We Used to Live Here by Marcus Kliewer is one of the most interesting horror books I’ve ever read. It had me hooked right from the beginning and I was genuinely so sad when it was over. I’d heard so many amazing things about this book so I went into it with high expectations and it somehow still managed to meet them. 

Summary

Charlie and Eve are a young, queer couple who flip houses and they can’t believe the incredible deal they’ve just gotten on an old house in a picturesque neighbourhood. One day as they’re working on the house, there’s a knock at the door. A man stands there with his family, claiming that he used to live in this house and all he wants to do is show his family around. Eve wants nothing more than to tell them to leave… but a people pleaser to a fault, she lets them in. 

But as soon as they enter, strange things start happening. Their youngest child goes missing and a ghostly presence materialises in the basement. The family can’t seem to take the hint to leave and then Charlie suddenly disappears as Eve begins to slowly lose her grip on reality…

Thoughts

My main takeaway from this book? If you feel uncomfortable with someone, don’t entertain them. 

I did see a lot of people discussing how scared this book made them but I’m gonna be honest… This didn’t scare me. That doesn’t mean I didn’t find it interesting and that it didn’t have  its creepy moments though! I understand why it could really creep some people out but that’s just not the experience I had. The idea of what was happening is terrifying but the actual story itself wasn’t very scary. For me, anyway. 

I feel like a lot of people might become quite frustrated with the main character, Eve. She has absolutely no backbone. She can barely make a decision without consulting her girlfriend first and it can definitely get annoying when reading stories about characters like this sometimes. I didn’t think she was so spineless that she was unrealistic but I can see some people really disliking her. 

A lot of the scariest moments in this book were quite mundane and I think that Eve’s character makes sense with this type of story. She is very used to questioning and second guessing herself. Did she just misplace your phone? Or did something more sinister happen? Is she seeing things? Or is there something strange going on in this creepy old house?

I know that the ending of this book won’t be for everyone. You know when you’re getting towards the end of a book and you start thinking ‘hmm… there’s still a lot of unanswered questions.’ And as you get closer to the end you just get more and more questions that may or may not get answered. Some people would hate that. I kind of loved the open-endedness of the story but I’d also not say no to a sequel if one was ever to come. However, it feels like the kind of book that could potentially be ruined by a sequel that just wouldn’t live up to expectations.

Overall, this was a fantastic and unique book that I’d recommend to any horror fan. While I didn’t find it necessarily very scary, it has all the best horror elements and will keep you guessing right until the very end.