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Book: “The Caretaker” by Marcus Kliewer
Publishing Info: Atria/Emily Bestler Books, April 2026
Where Did I Get This Book: I received an eARC from NetGalley
Where You Can Get This Book: WorldCat.org | Amazon | Indiebound
Book Description: Follow the Rites…
Nothing less than the survival of humanity is at stake.
From Marcus Kliewer, a new “titan of the macabre and unsettling” (Erin A. Craig, #1 New York Times bestselling author), comes a supernatural horror about a young woman who accepts a caretaking job from Craigslist, only to discover the position has consequences far greater—and more dangerous—than she ever could have imagined.
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… ..— / ….. / —..
Review: Thank you to NetGalley for sending me an eARC of this novel!
I somehow missed the book “We Have Always Lived Here” by Marcus Kliewer when it came out, and I still haven’t worked it into my reading schedule in spite of the fact basically all of the praise it has received. Like not just from reviewers or influencers, but also people in my life who like horror. It entered my mind that I hadn’t read it yet as I started Kliewer’s newest book “The Caretaker”, as I had a fleeting thought of ‘oh I wonder if I should get to that eventually’. And as I was reading “The Caretaker”, I realized why everyone was praising “We Have Always Lived Here”. Because “The Caretaker” is TERRIFYING.
I will reiterate: this was a scary read for me. It read really fast even though it’s a pretty average length of a book, and Kliewer has the pacing and vibe down pat. It starts with a terrifying bang and then cycles back down to a level that has time to build the dread and tension, and BOY does it build. We are following Macy, a woman who finds herself down on her luck and desperate for employment as she has to try and care for herself and her sister in the wake of their father’s tragic death. So a strange ad for a caretaker needed sounds like a good deal, and she applies and gets the job for a LOT of money…. but the instructions seem odd. I loved how strange and out there the rules were, which sound crazy and innocuous, but as Macy fails to follow them (oh my GOD, MACY, GET IT TOGETHER!) things go from weird to horrifying. There were so many moments of just absolute DREAD for me as the tension builds and builds, and I found myself putting the book down a couple of times because I was so stressed out. I don’t want to spoil any of it for people who want to check it out, but let me tell you, the rules may sound innocuous (to a point), but they are anything but. Especially as they all start to fall apart. I also enjoyed how ambiguous things are in this book. I know that sometimes ambiguity or a lack of explanation of supernatural or magical systems are frustrating in books (I find myself irritated from time to time with this kind of thing), Kliewer’s ambiguity adds to the story because it means that the reader can see themselves in Macy’s shoes when the really strange things start happening. And the really strange and weird things REALLY messed with my head.
And Macy herself is an interesting heroine because she is such a mess, but a mess whose messiness makes sense as we find out about her thanks to flashbacks to her childhood, and the loss of her dad. She is clearly struggling with depression and grief, and has to try and pull herself together because of her desperation to keep herself and her sister Jemma (who is a mess in hew own way) afloat. It makes for a lot of her choices and decisions as the story progresses to be believable for the most part. I definitely had a lot of anxiety as she continued to mess up the instructions, though I will fully admit that once we got into some of the late stage ones they do seem a bit impossible or COMPLETELY insane, and a lot of that was because of how much I empathized with her. Kliewer did a great job fleshing her out and making it both easy to root for her and easy to get so frustrated (while fully recognizing I’d probably also mess up like she did).
“The Caretaker” is so incredibly scary and engrossing. I really enjoyed it and if you want something weird and terrifying definitely check it out.
Rating 9: High intensity, a slow building dread, and an overall unsettling and WEIRD vibe that turns into abject horror. “The Caretaker” is scary as hell.
Reader’s Advisory:
“The Caretaker” is included on the Goodreads list “Horror to Look Forward to in 2026”.
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