Marcus Kliewer returns with new novel The Caketaker

Courtesy of Simon & Schuster

In 2024, We Used to Live Here by Marcus Kliewer took the world – and BookTok – by storm. Originally published on Reddit, the story follows a couple who move into a fixer-upper in order to flip it. Things take a turn when one of them is home alone and a family who claims to have live in their house before they bought it appears, asking to come inside. We haven’t heard anything in a while, but Netflix owns the rights and is planning an adaptation starring Blake Lively.

The book is a brain pretzel in the best of ways, and left readers excited for more. On April 21^st, their wish will be granted with The Caretaker. While we don’t return to the same house Eve and Charlie had so much trouble in, we are visiting another creepy place. This time, it’s a house on the pacific coast or Oregon. Macy Mullins – unemployed and more than a little desperate – takes a three-day gig looking after an empty house: should be pretty straightforward.

It turns out that Macy’s responsibility is anything but. What was meant as casual gig work ends up holding humanity’s fate in the balance.

And that’s all we know! But this is Kliewer, and his books usually treat physics, dimensional boundaries, and time as we know it as mere suggestions. Alma Katsu (author of Fiend) calls it “A no-brakes plummet into madness.” Readers can be sure we’re in for something weird.

Kliewer’s books tend to have a lot of puzzles and mysteries for fans to sink their teeth into. The Reddit community is still busy solving clues from the first book, from Morse code to hints from the author himself. We Used to Live Here is often compared to House of Leaves, and The Caretaker will likely have a similar intriguing complexity.

Check out the prologue (and lots more goodies!) on r/OldHouseArchive, and pick up The Caretaker on April 21, wherever books are sold.