We Used to Live Here

Hands down the creepiest book we’ve reviewed this year, if not in several years. Charlie and Eve are a gay couple who make their living buying and flipping old houses. Their current project is in the rural Pacific Northwest, far from their roots on the East Coast. A family drops by one afternoon
—Eve is all alone while Charlie is running errands—and the father says he grew up in the house and could he show the kids around? It takes a bit of cajoling, but Eve eventually gives in—huge mistake—because once they’re in the house, the weird and the worrisome begin to present themselves. The youngest daughter disappears. The basement is home to supernatural presences. Objects vanish. Charlie returns, although she doesn’t offer the support Eve needs. As the day goes on, it becomes clear that the family can’t leave—a winter storm has descended on them—but it gradually becomes even clearer that they have no intention of leaving. Crazily suspenseful, but a tad more horror than mystery, the story moves at a fast clip as the reader slips from one reality to another in this accomplished debut. To be released as a Netflix original film starring Blake Lively.