The ninth spot for best books of 2025 goes to a new author for me. This psychological thriller is a debut and really begs the question, what is and is not reality? Give a round of applause for We Used to Live Here by Marcus Kliewer.

What is it about? Charlie and Eve are a young queer couple who recently bought a fixer up in a picturesque neighborhood. Along with their dog, Charlie and Eve have big plans of flipping the old home and reselling it for a big profit. All seems to be going well until Eve, while home alone, hears someone knocking at the door. On the other side is a family; dad, mom, and three children. The father grew up in this house and they would like to tour the home, if that’s okay? Eve, a people pleaser to a tremendous fault, agrees but once she lets them in she’ll learn it will soon be impossible to get them out.

Why did I love it? This book has a fairly simplistic plot but once the story gets going it spirals into a nightmarish game. The story is interspersed with scientific reports, odd newspaper articles, and police interviews that don’t seem to make any sense until the twist is revealed towards the end. The book leaves you with some unsettling questions but it is truly the last two pages that hit you the hardest. While I would have preferred a more clear cut ending, it still ended strongly and it left me and my fellow book club members wanting more.