From an author “destined to become a titan of the macabre and unsettling” (Erin A. Craig, #1 New York Times bestselling author), a haunting debut—soon to be a Netflix original movie—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 strangers enter their home, inexplicable things start happening, including the family’s youngest child 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?
This unputdownable and spine-tingling novel “is like quicksand: the further you delve into its pages, the more immobilized you become by a spiral of terror. We Used to Live Here will haunt you even after you have finished it” (Agustina Bazterrica, author of Tender Is the Flesh).
Overall Unsatisfying and Frustrating Experience
"There are many suspenseful and creepy scenes with an unsettling atmosphere. However, the story feels more like a messy collage of these scenes stitched together, as the author did not seamlessly weave them into the plot. There are many unnecessary scenes that do not add substantial value to the actual plot, and they are merely just there to scare you. This created many loose ends. Furthermore, the ending is rushed as if the author did not know what to do with all the clues and information. In addition, the author scattered seemingly non-fictional documents throughout the novel, which include secret messages for readers to decode. It can be considered a form of gamified marketing, attracting consumers with puzzles instead of the story itself. This turns the novel into more of a product rather than a written story as an art. It undermines the value of written stories as an art form and the experience of reading itself. The "answers" to the mysteries of the plot are found within these secret codes instead of being incorporated into the story itself, creating a very unsatisfying experience when you read the end of the novel."
