We Used to Live Here

WHAT?! This book was so perfectly written to chill you to the bone. It honestly felt like I was watching a horror movie unfold—gripping, eerie, and completely impossible to put down.

I was creeped out for 90% of this book, and I loved every second of it. The writing style and pacing were so good, and every unsettling moment hit just right. I seriously didn’t want it to end!

I might be a little biased because I love a good haunted house story (House of Leaves, September House, etc.), but if you want a book that will seriously spook you, I highly recommend this one!

This book does not have a satisfying ending…

Mysterious guests overstay their welcome in this fresh take on the haunted house.
Eve Palmer may have made the biggest mistake of her life when she answers the knock on the door from a man who says he grew up in her house. Against her better judgement she invites him and his family inside, but what he said would be a 15-minute "look around" soon turns into a whole world of trouble... she can’t get them to leave.

First problem... the Faust family’s young daughter disappears in the basement; Second problem... a storm suddenly comes up and the roads are blocked...Third problem: She now, for some reason that was strange to me...feels she has to let them spend the night....IN THE HOUSE! Keep in mind that she didn't know these people from show more "Adam's house cat".

It didn't take long for other things to begin. The rooms started to appear "different" ...to have been altered. There were strange odors wafting through the house, and a toy chimp from Eve’s childhood seemed to be sending her a warning: "Once they’re in, they never leave." (Say that in the eeriest voice you can, and you will get the idea.)

This story may seem to be composed of standard ghost story fodder, but it's actually fairly original and extremely scary. Think of things you may have read by authors like Shirley Jackson or the classic horror films you may be familiar with like The Invasion of the Body Snatchers...this one just might be the "love child" of these two classics. This is a new-to-me author that I will read again. He has created an imaginary world that the people and the places aren’t at all what they appear to be...maybe they never were.

Eve is either naive or just "a few bricks short of a full load". The woman who let strangers into her house to wander around now believes that she is probably having delusions...even as a ghostly apparition steps up to warn her that the people in her house...even her partner, Charlie...aren’t who they say they are. I will warn you that Charlie is a woman...some readers may not want to deal with a same sex couple no matter how good the story is. It's mild. You would hardly know it if you didn't read her pronouns when Eve speaks of her.

I found this interesting but a bit annoying. Inserted between the chapters are "documents" that lay out evidence collected by conspiracy theorists who believe what’s happening to Eve has nothing to do with delusions, grand or otherwise. This alternate storyline gives the whole story a jarring felling. It should have been at the end of the story so as not to pull the reader away from what was a very gripping tale. The documents were creepy, and they helped to solidify the premise and tie up Eve’s predicament...but it can really throw the reader off. It also cost the story a 5-star rating. Fans of the horror genre will more than likely still like the story as a whole, but I can almost guarantee that you will think twice before opening the door when somebody knocks again. show less

okay, i GOT QUESTIONS. but also i had a very good time.

at first, i was a mostly on edge as to WHAT this fucking family was gonna do. i was thinking that they were gonna turn on a dime and it would become some kind of slasher horror movie situation, or idk what, but YIKES, TO WHAT DID END UP HAPPENING!!!!

i have questions as to what actually happened. i've got some theories, but i've also got questions. OKAY, SO, it's alternate realities, yeah? like, some eldritch horror (thomas, himself? or thomas was taken over by one? OR, thomas was pulled out of his reality and into this one, per allison's little info dump to eve, and decided to take up with that??? or he just knows abt it? bc he called her by her real name and sounded evil/mean show more after she stabbed paige, and brought SOMEHOW the photo of eve from the other reality??)

so some eldritch horror uses this house (and others?? with that hospital and the kids and all the reddit posts sections?) to pull people in and out of different realities? eve got yanked out of hers and erased (per charlie's final chapter still looking for her) and shoved into this other one, as "emma". BUT!! lol, that gives me more questions!!? what the fuck happened to charlie when she went back into the house to check the window and get their stuff before leaving for the hotel? did charlie get swapped too? was that actually charlie that eve ran away from in the hotel? or was she stuck in the basement the whole time? OR was that the eldritch horror luring eve back and then terrorizing her?

did jenny get swapped? she came crying HYSTERICALLY out of the basement, and she was confused abt eve/emma's tattoo.

what the fuck actually ended up happening with allison?? did she somehow swap places with eve? it seemed like she was trapped inside the house, but then as eve/emma is being arrested, we see her in the snow looking almost guilty or remorseful? maybe just sympathetic??

was thomas slapping himself and screaming in the snow bc the eldritch horror was fucking with him and he's just stressed abt it?? or what was up with that?

the neighbor, heather never once being mentioned again was slightly odd in that... yeah, why DIDN'T the family try her to spend the night, instead of going back to a stranger.

