The Caretaker

Wait! What? Really?! Hold on. What happened??I felt so bad for Macy Mullins, who badly needed money, no job prospects, and a younger sister to provide for. But this three day caretaker job opportunity sounds ominous and too good to be true. I felt like poor Macy needed someone to look out for her.This story does a great show of layers involving trauma, grief, thoughts of suicide, and mental illness.⚠️ Read “A Note from the Author,” before jumping in.

True to form, you can’t put it down and you’re left speechless with that ending.Beyond heart pounding. Beyond nervous thrilling waves of reading pleasure.Took me a few hours to devour this book. Phenomenal.

Marcus became my favorite author after reading his first book. I'm halfway through The Caretaker and I'm loving it.

This book absolutely terrified me, in the best way. I love a good horror novel, and The Caretaker hit every single mark without relying on gore. This is atmospheric horror at its finest: slow, suffocating, and deeply unsettling. The kind that seeps under your skin and refuses to leave. I was on edge the entire time heart racing, completely absorbed. It's the kind of story that makes you check over your shoulder and leave the lights on I'm still thinking about it days later. i got this an arc, but just had to get a physical for my trophy shelf

This book has a very creepy premise. The author creates a real sense of doom and terror throughout. There was only one thing that keeps me from raving about the book - the main character was incredibly annoying. This affected my reaction to the book to a large degree.

Disappointed. I expected to like the main character way more than I did. Story was convoluted and just tedious.I give it three stars for originality.

This was a good creepy page turner.

Predictable story line. I could skip whole paragraphs and still keep up with everything. Nothing new here. Sorry!

The vibes were great in this one . Great horror and even though end was abrupt i loved it .

This story had me left feeling frightened in my own home at 1 in the afternoon. I thought, “maybe I should go sit in the sun for a moment?” Marcus’s story telling will grab you. Truly. Such a fantastic read.

I had a lot of fun reading the Caretaker. This supernatural suspense novel snowballs from the start. Talk about a gripping opening that is going to keep you turning the pages… We follow our protagonist, Macy who is a down on her luck and job hunting to take care of bills for herself and younger sister after their father’s passing 3 years ago.Macy accepts the job as a caretaker from an add via Craigslist with a $3k pre-payment and another potential $6k depending on how well she takes care of the home. 3 days to make $9k… Who would say no?She is given a video tape to watch prior to staying at the property. Macy is instructed that the bonus payout will be rewarded, depending on how well she follows the instructions on the videotape. The videotape was made by the property owners late husband. In it, he describes certain rites that have to be followed starting at 3 AM. Things such as turning off any lights that turned themselves on. Answering the phone if it rings. Awaiting three knocks on the door. The videotape is very ominous, but doesn’t feel like it needs to be taken seriously Macy soon learns otherwise, the plot spirals into supernatural suspense from there as Macy tries to make her way through the three nights with an ending that is an absolute shock to me, but has me on the edge of my toes for whatever Marcus Kliewer writes next. Highly recommended.

If you like The Cabin at the End of the World, Nightwatching,, From (tv show) and/or Riley Sager’s relatable and resilient female protagonists, then you’ll love this one!Man, this book keeps the ominousness and chills coming. Readers shouldn’t fault our hero Macy’s ineptitude - she’s just keeping it real. As if you wouldn’t suffer from a little cognitive dissonance under the same circumstances.Questions remain, but checking out others’ thoughts online about those loose ends will just allow me to prolong the experience of this book. Maybe the movie will provide some answers.Loved it, so exciting, scary, highly recommend!

A down-on-her-luck protagonist takes a shady high-paying job housesitting for a weekend. Nefarious events ensue.A really outstanding horror novel that has an eerie, tense atmosphere and will actually give you the creeps. Loved the ending.Would wholeheartedly recommend this book.

I'm not a fan of horror, but I really enjoyed The Caretaker. It's got the right amount of tension and mystery as to what is going on, but it wasn't really scary at all. However, if this were a film adaptation of the book, I can see it being pretty tense and scary.

Overall, good character development and backstory, and even some levity included.

WOW!!! This book was GREAT!! I completely tossed my Saturday plans and got through the whole book! It’s addicting and such an immersive experience! One of those unique ones that stick with you, and you keep thinking about long after you’ve finished.

Absolutely amazing!!! I have been waiting for a book like this for a long time! One that truly has you sitting on the edge of your seat, one that you can’t put down! Every book people say will scare you never gets me but this one got me! Five stars all around so I had to write a review. Amazing.

Fast paced, interesting read from the start! Read this book, I loved it! Horror filled and left wanting more

I read this within 24 hours! I just could not put it down. Fast paced, great setting! Loved the message it delves into - stuff so many of us deal with on a daily basis. His first book made me a huge fan, this second has made him one of my favorite authors

Really good storyline, very different and interesting. Enjoyed the chapter names too.8/10

Amazing! Five stars.

I have never yelled “JUST DO THE THING” at a character more times in my life. “The Caretaker” is what happens when someone with chronic guilt, an empty bank account, and trauma the size of a Subaru decides the best move is to answer a Craigslist ad that reads like a trap on purpose. Macy Mullins, queen of bad timing and worse decisions, walks into a haunted house full of cryptic rites, mysterious phone calls, and rabbits. The rabbits are not okay.She’s broke. Like, “no rent, no groceries, little sister with asthma and no backup plan” broke. So when the ad says three days, high pay, just watch the house, she shrugs and signs her soul over to the creepy vibes. Girl, it’s giving "Hereditary" on a budget. There’s a VHS tape. There are rules. There is a landline, which should have been red flag number one. If someone gives you a VHS and tells you “don’t let the Visitors in,” that’s your cue to leave, not unpack.Now let me be clear. Macy is not great at her job. She is, in fact, profoundly bad at it. Like “you had one job and you flunked it on day one” bad. But also? She is trying her absolute best while drowning in grief and shouldering way too much responsibility for someone who can’t even finish a microwave meal without zoning out. You don’t root for her because she’s smart. You root for her because she is falling apart in real time, and if you’ve ever been barely holding on, you recognize the spiral.The horror is a slow creep. You don’t get jump scares and gore. You get dread. You get disassociation and flickering lights and phone calls with instructions like “count the windows or else.” You get rituals that feel like mental illness dressed up in supernatural rules. And then the second half of the book takes a nosedive off the sanity cliff and lands somewhere between Silent Hill and that one nightmare you had after pulling an all-nighter and drinking orange juice on an empty stomach.There is no hand-holding. You will not get a long villain monologue explaining the logic. You will get disoriented, paranoid, a little sweaty, and probably end the book screaming, “Wait what??” I respect the chaos. I also slightly resent the chaos. But that’s horror, baby.Also, shoutout to the red and blue motif for making me feel like I was going through a grief-induced episode with Macy. At one point I was like, “Is this an allegory for depression?” and then five pages later I was like “Nope, that’s definitely a faceless man standing in the corner with a knife.” And the fact that we don’t get a neat explanation for any of it? Delicious. Horrifying. Infuriating. Loved it.It’s not a flawless read. Some repetition in Macy’s inner monologue had me flipping pages a little faster than usual. But even when she’s frustrating, she’s deeply human. This isn’t just a haunted house story. It’s about surviving trauma, losing your grip on reality, and trying to protect your little sister from the kind of darkness that doesn’t knock first.I’m giving it four stars and one deeply disturbed side-eye to every future job listing I see online.Whodunity Award: For Making Me Yell “IT’S A METAPHOR” While Also Checking My Locks at 3 A.MBig thank you to Atria Books and NetGalley for the ARC, which I read with all the lights on like a coward and have not emotionally recovered from.