We Used to Live Here by Marcus Kliewer: ⭐⭐⭐

What’s with all the confusing haunted house stories lately? I’m all for a dose of creepy ambiguity, but this one veered into full-on carnival funhouse chaos. I’m being generous with three stars because, honestly, the beginning hooked me.

We meet Eve and Charlie, a house-flipping couple settling into a dilapidated old property. While Charlie’s out on a beer run, a family shows up at the door asking to look around their former home. Personally, that’s an immediate nope—especially for anyone alone in the middle of nowhere—but Eve can’t shake her people-pleasing ways. Cue the strangers making unsettling comments, overstaying their welcome, and then—oh boy—one of the kids disappears into the basement.

Up to this point, the eerie foreshadowing had me glued to the pages. But then the story swerved hard into alternate-universe territory, and my head started spinning. Way, way, way too much was happening, and not in a good way. I’m not a fan of fantasy horror, so this detour wasn’t my jam.

The ending left me scratching my head rather than shivering in ghoulish delight. That said, plenty of readers are raving about this book, so maybe it’s just me. If you love cosmic horror, you’ll probably eat this up. For me, though, it was a promising start that unraveled into confusion.

The Babysitter Lives and Killer on the Road by Stephen Graham Jones ⭐⭐⭐

Nobody—and I mean nobody—writes like Stephen Graham Jones. His imagination is wild, his characters are messy yet endearing, and his BRUTAL death scenes. Few authors can craft a final girl as fierce and rage-fueled as he does.

Most of his protagonists are Indigenous teenage girls navigating broken homes, poverty, and systemic oppression. That’s true for the fearless heroines in both novellas, Killer on the Road and The Babysitter Lives. Of the two, Killer on the Road easily takes the crown for me. Think Death Proof meets Jeepers Creepers meets Joyride: nonstop action and sheer terror along the Wyoming trucker highway with a cannibalistic monster stalking the asphalt. Some of those death scenes will haunt me forever—especially when I’m driving a lonely stretch of road flanked by semis.

The chase kicks off when a runaway hitchhiker crosses paths with some god-fearing Bible thumpers, only to later find them dead in a ditch. From there, she and her friends spiral into a series of very, very bad decisions—resulting in a massive truckstop fire. Once they hit Highway 81, all hell breaks loose, and the ride is pure nightmare fuel. Did I love this story? Mostly yes, but the ending didn’t give me the answers I needed. Ugh!!! I wasn’t too keen on the teenagers’ reckless endangerment, and I certainly could’ve done without some of these scenes involving innocent dogs. But overall, it’s highly entertaining.

As for The Babysitter Lives, I have to admit I was a little disappointed. I went in expecting a creepy babysitter horror story, but what I got instead was a strange blend of fantasy horror—complete with time loops, alternate worlds, and an unreliable narrator. Much of it felt confusing, and I often had to reread passages just to piece together what was happening.

Despite plenty of action unfolding throughout Charlotte’s nightmare, the pacing dragged, and at times the story felt overly long and, dare I say, a bit dull. On the bright side, Charlotte herself was a standout. Her determination to protect the kids was fierce, and I couldn’t help but think Laurie Strode would be proud.

Sadly, I missed Stephen Graham Jones at the Texas Book Festival. After running a ten-mile race that morning, I had zero energy left for the downtown gauntlet of driving, parking, and endless walking. Ugh! I’d love the chance to tell him how much his characters mean to me, especially his ruthless final girls. There’s something about them that resonates deeply…maybe it’s that simmering, repressed rage. Jones has a gift for capturing complex emotions that are nearly impossible to put into words, and he does it with such rawness and humor.

I wish I’d snagged his autograph this time, but maybe he’ll make a stop at BookPeople one of these days. Fingers crossed!