Books With Your Besties

Episode: Emily Lived in a Haunted House - We Used To Live Here by Marcus Kliewer
Air Date: August 29, 2025
Hosts: Emily & Ashley

Overview

This episode dives deep into Marcus Kliewer's We Used To Live Here, a gripping psychological thriller with paranormal undertones. Emily and Ashley blend analysis, personal anecdotes (including real-life haunted house tales!), and big-picture discussion about mental health, reality, and shared anxieties around home and safety. Expect full spoilers, thoughtful debate, and plenty of bookish banter between two best friends with 23 years of shared history.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

Origins & Hype of the Book

• Reddit to Bestseller:
  • Ashley reveals the novel began as a short story on the "NoSleep" subreddit, where it was dubbed "the scariest story of 2021" ([00:37]).
  • Simon & Schuster offered Kliewer a three-book deal based on the short story, and film rights were sold to Netflix with Blake Lively attached ([01:06]).
  • Emily: “That’s incredible.” ([01:14])

Reading Experience & Audiobook

• Audiobook Effectiveness:
  • Both hosts listened to the audiobook and found it incredibly immersive—so scary they had to pause reading when alone at night.
    • Emily: “I was home alone…nope, we are not going to read this until [my husband] is back.” ([01:50])
  • Ashley praises the audiobook’s sound effects, especially during news bulletin segments ([14:54]).

Polarizing Reception & Spoiler Policy

• Love It or Hate It:
  • Ashley shares that listener responses on Instagram were divided, with most divided over the open-ended ending ([02:08]).

Scare Factor & Relatability

• Could You Read It at Night?
  • Both agree: “Nope.” ([02:35])
  • The book is deeply unsettling, leaving readers unsure who’s real, alive, or in control ([02:35], [03:26]).
  • Ashley: “At the start…I just thought, oh, this family’s showing up…then it just takes this complete twist.”

The “Stranger at the Door” Trope

• Personal Anecdotes:
  • Emily recounts a man returning to her parents’ unique childhood home, asking to walk through—and how this relates to the book’s premise ([03:26]).
  • Both hosts check Zillow for their own childhood homes and debate if they'd let a stranger inside ([04:19]).
  • Ashley: “I think I would fully let them in…I wouldn’t want to upset this person…” ([04:36])
  • Emily: “Not if my husband wasn’t home.” ([05:14])

Gendered Social Conditioning & Safety

• Internal Struggle:
  • Ashley discusses how the book reflects women second-guessing their instincts for politeness over safety ([04:36]).

Psychological & Paranormal Themes

Capgras Syndrome

• Accurate Psychology References:
  • Emily explains Capgras Syndrome (“that looks like my mother…sounds like my mother, but I know it’s not my mother”) ([06:29]).
  • Praises author for integrating lesser-known psychological syndromes instead of overused ones (like dissociative identity disorder).

Alternate Realities & Metaphysics

• “How do we know they don’t exist?”
  • Ashley ponders the alternate realities theory suggested in the book – is the ending supernatural, psychological, or both? ([07:27])

Mental Illness, Delusion, & Online Validation

• Society’s Role in Reality Checking:
  • Emily is most struck by the ending’s commentary on collective validation of delusions and lack of compassion for mental illness ([08:00], [08:31]):
    • “There’s a whole community of people online who believe that what she experienced was reality…hugely problematic in our society at this point.” ([08:34])
    • Host cites examples of social media enabling or mocking psychotic episodes (e.g., parasocial obsession with a therapist, time traveler claims, Britney Spears conspiracies) ([09:15]-[11:47]).
• Occam’s Razor:
  • Ashley: "The simplest explanation is usually right…instead of just being like, wow, that’s really hard and sad." ([11:47])

Book’s Horror Setpieces & Narrative Devices

• Particular Scares:
  • Scenes involving the girl in the basement and the “if she runs, grab her” command left the hosts unsettled ([14:17]).
  • Violence shocked both: “Did not anticipate…the violence where she killed Paige and hurt Thomas.” ([15:04])
• Audiobook Bulletins:
  • News bulletins are chilling, partly due to skillful audio design ([14:54]).

