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We Used to Live Here
384 pages
A masterclass in escalating dread where polite social boundaries dissolve into a surreal, claustrophobic nightmare.
What it feels like
This is a novel built entirely on the agonizing tension of social obligation curdling into outright terror. It reads with a propulsive, cinematic urgency, trapping you in a single, increasingly unfamiliar location alongside a protagonist whose grip on reality is slipping by the second. The mood is suffocatingly claustrophobic, drenched in a paranoid dread that makes you question every shadow and every interaction. The prose is sharp and anxious, perfectly mirroring the psychological unraveling at the heart of the story. It is a deeply unsettling experience that preys on the universal fear of letting the wrong people past your front door. Fans of reality-bending thrillers and locked-room horror will devour this fever dream of a book, reading late into the night while double-checking their own locks.
- Mood
- claustrophobic
- dread-soaked
- surreal
- nightmarish
- Tone
- paranoid
- tense
- disorienting
- urgent
- Pace
- propulsive
- Themes
- fragility of reality · domestic paranoia · boundary violations · terror of people-pleasing · liminal spaces
- The writing
- The prose is sharp and cinematic, utilizing a tight, anxious perspective to trap the reader inside the protagonist's unraveling mind.
- The arc
- The narrative begins with an unsettling social awkwardness that steadily spirals into a suffocating, reality-bending nightmare.
- Who it's for
- Readers who crave high-anxiety, locked-room psychological horror where social niceties pave the way to surreal terror.
Content notes
- gaslighting
- home invasion themes
- psychological manipulation
- claustrophobia
- child endangerment
About the book
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?
Description from Open Library.
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