Book Review: ‘We Used to Live Here’ by Marcus Kliewer

Book Title: We Used to Live Here
Author: Marcus Kliewer
Publisher: Penguin
Number of Pages: 256
ISBN: 978-1804995587
Date Published: Feb. 20, 2025
Price: INR 451

Book Review

Marcus Kliewer’s debut novel, “We Used to Live Here,” begins with a deceptively simple premise—what if you let strangers into your home and they refused to leave? For Eve and Charlie, a young queer couple who flip houses for a living, their dream renovation turns into a living nightmare when a man named Thomas Faust shows up with his family, claiming to have grown up in the house. What begins as an awkward courtesy visit soon devolves into psychological chaos. As the visiting family overstays their welcome, strange occurrences escalate—objects move, whispers echo through the basement, and Eve’s sense of reality starts to unravel. When Charlie vanishes, Eve’s desperate attempts to understand what’s happening plunge her into a terrifying world where memory, truth, and sanity blur into one.

Kliewer’s writing is sharp and immersive, pulling readers directly into Eve’s claustrophobic mind. The narrative’s fragmented documents—old news clippings, psychiatric notes, and online threads—add a haunting texture that deepens the mystery and keeps readers questioning what’s real. While the pacing wavers in parts and certain supporting characters, like Charlie and the Faust family, could use more psychological depth, Kliewer compensates with a masterful command of tension. His exploration of gaslighting, queer erasure, and identity crisis gives the story an emotional resonance beyond its horror framework. The house itself becomes a living entity—a reflection of Eve’s deteriorating mind and the dangers of letting others define your truth.

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Though “We Used to Live Here” occasionally stumbles in pacing and clarity, its ambition and atmosphere make it a standout in modern horror. Kliewer builds fear not through jump scares but through quiet psychological disintegration—a style reminiscent of Shirley Jackson and Paul Tremblay. It’s a deeply unsettling and thought-provoking debut that lingers long after the final page, reminding readers that the most terrifying place of all might be the one we call home.

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