My Starry Rating: 5/5 Stars
Reason for Rating: I couldn’t put down this mind bending story and because I cannot wait to watch the tv adaptation, I have given this 5/5 stars
What I Learned: Do as much research on a property as you can before you buy it
Publication Date: June 18, 2024 by Atria/ Emily Bestler Books
Genres: Horror, Mystery Thriller, Psychological Thriller
SYNOPSIS:
The Turn of the Key meets Parasite in this eerily haunting debut and Reddit hit—soon to be a Netflix original movie starring Blake Lively—about two homeowners whose lives are turned upside down when the house’s previous residents unexpectedly visit.
As a young, queer couple who flip houses, Charlie and Eve can’t believe the killer deal they’ve just gotten on an old house in a picturesque neighborhood. As they’re working in the house one day, there’s a knock on the door. A man stands there with his family, claiming to have lived there years before and asking if it would be alright if he showed his kids around. People pleaser to a fault, Eve lets them in.
As soon as the family enters their home, strange and inexplicable things start happening, including their toddler going missing and a ghostly presence materializing in the basement. Even more weird, the family can’t seem to take the hint that their visit should be over. And when Charlie suddenly vanishes, Eve slowly loses her grip on reality. Something is terribly wrong with the house and with the visiting family—or is Eve just imagining things?
.
.
.
.
REVIEW:
We Used to Live Here by Marcus Kliewer is a psychological horror tale that twists and turns like the labyrinthine mystery that it becomes.
Eve and her partner Charlie are home flippers who just moved into their new home only to have a strange family show up one night claiming to have lived there before and desiring one last tour of the place. This would be any home owners worst nightmare, and unfortunately for Eve, a nightmare it does become. The family, led by the father and husband, Thomas, are extremely creepy and invasive, and much to the horror of Eve…do not want to leave. Weird things begin happening that defy logic and scare the whit’s out of Eve. With something supernatural possibly occurring, the story descends into a mind bending mystery where nothing is what it appears to be.
It’s been a while since a book freaked me out to the degree this book did, and I attribute it to the creeping sense of dread and eerie atmosphere. The story is told from Eve’s point of view which makes her a somewhat unreliable narrator, however, the twisty and freaky events that occur to her asks the question…is she crazy or is she telling the truth?
The story does read like a rabbit hole of conspiracy theory forums with many outlandish yet believable explanations for the strangeness of it all. I loved the anecdotal bits that were included at the end of each chapter as it played up the sinister tension between what is real and what is not real.
This book took the haunted house genre and twisted it on upside down, playing up the fears of every home owner who has a bought a property only to be held hostage by it.
I whizzed through this book, wanting to find out what was going to happen, because just when I thought things couldn’t get weirder, they did in the most horrifying ways. I look forward to watching the Netflix adaptation and reading more from the author.
If you liked the movie Dream House or the Netflix show The Watcher, you should read this book.
Thank you to the publisher for providing me with a free arc via Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review.
.
.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Debut author of the upcoming book ‘We Used to Live Here’ soon to be a netflix original film starring Blake Lively. Book release: Jun.18.2024
Follow me on instagram @marcus_kliewer for exclusive book updates / writing things / stop motion animation & a lot of cat/dog videos.
.
.
thestarrylibrary.wordpress.com 