A review by quillnqueer
We Used to Live Here by Marcus Kliewer

mysterious tense fast-paced

2.0

I thought the start of this was interesting, as Eve and her girlfriend get a knock at the door of the house they've just bought and end up inviting in a family that just will not leave. Every horror house trope is thrown at this, which I found entertaning trying to guess what would come up next - dumbwaiter, creepy painting, bugs, they're all there.

The middle, when Eve leaves the house and starts to explore the surrounding area, finding an abandoned cabin, is where it started to produce some really interesting ideas that I wanted the story to explore, but also where it all started to go wrong, because there was too many ideas and none of them were ever explored. 

The ending was very weak, leading me to think that the author just didn't have the skill to fully go somewhere great with the story. I really started to get frustrated with Eve because I would have just been stood in the living room screaming at them to leave. The ending left us with way more questions than answers.