Dissecting the Ending

• Interpretations:
  • Both believe the protagonist may have been institutionalized after violence, and all else is filtered through her broken reality ([15:30]).
  • Yet the ambiguous final chapter—when Charlie returns to find the house boarded up—left them reeling ([16:02]-[16:16]):
    • “That ending was crazy because…wait, where’s Eve?” - Ashley

The Haunted House Theme – In Life and Fiction

• Emily’s Real-Life Haunted House:
  • Personal storytime! Emily tells about living in a genuinely haunted college house—multiple sleep paralysis experiences, a dog growling at nothing, a roommate talking to a “lady on the stairs,” and eventual confirmation by a later owner:
    • Emily: “He was like, yeah, pretty much everybody sees a woman. People always say that.” ([18:44])
    • Sleep paralysis incidents, dark figures, and persistent bad vibes recounted with humor and horror ([19:10]-[20:25]).
• Dogs as Paranormal Detectors:
  • Both discuss pets sensing things in both life and fiction ([17:10]).

Setting as Character

• Single Setting Intensity:
  • Ashley notes how confining the action almost entirely to one house amplifies the terror ([20:49]):
    • “All of this really scary stuff is happening in this one location. And just like, your house should be the place where you feel…safe.”

Anxiety, Paranoia, & Real-Life Safety

• Spillover Into Real Life:
  • Emily describes getting spooked at home after reading too many thrillers; jump scare with her own mother’s late-night visit ([21:42]-[23:20]).

Favorite Themes & Final Thoughts

• Critical Takeaway:
  • Emily’s main lesson: The importance of differentiating between supporting real people’s mental health and validating delusions ([24:45]).
• Ashley Loved the Book:
  • Immediately started Dark Matter by Blake Crouch, noting thematic similarities (alternate realities) but feels it's "times a trillion" ([25:03]-[25:33]).
• Looking Ahead:
  • Plans to discuss Dark Matter in future episodes.

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “Reddit is this whole other place and that’s where he got his book deal.” – Ashley ([01:06])
• “I loved the concept…there could be five thriller books written about the concept of someone being like, ‘Hey, I used to live here…’” – Emily ([03:26])
• “I think I would fully let them in—I wouldn’t want to upset this person…” – Ashley ([04:36])
• “That looks like my mother, that sounds like my mother, but I know it’s not my mother.” – Emily, on Capgras Syndrome ([06:29])
• “A whole community of people online…validating her experiences as real…is extraordinarily damaging and unhelpful.” – Emily on online reactions to delusions ([09:38])
• “I’m so sick of this. I’m so sick of it. Because anybody who’s in the mental health field…can see, no, this is a very serious psychological disorder and it’s so harmful to be giving it truth and reality.” – Emily ([10:42])
• “Your house should be the place where you feel…safe.” – Ashley ([20:49])
• “[The owner said,] ‘Yeah, pretty much everybody sees a woman. People always say that.’” – Emily recounting haunted house story ([18:44])
• “Feeling like you might be losing your mind is terrifying all the time.” – Emily ([21:25])

Timestamps for Key Segments

• 01:06 – Origin of the book on Reddit & upcoming Netflix adaptation
• 01:50 – Audiobook scare stories
• 03:26 – Real-life “I used to live here” home visits
• 04:36 – Would you let a stranger in your house? Gendered safety debate
• 06:29 – Capgras syndrome explained
• 07:27 – Alternate realities and metaphysics
• 08:34–11:47 – Deep dive: mental health, social media, and validating delusion
• 14:54 – Audiobook’s news bulletins and sound design
• 15:30–16:16 – Dissecting the ambiguous ending
• 17:10–20:25 – Emily’s real-life haunted house stories
• 20:49 – The scariness of the single-house setting
• 21:42–23:20 – Real-life paranoia inspired by thrillers
• 24:45 – Final thoughts, main takeaways, and next book tease

Tone

Fun, candid, and a bit irreverent, with a current of genuine insight and heartfelt conversation. Emily and Ashley blend book club analysis with real friendship energy: silly, witty, occasionally vulnerable, and always relatable.

Summary by:
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Skip the ads, skip the intro—just the bookish heart of the conversation!