Reviews - We Used to Live Here

16.7k reviews for:

We Used to Live Here

Marcus Kliewer

3.84 AVERAGE

literalcobweb's review against another edition

4.0

dark emotional mysterious medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

thxalatte's review against another edition

2.75

adventurous slow-paced

raven_snow's review against another edition

4.0

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

I think the audiobook is probably more unsettling than the book. There are "scary movie noises" used as transitions between chapters that always gave me a physical, bodily dread response. Cheap trick for a horror book adaptation? Maybe, but it was certainly effective.

Content Warnings

moonlit_shelves's review against another edition

3.0

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

gjs8799's review against another edition

DID NOT FINISH: 16%

I was already irritated by the premise of a person letting a strange family into her new and isolated home when she is home alone and has immediate reservations about the circumstance of this family showing up at her door (where is their car, how did they get there, etc). Once the little girl in the family plays "hide and seek" in the basement as a ploy for the family to stay longer, I was even more irritated by the stupidity of the main character for allowing this to happen without question or calling the police. So I decided that I was immediately uninvested in her survival or what the story was behind this family

deviant_panda's review against another edition

5.0

This book had something happening at every page turn. Spooky and very visual - I’d recommend adding to your Halloween season reads.

Eve is anxiety ridden (likely autistic - IYKYK) main character you follow through a slowly crumbling reality. She and her partner, Charlie (nickname for Charlotte) move into a dilapidated old house that appears to be sitting on some sort of rift in the time space continuum. Or not…? All science fiction aside - as this book is not in that category - insane things start happening to Eve that have her questioning her existence. Her anchor is clearly her partner, Charlie, and for the first half of the book she’s always ‘out’ somewhere - infuriatingly so - the author gives you this drive to ‘go find Charlie’ - she’s the comfort, the reality check, she’s what Eve needs - until even Charlie is lost to the reality splicing, or hallucinations…or schizophrenic delusions depending on how you prefer to see it. And then /youre/ also left floating in this sea of untethered in cognitive disturbances right along with Eve and it just keeps going deeper from there.

There are creepy maze like basements, paint peeling wardrobes, black and white checkered tiles, attics with inoperable lights, missing windows, moved paintings,
Shadow figures…disembodied shrieking. It’s the whole creepy vibe gift wrapped nicely for you. :)

If you are familiar with things like schizophrenia, parallel universes and the mandala effect, you might get a little more out of this read. And I mean really familiar with these subjects - not just - oh I’ve heard of them.

I gobbled this book up.