We Used to Live Here is about Charlie and Eve, a couple who flip houses, and this they’ve just purchased a house to renovate in the middle of the woods in the PNW. Eve is home alone one night when a man and his family come to the door - he claims he grew up in the house. She eventually lets them in and almost immediately, strange things start happening.

This story definitely delivered on scares; it was creepy and at times so unnerving I had to put the book down even though I wanted to keep reading. It felt like no time was wasted - the plot picked up right away and kept building without piling too much on.

What I really liked was that Kliewer used the atmospheric setting to play on normal, everyday fears (like the dark or being lost in the woods). He also expanded on different phenomenon (like Pareidolia and Capgras Syndrome) in an interesting way. It’s unsettling because there’s just enough reality to make believable a plot that could easily seem somewhat out there.

If I had to say something negative, it would be that there were a few loose ends - but maybe that means a sequel of some sort is on the way? Regardless, I would highly recommend this to horror fans and I’m excited to see what comes next from Kliewer.

Thanks very much to Netgalley and Atria for the eArc in exchange for my honest review.

A bit weird but a quick and thrilling read! The open ending will not be satisfactory for all readers.0

Thank you to NetGalley, Marcus Kliewer and Atria books for the free ebook in exchange for an honest review.

I have seen so so much hype over this model and honestly I should have waited until it died down to read it. I did enjoy it and it’s a quick read, but I don’t think it’s as amazing as I was hoping. It’s creepy and dark and slow burn.

My official rating is 4.75 stars.

I loved this so much. I've never had a book make me question if I was the crazy one but this one had feeling a little off. My only issue is that there were a few things that were never fully explained. They don't detract from the story overall but it would have made the story even stronger had they not been forgotten. I will definitely read this author again.

Thanks to #NetGalley and #AtriaBooks for the book #WeUsedToLiveHere by #MarcusKliewer. I absolutely love this thrilling book about a haunting and a house that makes things seem the opposite of what is reality. Eve and her partner Charlie buy and house to fix up not knowing about its eerie past. A family shows up one day claiming the dad uses to live there and he wants to show the family. Auger they leave nothing will ever be the same again. Highly recommend!

This story was told only by Eve, with mixed media in between. To be quite honest, Eve and Charlie were not likable at all. Eve was too scared to have a voice and speak up for herself, always looking to Charlie to talk for her. And Charlie was just plain rude and condescending to me. She liked to challenge people and make them feel small in the name of being direct.

The book jumped right into the action from the very first page. The random family showing up made the awkwardness and tension that more enjoyable. There were creepy elements that really set the tone for what happened throughout. Where the book lost me was I didn’t like how I had more questions than answers. This book initially captured my attention immediately, but as the book went on, Eve and Charlie became more unlikable and the conclusion was a little too open ended for my taste.

Oh. My. God. This is by far, my favorite horror read of 2024! Such an INCREDIBLY Haunting psychological horror! UNPUTDOWNABLE and MIND-BENDING!

👀 Fun Fact! This book was actually a Reddit novella first! It was picked up by Netflix in 2021, I believe, and will soon premiere as a thriller starring Blake Lively!

Eve and Charlie are a queer couple in their 30’s who’ve just purchased a magnificent old house to renovate and flip. Right from the opening paragraph, Eve, home alone, hears a knock at the door. On the threshold is a family of five, Thomas, the father claiming to have grown up there and asking to show the house to his family.

Strange. They’re in the middle of nowhere, very rural, mountainous region during a snow storm, and these people just show up at her door!

Very reluctantly, out of feelings of guilt, Eve lets them in. Big mistake! Weird and strange occurrences start to happen and so begins this truly CREEPY horror!

My thoughts:
☁️☁️☁️
I could not put this book down! Very speedy read and INHALED it! Strange, CREEPY, scary and spooky! So many TWISTS and disturbing surprises that took me on a rollercoaster ride!

Fans of Rachel Harrison and Stephen King will want to pick this up!

If you've ever watched a horror movie and yelled at the characters for doing something stupid, like going down a dark staircase, then the beginning of this book will have you shouting the main character, Eve, from the beginning of the book. It really just continues from there. I constantly felt myself thinking, she shouldn't have let them in.

Kliewer somehow manages to portray the previous inhabitants as harmless while still as somewhat odd, with something slightly off about them. He also is a master at raising the creep factor slowly through the book, so again, I was always thinking, why did she let them in?!

Finally, I see this book as a balance between kindness to strangers and the isolation we practice to protect ourselves. No, 99.99% of the time our kindness will not cause such horrible things, but this story makes me wary of helping anyone with anything, for fear of ending up like Eve.

