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A review by thenovelstitch
We Used to Live Here by Marcus Kliewer
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
I'm not sure where to start with this one ....
Eve and her partner Charlie buy an old Victorian house in the wood of Oregon and one snowy evening a family shows up asking to look around because the father used to live there. One thing after another happens and the family ends up staying longer than expected, and as they do sinister things begin to happen to Eve and the house.
Overall, this book was really engaging and I couldn't put it down, but not necessarily because I liked any of the characters or the book. First and foremost, Eve was the most insufferable character I've read in a long time. Girl, set a freaking BOUNDARY, like damn. If Eve had the ability to say "No" a single time this entire story wouldn't have happened. I get Eve's character had a ton of anxiety and like the most hilariously obvious anxious attachment style ever written but come ON -- what woman alone in her house would let strangers in, even if she didn't like "being mean". Get real. Also, there is no one on earth with THAT amount of anxiety that would actually answer the door, especially for strangers. That alone killed this book for me, and was the reason I initially DNF'ed this book last year. But I had decided to push through and am I glad I did? Not sure.
Now, the premise is spooky as hell and I'll give the author that.Time slips, alternate realities, never knowing what is true or not, really fucking scary. But I wish so much more of it had been fleshed out. Like, why did we get a glimpse of the old shack with the maps and then never hear about it again when that could have been really useful??? . Also, this book requires you to decode morse code messages and a bunch of other little puzzles which honestly took away from the reading experience for me. A lot of people on reddit seemed to love the puzzles and footnotes and whatnot, but I found it annoying and cumbersome. Plus, I had to switch from audio book to digital because the morse code noises were so grating on my ears.
Overall I think the book was spooky for sure but so unrealistic in the setup that it made it hard for me to really submerge into the story. Having to check the footnotes and decode messages also took me out of the story in a big way. I think this book will be WAY better as a Netflix show once it's finally released.
Eve and her partner Charlie buy an old Victorian house in the wood of Oregon and one snowy evening a family shows up asking to look around because the father used to live there. One thing after another happens and the family ends up staying longer than expected, and as they do sinister things begin to happen to Eve and the house.
Overall, this book was really engaging and I couldn't put it down, but not necessarily because I liked any of the characters or the book. First and foremost, Eve was the most insufferable character I've read in a long time. Girl, set a freaking BOUNDARY, like damn. If Eve had the ability to say "No" a single time this entire story wouldn't have happened. I get Eve's character had a ton of anxiety and like the most hilariously obvious anxious attachment style ever written but come ON -- what woman alone in her house would let strangers in, even if she didn't like "being mean". Get real. Also, there is no one on earth with THAT amount of anxiety that would actually answer the door, especially for strangers. That alone killed this book for me, and was the reason I initially DNF'ed this book last year. But I had decided to push through and am I glad I did? Not sure.
Now, the premise is spooky as hell and I'll give the author that.
Overall I think the book was spooky for sure but so unrealistic in the setup that it made it hard for me to really submerge into the story. Having to check the footnotes and decode messages also took me out of the story in a big way. I think this book will be WAY better as a Netflix show once it's finally released.