EXCITING OPPORTUNITY: Caretaker urgently needed. Three days of work. Competitive pay. Serious applicants ONLY.
Macy Mullins can’t say why the job posting grabbed her attention—it had the pull of a fisherman’s lure, barbed hook and all—vaguely ominous. But after an endless string of failed job interviews, she's not exactly in the position to be picky. She has rent to pay, groceries to buy, and a younger sister to provide for.
Besides, it’s only three days’ work…
Three days, cooped up in a stranger’s house, surrounded by Oregon Coast wilderness.
What starts as a peculiar side gig soon becomes a waking nightmare. An incomprehensible evil may dwell on this property—and Macy Mullins might just be the only thing standing between it, and the rest of humanity.
Follow the Rites...
Follow the Rites...
Follow the Rites...
..--- / ..... / ---.."
The Caretaker has easily been one of my most anticipated reads of the year, and I’m very happy to report that I loved it.
I really loved Kliewer’s previous book, We Used to Live Here--it was exactly what I wanted from a psychological horror story. It completely threw my mind for a loop and I couldn’t stop thinking about it, so naturally I was extremely excited when The Caretaker was announced. It’s definitely a very different story, but it still very much has some similar vibes and style to it, and I think he did an excellent job with this follow-up release.
This is a fantastic psychological horror. We follow a young woman named Macy who takes a job--albeit a bit of an odd one in disguise--from a Craigslist ad, which is probably always a risky thing to do, but here we are (I mean, it’s always likely a Craigslist ad will lead to an interesting story, right?). She’s asked to be the caretaker of a house for one weekend, which seems easy enough. But then she learns the strange tasks she has to complete to honor the wishes of the owner’s rather eccentric-seeming late husband. She’s a bit skeptical going in, but the pay is more than she can pass up, so she accepts, and this is where our story takes off.
I liked that Macy is generally pretty smart, but also stubborn enough that she still made choices that left me so unbelievably annoyed. But that’s the best part, because every person has a very different approach to how they handle things and their anxiety levels, and therefore the decisions made are always different and we get to see how different scenarios play out.
This is one of those stories where you feel like you know everything that’s going to happen, but you also don’t because you just have a feeling things will be different. It feels simple, but also not. As things start unfolding, there’s a very strong sense of losing control that really hit hards, and that’s what made this such a compelling read for me. You never really know where things are going or if they’re ever going to stop, and the way everything escalates is so captivating and doesn’t make any sense at all (in the best way possible). The Caretaker really just keeps you guessing the entire time, but it does so in a way where you feel like you know the next outcome, but somehow you still don’t quite know it. It’s wonderful and something I really love in books like these.
I’m actually finding it a little difficult to say too much more about this book because this really feels like the type of story you need to go into knowing as little as possible, and almost anything I say will feel like a spoiler, so I’m doing my best to keep it vague but still give you some good feedback.
Kliewer’s writing is thoughtful, accessible, and conveys everything it needs to without being too verbose--or without saying too little. He manages to create an incredible creeping unease in ways that just make the pages fly by. It doesn’t feel like a traditional haunted horror story or anything clearly defined, but it still crafts the delightful feeling of things being off in a really effective, psychological manner. You know something is wrong the entire time, but you don’t know what it is. There’s a monster, but where? Is it supernatural in nature? Is it something else entirely? It doesn’t neatly fit into a box, and I love that about The Caretaker (and also what I loved about We Used to Live Here!). They just feel different in the best way.
I will say that the ending was one of my favorite parts of this book, and it really is what made this book such a winner for me. I really appreciate what Kliewer chose to do. I know a lot of people didn’t love the ending of We Used to Live Here, but I think in some ways this one is a bit stronger and will still be polarizing, but for different reasons. It felt utterly fitting to the story, and it honestly just made me even more sure about reading everything Kliewer chooses to write.
If you liked The Cabin at the End of the World by Paul Tremblay, I think you should give this one a read. If you didn’t like it, I still think you should try this--it’s different enough, but there are some vibes and ideas that overlap that I feel like makes it an interesting and somewhat relevant reference point.
It’s probably obvious, but I really loved this one. I can’t recommend it enough, and I can’t stop thinking about it. I think for the right reader, this will be a huge hit--and I’m very glad I’m the right person for it.
Buy the book: Bookshop.org | Amazon
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