Definitely a mind-twisting horror novel, I'd love to see this made into a film. I do feel Kliewer did well making this book one that plays in your mind, very much like many recent films.

I received a copy of this book from NetGalley.

One of the most unsettling books! the mixed media gives you that “Is this based on a true event?” Kinda vibe, it was dripping in dread. It’s that type of book where you find yourself talking to the character, needing a second to catch your breath before you continue.
It was wild and one that I know will be a favorite 🖤

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5

Thank you to @marcus_kliewer @atriabooks and @netgalley for the ARC, opinion is my own.

I ate this up! The way this whole book had me feeling so tense! Even when nothing was happening, it was like I was just waiting for the other shoe to drop. Fantastic psychological horror!!

A couple are fixing up their newly purchased home when they get a knock on the door from a family claiming to have ties to the place. What was supposed to be a quick look around turns into an extremely frightening situation where they refuse to leave and shit goes wild. Parts of this had me jaw on the floor freaked out. The atmosphere and vibes were perfectly unsettling. Too many unanswered questions by the end but other than that this was one of the best horror books I’ve read in a while!

We Used to Live Here by Marcus Kliewer is an atmospheric debut.
What a creepy, unsettling thriller.
This book kept me up so late. I literally couldn’t stop reading.
The premise of this book is so intriguing.
The way that the details were revealed to us was extremely well-done and the setting was creepily atmospheric which I totally loved.

Thank You NetGalley and Atria/Emily Bestler Books for your generosity and gifting me a copy of this amazing eARC!

This is gonna be a tough book to beat for my fave summer read. It was amazing! Theeee vibes in this book were soo creepy. I felt uneasy the whole dang book because I didn’t know what was gonna happen next. Everyday tasks and things just feel ominous and it kept me turning page after page. I binged this in one day and was left with my jaw on the floor. If you read this one please slide into my DMs because I have questions?!?! If you want an insane, creepy horror then check this one out

I was able to read this book as an ARC thanks to Netgally. The first 50% of this book was quite slow, with little happening besides hints of something not quite right. I usually would not continue by this point, but I have seen a lot of great reviews and I continued on. Once it began to get interesting, I was intrigued and needed to know how this story would come to an end. The main character had a lot of depth and thr details in this book really had me wanting more. There were a lot of creepy moments that I enjoyed and was able to imagine a pretty vivid picture in my head.

We Used To Live Here is very hard to describe because it’s a patchwork of influences and genres that ends up making a fast-paced and completely intriguing quilt of vibes that ends up being a terrifying and entertaining read. It’s part House of Leaves (but not quite as gonzo), part Backrooms (but not as desolate), part “Parasite” (like the blurb says, but make it even creepier), and add some gothic sprinkles on top for extra atmosphere.

(If you don’t know what Backrooms are, just look it up on Wiki. Seriously intriguing Creepypasta stuff).

What do you end up with? A book that managed to freak me all the way out (few books do that) and kept me completely engaged all the way from start to finish. I can completely see why this is being made into a film because it’ll make a great one.

It’s not perfect. I felt there were a couple of plot holes and I wasn’t completely satisfied with the ending, but I could live with the ending as it is. I loved the LGBTQ couple versus the traditional couple aspect and I wish that theme had been explored more, but not exploring it didn’t detract from my enjoyment of the book as a whole.

It’s a freaky fun time and I think if you want your brain bent for about 320 pages, this is the book you want right now.

I was provided a copy of this title by NetGalley and the author. All thoughts, opinions, views, and ideas expressed herein are mine and mine alone. Thank you.

File Under: Ghost Fiction/Horror/LGBTQ Horror/LGBTQ Fiction/Paranormal Horror/Psychological Thriller/Suspense Thriller

A really great read. Great representation all around, as a queer reader and person the having that representation in the book meant the world to me. The plot of the book felt very grounded and based in reality—while reading the book, I felt myself being pulled into the the story as if it were a movie on one of those streamers. Eva and Charlie felt like people I know in my town in Virginia. Albiet the book is a thriller, it still felt believable, I'll need to listen to the audibook so I can feel a sense of the characters and the stakes. Side bar, HGTV could never make something this amazing. Thank you Netgalley and Atria for the early copy of the book.

"We Used to Live Here" by Marcus Kliewer is an unsettling thriller with an innocent storyline that quickly turns into something sinister and horrifying. This is a perfect novel for readers who love psychological thrillers that have them questioning the sanity of every character, including their own.

Shortly after Charlie and Eve purchase a new home to flip and resell, they get a knock on their door. A family stands at their doorstep. They were passing through town and the father wanted to show his kids the house he grew up in. Eve, finding it hard to say no, allows them in for a quick look-see. But a quick look becomes an everlasting nightmare when Eve struggles to get the family to leave.

