Published in 2024 by Arita/Emily Bestler Books, Kliewer’s book is available on Amazon in hardcover, paperback, Kindle, and audiobook formats, as well as at your local library and through the Libby App.

The book had promise and an intriguing premise for a horror story: a twist on a home invasion that preys on anxieties and politeness. Charlie and Eve, a young couple who flip houses, got a killer deal on an old house in a picturesque neighborhood. As people pleasers, they cannot refuse entry to the man who comes knocking, saying he used to live there and wants to show his family the house of his childhood before they move across the country.

Once the family enters the house, things become bizarre and frightening, and nothing makes sense. Kliewer digresses into a lengthy, irrelevant buildup that leads nowhere, talking about the man’s grandfather’s encounter with a horned owl, or Mo. All of it serves as filler to build tension, but it takes away from the main plot, with a protagonist who can barely form two thoughts aside from how scared she is. The story is incoherent, never coming together into a single, fluid narrative. It feels as though he threw in what he assumes a horror novel needs: a basement bigger than it should be, a woman in a hospital gown, swarms of ants, a ragged cymbal monkey. There is no moment where readers face pure terror or see how it all connects.

The creep factor is high, and Kliewer keeps the unsettling vibes throughout, but he leaves too many threads unexplained, which leaves readers unsatisfied. The book hints at something beyond the explanations and revelations, but there is nothing beyond the loose threads, like the old man with the scar identical to Thomas’s at the end, the list of terminology used by the old house archivists, and the nonsense maps. The most frustrating aspect is how Kliewer markets it for the queer community, yet he does not know how to write a queer couple convincingly. As soon as the word religion is mentioned, they get scared. Perhaps he was going for religious trauma. Again, like many things in this book, this leads nowhere.

A disappointing 1-star read: the book’s false premise promises an intriguing horror but fails to deliver.