The Sun Down Motel – Simone St. James
Every small town like Fell in upstate New York possesses a building like the Sun Down Motel. Some customers come from out of town, passing through on their way to someplace better. Some locals do all they can to hide their secrets from the neighbours.
Viv Delaney works as a night clerk inside the Sun Down, hoping that the position will pay for her move to New York City. Yet, something isn’t right within the walls of the roadside motel. Before long, she finds herself determined to uncover all the secrets hidden. A Goodreads Choice Award nominee, Simone St. James’ The Sun Down Motel is another pulsating mystery-thriller like Home Before Dark brimming with hauntings, disappearances and the supernatural.
The Family Plot – Megan Collins
At twenty-six, Dahlia Lighthouse still has a lot to learn when it comes to the real world. Having been brought up by her true crime-obsessed parents in a secluded mansion, she has spent the past few years living on her own, unable to move from the mystery surrounding the disappearance of her twin brother, Andy, when they were sixteen. When her father dies, Dahlia and the rest of the Lighthouse family return to the house she has avoided for years.
It is only then that a gruesome discovery is made: buried in the plot reserved for her father is another body – Andy’s, skull split open by an axe. Each member of the family reacts in vastly different ways. In a similar form to Home Before Dark, as Dahlia wrestles with her own sanity, she realises her own eccentric family and the eerie mansion itself may hold the answers she is looking for.
The Woman In The Window – A.J. Finn
Anna Fox spends her days living alone as a recluse in her New York City home, unable to step foot in the world outside. She drinks too much wine, fuels her nostalgia by watching old movies and spies on her neighbours. One day, a new family moved in across the way from her. The Russells, father, mother, and teenage son, look to be the perfect family.
But, when Anna, gazing out her window one night, sees something that she definitely shouldn’t have, her entire world begins to disintegrate and its shocking secrets are laid out for all to see. In another one of the most gripping and unreliable thrillers like Home Before Dark, A.J. Finn paints a story where nothing is as it seems in The Woman in the Window.
Check Out The Best Books Like The Woman In The Window
Part-time reader, part-time rambler, and full-time Horror enthusiast, James has been writing for What We Reading since 2022. His earliest reading memories involved Historical Fiction, Fantasy and Horror tales, which he has continued to take with him to this day. James’ favourite books include The Last (Hanna Jameson), The Troop (Nick Cutter) and Chasing The Boogeyman (Richard Chizmar).