Strange things begin to occur. Eve swears there's a ghost in the basement. The house is changing in ways that shouldn't be possible. The family won't take the hint that it's time for them to go. The family's youngest daughter goes missing in the house. Soon after, Charlie goes missing and Eve begins to lose grip on reality. Is something strange going on with the family and the house? Or is something strange happening to Eve?

The story was a bit slow to start, but when the family arrived the narrative really picked up and the atmosphere became tense and chilly. Kliewer has a knack for keeping the reader on their toes and continuing to keep the sensation of wrongness rolling throughout the book until it's nearly suffocating. It is impossible to read this book without feeling discomfort or sharing Eve's anxiety at having this family intrude on the home. Because even though they ask to come in, there is no doubt their presence is an intrusion.

Like most psychological thrillers, there is so much to unpack, especially with this story. There are so many hints and clues dropped throughout the book that you almost have to read it twice to fully piece the puzzle together. And it was awesome to have random bits of information thrown in too. While they were likely pretty big clues to figure out the larger picture of what was happening, it also helped to throw me off the trail because I got so hung up on the details and couldn't see what was happening right in front of my eyes.

What also had me hugely invested in this story were the characters who felt super realistic to me. While I wanted to bump Eve over the head for letting strangers into her house (because honestly, who does that?), I also couldn't blame her because there was something about the family that just seemed so normal and didn't immediately scream "serial killers." So, even though I was frustrated with Eve I also couldn't blame her because I could see myself doing the same thing in her situation. I also loved Charlie for the same reasons as Eve because she is so bold and unafraid to call people out on their crap.

The one thing that did bother me with the book was that there were so many unanswered questions, but honestly, I think it added to the horror aspect for me because I have no idea if certain details were added in as a ploy or if they were symbolic of something even bigger than the story itself. And honestly, either answer is equally terrifying. This was a fantastically creepy story.

Fans of horror and psychological thrillers will have to get their hands on this book! "We Used to Live Here" by Marcus Kiewer is expected to be released on June 18th, 2024. Add it to your reading lists and make sure you purchase this book and give it a read! Thank you to NetGalley and Atria Books (Atria/Emily Bestler Books) for providing me with a copy of this e-arc and the opportunity to share my honest opinion in this review.

Thank you so much, Simon and Schuster, for this ARC.

Let me start by saying that I am a scaredy cat. I do not read horror. I love thrillers. but whenever there's a horror element to it, I go nuh-uh. Having said that, I gobbled this book up. WOW!!!!

I was creeped out from start to finish but could not put this down. I read it in almost one sitting and have loved every second of it.

I had a single throughout the book, "This will make an amazing movie," and the fact that it is being turned into one by Netflix has me all excited for it.

PS: Beware of strangers and DO NOT read this in the dark!!

Here are my reasons why you should read this:

♡ Canadian author
♡ Debut horror/psychological thriller
♡ Creepy, atmospheric, eerie, and unsettling
♡ Queer representation
♡ Unreliable narrator

Creepy, haunting - it gets under your skin!

Eve is an anxious person. She's recently bought a very old, mildly secluded house that she and her partner plan to fix up and flip. It's something they have done a few times and they are just moving their things into this house. Because a trip to town can take quite a while, Eve is home alone working on the house when an older gentleman and his family arrive on her new house's doorstep.

This man identifies himself as Thomas, a previous resident in the house. He says he grew up there and is currently moving across the country - from Oregon to the East Coast. Could he possibly show his family the house he grew up in before they leave for good?

This was a fabulous horror story. I loved the unsettling feeling the whole story gives you. The chapters are broken up by blog posts, descriptions of videos or police interviews and documents. It was such a fun addition to the story and added another layer or "what's really going on here" to it all. It was fun to run the scenario in my mind, wondering how I'd handle it, and imagine each twist and turn and wonder how it all could turn so quickly. The ending was jaw dropping and I loved it.

If I hadn't read it, I'd never believe this started as a reddit post. I can easily see how this has been (rumor has it) optioned as a Netflix show. This one was so good, I hope we see more from this author!

A huge thank you to the author and publisher for providing an e-ARC via Netgalley. This does not affect my opinion regarding the book.

Okay, so maybe don’t read this book the week you buy a house like I did. This was spooooooky! There is such an overwhelming sense of dread through that leads to a big finale. I really felt for Eve but there is no way in hell I would let people into my home the way she did. There are some questions you are left with at the end, but I am going to believe they were intentional based on the plot.