WE USED TO LIVE HERE by Marcus Kliewer – Review

I received this book for free from the Publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

We Used To Live Here by Marcus Kliewer
Published by Atria/Emily Bestler Books on June 18 2024
Genres: Adult, ghost story, Psychological horror
Pages: 312
Format: eARC
Source: Publisher
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The nitty-gritty: A weird, mind-bending journey into a very strange house, We Used To Live Here is a terrifying puzzle of a story.

“If you’ve followed directions properly up to this point, RED LAKE will be bone dry. At its deepest point, there will be a steel hatch in the ground that leads to a house of refuge. An elderly woman will be there to provide further instruction. If her eyes are BLUE, leave immediately and backtrack your route to the last house of refuge. Ensure the woman does NOT follow.”

If you’re looking for a really scary book, then look no further. I have to admit it takes a lot to scare me, at least when it comes to reading (movies are another story!) But We Used To Live Here creeped me out more than any other book I’ve read in a long time. It’s also very weird and has been (rightly so) compared to House of Leaves. Not everything about the story made sense, but I didn’t mind the ambiguousness, which is almost more unsettling than having everything spelled out for you. Read this one during the day, preferably with a friend (or dog!) nearby. And I’m going to keep this review on the shorter side so as not to spoil anything.

The premise is this: Eve and Charlie have just purchased an old house in backwoods Oregon with the intention of fixing it up and flipping it. One night when Charlie is out and Eve is home alone, there’s an unexpected knock on the door. On the doorstep is a family of five, and the father claims that he used to live in the house and wants to show it to his family. Eve is reluctant to let strangers into her house, especially when Charlie isn’t there. But Thomas, his wife Paige, and their three children seem harmless, so she agrees, provided they keep their visit short.

But fifteen minutes turns into an hour, and suddenly Eve wonders if she’s made a huge mistake. As she walks through the house with the family, she notices weird nooks and crannies in the attic that (she swears) weren’t there before. Is the house changing? Or is Eve going mad?

Marcus Kliewer does subtle horror really well. This isn’t a story with ax wielding maniacs or otherworldly monsters, rather the terror sneaks up on you slowly. The author takes your typical horror tropes like spooky basements, remote locations, bad weather and shadowy figures that may or may not be real, and uses them to great effect to create tension and dread. And because this is psychological horror, you’re never really sure what’s real and what isn’t. We experience everything from Eve’s point of view, a woman who isn’t used to dealing with things like this. Charlie is her rock, but Charlie is absent for part of the story, so Eve is forced to figure things out on her own. A lot of the tension in the beginning stems from Eve’s fears and uncertainties, so in that respect she’s the perfect character to follow on this strange journey.

This is a story about perception and how people see things in different ways. You also need to pay close attention to the details, because later on things are just slightly different. For example, Eve and Charlie live at 3709 Heritage Lane, but later in the story someone mentions that their address is actually 3710 Heritage Lane. One character has a tattoo, and later that tattoo is gone. I love stories like this where reality shifts and you’re never sure what’s real and what isn’t. Epistolary sections between each chapter give hints about what may be going on, and one of these appears to be a research paper that suggests the Mandela Effect might be responsible for some of the weird things the characters in the story remember—or remember incorrectly.

And speaking of the epistolary sections, I absolutely loved these weird glimpses into the area where Eve’s and Charlie’s house is located. Newspaper clippings, journal entries, message board conversations, reports of missing persons, all of them seem disconnected at first, but gradually they create an off-kilter quilt of sorts, a bunch of weird stitched together parts that evolve into a whole, filling in some of the blanks (but not all) of what Eve and Charlie are going through. If I had time, I’d go back and read this book again, and maybe pay attention more to some of these odd details.

The story gets weirder and weirder until I was questioning my own sanity. The ending is rather ambiguous, so if you’re one of those readers who needs a tidy ending with all the mysteries solved, this might not be the right book for you. The final chapter was simply brilliant and sort of changed everything for me. Even days after finishing We Used To Live Here, I still can’t stop thinking about it. I believe there’s a Netflix movie in the works, and to be honest, I’m not sure I’m brave enough to watch it! Highly recommended if you’re looking for a unique and thoroughly unsettling psychological horror story.

Big thanks to the publisher for providing a review copy.