Perhaps, in this fashion, Cheever conceived of material for his early short story, "The Enormous Radio", set in just such a Manhattan building & with the new but erratic radio broadcasting the constant squabbles & many insufficiencies of his fellow apartment dwellers. John Cheever may have been known as "The Bard of Ossining" but many of his early stories are similarly set in Manhattan & he liked to share anecdotes & stories about his intersections with E.E.Cummings, Wallace Shawn, Malcolm Cowley, John Updike & others. I was so engaged with this throughout; it got into my mind. The eeriness of the house and everything going on there. It was bloody fantastic. After it happened, Maggie’s parents thought it was Maggie who did it because they didn’t know what really happened that night, only that there was a physical altercation and Petra was dead.) Quite literally fleeing in the middle of the night, her parents refused to ever return to the property. Her father then published a best-selling, purportedly nonfiction account of their time there. As you do. There is considerable detail about all of the listed common activities that apparently held the suburbanites of this era together, with the social drinking an endemic failing & not just for the likes of John Cheever, in search of his next story, while cataloguing his neighbors' longings & uncertainties in the process.

Buster the Teddy Bear belonged originally to Petra. She was sixteen, but still brought it with her when she was spending nights away from the house. When she was killed, she had Buster with her. Ewan stuffed it into a closet. 25 years later, Maggie found it. From there, it’s less cut-and-dry what happened, but it’s possible a number of people (Hannah? Elsa? Martha?) could have been the one moving it around.It was Martha Carver. Petra walked in when Martha was in Maggie’s room, just watching her sleep and thinking about Katie. Petra and Martha ended up in a physical confrontation that resulted in Petra falling down the stairs. Principal photography for the first season was scheduled to take place from November 12, 2018 to April 15, 2019 in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. [12] After the kitchen ceiling collapses, Ewan discovers letters that detail a love affair between Indigo Garson and a painter. The letters contradict local legend that Indigo had committed suicide. It is revealed that Indigo was murdered and that her spirit has been taking revenge by killing young girls in a way that pushes the blame onto their fathers. The Holt family flee the house, never to return. Bad: the characters are all so one-dimensional, especially the main character. We know/learn virtually nothing about her, even though most of the book is written from her POV. When Ewan “experiences” it, it’s all lies, made up for the purposes of the book. When Maggie experiences it, it’s from Hannah trying to scare Maggie into leaving.

In the book, Ewan described a day where the kitchen ceiling collapsed, revealing a nest of snakes in the space between the floors. He also found letters writen to Indigo Garson. She had wanted to elope with a boy, but her father had been determined to prevent it. She died mysteriously soon after. Ewan suspects it was William who killed her. In the present, Maggie and Dane are inspecting the house when the same spot breaks open and a human skeleton falls down. It's Petra's body. Petra had started sneaking out around the time the Holts moved in, and Maggie suspects her father may be implicated in Petra's death.But I think my father was also looking for something more spiritual; a confirmation of his own belief in the importance of transcendence & the vitality of the soul. For fans of the Amityville Horror story comes yet another breath-stealer from the hit machine Sager.”

It is so very charming, heartwarming, and yet not just for "family" (aka kids) but for adults as well.

Movie / TV Show Adaptation

wtf ending :- the disgusted/ frustrated wtf ending! It was like the most stupid and ridiculous ending I expected from the author !

The novel is told via a split narrative in alternating chapters. It focuses on the characters of Maggie Holt, via her first person narrative, and her father Ewan, through excerpts taken from a book. The book-within-a-book focuses on supernatural events that Ewan claims drove them to flee their home and never return. Reviewers were impressed by the use of parallel structure. Fellow Riley Sager junkies, you've waited so patiently for me to slip out of my Covid-19 induced anxiety, and I'm here to tell you that I've shaken the funk and am feeling passionately encouraged to word vomit my thoughts about this book. Before I get started, you need to know going in that this book has a slightly altered feel to his previous novels, but I feel like this is a given, as each book he writes evolves into a new thrilling sub-genre. If I had to compare Home Before Dark to another one of Sager's books, I'd say that it would mostly align with Final Girls, as it portrays that same growing since of dread while serving a side of mainstream horror. The blurbs calling this a tale for fans of Hill House are spot on, and if you love a good ghost story, whether those ghosts are supernatural or manmade monsters, I think you'll adore this book. The first half is solidly written, but pretty standard mystery-set-in-an-old-house fare. A potentially haunted house. Someone who decides to move in for whatever reason. Mysterious occurrences ensue which may or may not be paranormal in nature, etc. If you read mystery novels, especially ones involving potentially haunted houses, you’re probably well acquainted with this plot progression.You might believe in ghosts; you might not. But a story with a ghost inhabiting a creaky old house and haunting its new residents is simply irresistible. At least in the right hands, and Riley Sager’s definitely are the right hands. From the shadowy figures in the woods to the sounds that go bump in the night, Home Before Dark is certain to creep you out.” This time he dances between horror, supernatural, ghost stories and mix them with true crime, murder, whodunit elements. You sense Amityville Horror, Haunting of Hill House and a little bit “Exorcist”, “Shining” and “Conjuring” vibes. At some parts you sense the author’s tribute to Stephen King novels by using his favorite elements like dysfunctional family dynamics, small town mystery, the thin line between madness and reality.