The Caretaker
- Judith D Collins
- Apr 20
- 5 min read
By: Marcus Kliewer
Narrators: Jeremy Carlisle Parker, Corey Brill
Simoni & Schuster Audio
ISBN: 9781982198817
Publisher: Atria Books
Publication Date: 04/21/2026
Format:Hsrdcover
My Rating: 4 Stars (ARC)
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...
My Review
A chilling, high-stakes descent into isolation. Marcus Kliewer turns a simple house-sitting gig into a claustrophobic nightmare where the rules are nonsensical, and the stakes are cosmic. If you loved the reality-warping dread of We Used to Live Here, THE CARETAKER is a faster, menacing, and more visceral follow-up that will make you double-check your locks and fear the 3:00 AM silence.
Highlights....
THE CARETAKER follows Macy Mullins, a cash-strapped woman who takes a high-paying, three-day weekend caretaking job at a secluded Oregon Coast house. She must follow strict, bizarre "rites" left by the deceased previous owner to prevent a menacing, supernatural entity from emerging.
Desperate for money to support her sister, Jemma, Macy accepts a cryptic job posting from Grace Carnswet. However, there are strange rites/rules she must follow, by David Carnswel, on a VHS tape, with weird instructions. Things become more complex and terrifying. The rules are designed to keep an incomprehensible, dangerous entity bound to the property.
Isolated and haunted by grief, Macy’s mental state deteriorates as she struggles to follow the increasingly impossible rules. Macy must face the consequences of breaking the rites and try to contain the evil.
My thoughts...
Kliewer excels at crafting the uncanny! In THE CARETAKER, he uses grief and financial desperation as the foundation for a masterclass in atmospheric horror. By trapping a grieving protagonist in a house governed by cryptic 'Rites,' the story blurs the line between a psychological breakdown and a literal haunting. It’s a propulsive, 'no-brakes' plummet into madness that lingers long after the final, explosive page.
THE CARETAKER is an addictive, pulse-pounding horror novel that asks: How far would you go to save your family? With short chapters and literary jump-scares, Kliewer proves he is the king of making the mundane feel terrifying.
Like his debut, the ending is abrupt, explosive, and intentionally ambiguous. While it moves faster than his debut, We Used to Live Here, it similarly leaves many threads open for the reader to interpret.
Claustrophobic, the isolation of the Oregon Coast setting and the rigid "Rites" create a feeling of being trapped. Despite being a "slow-burn" at the start, the short chapters make it a "page-turner" that accelerates toward the end.
Themes...
In addition to the horror, the novel explores heavy, highly-charged themes of desperation, trauma, and grieving. While a supernatural thriller, the novel is deeply rooted in heavy emotional and psychological themes that the author uses to ground the horror.
The novel is steeped in the horrors of grief. Macy's struggle to survive after her father's death and support her sister drives her to take the job. Her mind-bending irrationality is presented as a symptom of her mourning.
The setting—a secluded, isolated mansion in the Oregon Coast wilderness adds to the intrigue—serves as a physical representation of Macy's internal loneliness and depression.
The Rituals (or "Rites") serve two primary purposes: one within the story's literal supernatural plot and another that functions as a deep psychological metaphor (OCD and Anxiety).
Gaslighting, reality-warping, and the uncanny nature of the house and the Rites leave the protagonist (and the reader) constantly questioning what is real. The too-good-to-be-true setup—as an easy fix for her financial situation—a classic horror trope where a seemingly innocent reason for a job hides a much darker, world-ending responsibility.
THE CARETAKER is a vicious, ambiguous, and totally unsettling must-read for horror fans. A masterclass in atmospheric dread, vicious in its implications, emotionally raw, relentlessly tense, and delicately weird.
A propulsive, reality-warping descent into a grief-stricken nightmare, THE CARETAKER proves that some rules are meant to be broken—even if it costs you your soul.
Recs...
For fans of psychological dread, horror, and supernatural with strange rules, haunted isolation, and uncanny atmospheres—this is for you.
Special thanks to Atria Books and NetGalley for sharing an advanced reading copy in exchange for my honest thoughts.
@JudithDCollins | #JDCMustReadBooks
My Rating: 4 Stars
Pub Date: April 21, 2026
Praise
“With THE CARETAKER, Marcus Kliewer proves he's our new master of uncanny slippage. This book is as full of dread as the sound of footsteps rushing towards you in a dark woods.” -
- Nat Cassidy, USA Today bestselling author of When the Wolf Comes Home and Mary
"Disturbing and propulsive, THE CARETAKER is a gem of visually inspired Gothic storytelling. Marcus Kliewer takes a familiar horror premise and makes it his own, drawing you into a lucid nightmare of a novel. Keep the light on!"
-- Scott Carson, nationally bestselling author of DEPARTURE 37
"A no-brakes plummet into madness."
-- Alma Katsu, award winning author of FIEND
“The homes Marcus Kliewer haunts aren't merely filled with phantoms, but cerebral spirits and broken-hearted ghosts. THE CARETAKER is quite possibly the ultimate “don't go in there” novel, offering up an apocalyptic final girl for the ages. This is a breakneck book, filled with razor-wire tension, where the reader runs the risk of losing their mind with every flip of the page.”
-- Clay McLeod Chapman, author of WAKE UP AND OPEN YOUR EYES
"Absolutely terrifying. Marcus Kliewer's THE CARETAKER gripped me from the first page and didn't let go. I couldn't put it down."
-- Brandon Eldridge, author of THE ESTABLISHMENT
“Marcus Kliewer's Caretaker is an example of taking a quiet idea and making it truly haunting. A book written for horror fans that have always thought they were smarter than the main characters in a story... truly one of my favorite novels I've read in years.”
-- Mike Salt, author of YOU'RE NOT SUPPOSED TO BE HERE
About the Author
Marcus Kliewer is a writer and stop-motion animator. His debut novel We Used to Live Here began life as a serialized short story on Reddit. Film rights were snapped up by Netflix, and it was acquired by Simon & Schuster in the US for publication even before it had been extended into a full-length novel. He lives in Vancouver, Canada.