the cabin guy i got NO clue. unless... is cabin guy older thomas? is it a nod that allison was actually the evil child that appeared from the woods the whole time? or is he just a weirdo who forgot someone and is figuring out the alternate realities thing and knows that the house is fucked?

are the symbols around the house like... something powering it? an indicator that it's a portal to another reality or something??

regardless of all that, the ending for eve is BLEAK and truly horrifying and deeply unsettling to me. so it did it's job, wheather i got questions or not.

also, i looked up the mandela effect things and I'M SORRY, i refuse to believe people actually think they are the barenstain bears. NOPE. IT'S BARENSTEIN, I'LL DIE ON THAT HILL, IF I'M IN ANOTHER REALITY, THEN SO BE IT!!! show less

I am unwell after finishing this one. It didn't take long at all for the book to have me hooked. The writing is this perfect blend of horror and psychological thriller. I spent so much of the book unsure of what was real and who to believe about things. I have never had a book make me doubt myself so much as this one did. I had so many questions and to be honest I still have questions now that it's over. The biggest question is WHAT?! I mean that ending.

Ah, my first 5-star review of the year. Let me tell you, I was supposed to be writing a review for another book today but no. No, this book is stuck in my brain and it refuses to leave. We Used to Live Here started out as a regular haunted house book, and then it evolved into something more. Something sinister and fascinating. I'm not over this, and so I'm going to review it for you. I beg your pardon for rambling, in advance.

After Eve decides to let a random family who "used to live here" into her house for a tour, everything goes sideways. Now if you're asking yourself why on Earth she would do that? Same. I know, I know, it's a typical horror story setup. Our narrator has to make a few bad decisions or there won't be a story to show more follow. Kliewer is at least kind enough to set up our girl Eve as a hardcore people pleaser, so she has motive. Rest assured though, I did yell at the book and therefore, by default, her.

As I said above, the story does start out as your typical haunted house novel. Mysterious noises, dark shadows in corners, and really REALLY eerie interactions with the family who has invaded Eve's house. The book does an excellent job of building a deep sense of unease. I was unsure of whether Eve was even a reliable narrator. Was she seeing things? Was she losing her mind? That, my friends, is my favorite kind of horror story feeling. There's nothing better than feeling like you can't quite get your footing, and that a twist might be around any corner.

And oh, OH twists there were. I absolutely will not spoil this for you. You have to dive into this book yourself, and let the madness take you. What started out feeling pretty cookie cutter, soon turned into something that I really wasn't prepared for. I was sending updates to my sister as I was reading this and I think one of them was simply, "Things just got WEIRD." and yup, that about sums it up. Kliewer opens up the trap door to the depths of this house's lore, and you just fall straight into the darkness with Eve.

Now I will warn that this book doesn't exactly wrap things up neatly. I know a lot of readers out there like everything explained, and hate ending a book with vague unknowns. We Used to Live Here doesn't care about that at all and honestly I was okay with that. I truly believe it actually added to the whole vibe of the story. If you embrace this fact, I promise that you'll have a good time. Also if you're asking yourself, is this a scary book? Well, I'm a bad judge of that because I read a LOT of horror and I'm pretty desensitized to a lot of things. In my opinion it was definitely unsettling, and very creepy. Your mileage may vary. show less

What a banger!! Fantastic story, perfectly paced, and the sense of dread and doom is brilliantly set up. I just could not stop turning the pages to see what was going to happen next. Loved it.
Eve and Charlie have just bought a run down house in a secluded part of the forest. They intend to fix it up and flip it. All goes well until one evening, a man and his family turn up at their doorstep claiming that he had lived there when he was a boy. He wants to see if they can come inside so he can show them around for nostalgia’s sake.
Unbelievably so, Eve lets them in and holy crap it all goes downhill so fast and so strangely, you just can’t stop reading.
Ending had quite the spin and I just did not see it coming.
Do yourself a favour and show more read this one soon. But start it in the morning, so you can read it all the way through during decent hours and not at 3 am like I did, hehe. show less

What actually just happened?!?!?!? I literally just finished the audio and my first thoughts are "What did I just read? What's the truth? Where is the rest? I have questions!!" All of that sounds negative though and honestly, more often than not, it is very negative. In this case, it's not at all...this story was brilliant with ideas for days. There were so many times I was talking out loud to the story as I listened (sorry coworkers) and to me that's a sign of a good immersive story. I'm curious how they're going to make this a movie, so much happening I think it will be difficult, but I am looking forward to it. I do recommend this very much, but don't expect a clear, linear story because this is not that. This is a confusing back and show more forth between past, present, possibly future or even alternate reality? Who knows? I just know it was great fun, very well paced, with characters you like (Eve & Charlie) and some you hate (I'm looking at you Kai) and some you will never be sure about (Heather). To put this in a bit of code to avoid spoilers...If you don't like Paul Tremblay, you probably won't like this. show less