Horror Book Preview: We Live Here Now by Sarah Pinborough. Read or Skip?

 

Have you ever moved into a new house and thought, could it be haunted? A house that you thought could be your dream, forever house, turns out to be something else entirely?

WE LIVE HERE NOW by Sara Pinborough offers a slightly different perspective on haunted houses. 

The book was published in May 2025 and has amassed positive reviews so far. 

WE LIVE HERE NOW Book Summary

Following an accident, Emily and her husband Freddie move to a new house called Larkin Lodge. When strange things begin to happen, Emily begins to wonder if it is a side effect of her hallucinations or if the house is haunted. 

Soon, Emily is convinced someone was murdered in the house, though she can’t find any proof of that. Her marriage begins to crumble, as Emily desperately tries to search for the truth. 

But the house is not the only one hoarding secrets. Emily and her husband Freddie have a few secrets of their own as well. 

WE LIVE HER NOW Horror Book Preview and My Take

Interestingly, the story begins with a raven’s point of view. The prologue shows the anguish the raven faces as he perches outside the house, crying out for its mate that is inside the house. He knows his mate is dead, yet he still yearns. 

The raven then notices a car coming to a stop in front of the house and doors opening, but his mate still does not reply, not that he expected a reply to begin with. 

We then meet Emily and Freddie. It is Emily’s chapter though so she quickly gives her background of being in an accident, then the subsequent coma, and how her one leg is still injured, so she requires a walking stick. 

The initial lines that describe the house and the couple leaning against the car to study their newly bought house is a bit of a cliché, but let’s go on, shall we?

Next up is Freddie’s chapter and he is anxious about his secret. The author doesn’t waste any time getting to the point. Freddie’s chapter is short but quickly summarizes that he has a secret that will obviously not be revealed now, but one that he thinks Emily will hate him for. 

In the meantime, Emily is inspecting the house and thinks she hears a creak, but dismisses it as “old houses creak anyway”. Another horror trope but let’s see what the author is up to. 

At night, Emily has a nightmare and it is conveniently about the accident so that we, the readers, get an insight on what truly happened. She and her husband are on a hiking trip with friends when Emily slips and falls. But just as she was about to go down, she reaches to grab Freddie. He is far away but still, she thinks she sees relief in his eyes. 

Emily thinks she may have died and that it was very, very cold. When she wakes up, she can’t get back to sleep but she hears a thud. It’s a bird, a raven, obviously the raven from the beginning of the book. 

Emily helps him leave and then finds its mate in the fireplace, dead. Possibly for months. She throws it out and then goes up to wash up when a nail enters her foot. Emily is still disturbed by her accident and immediately panics, thinking she will get sepsis for sure and die. 

Freddie wakes up the middle of the night too, and sees footprints that appeared to be covered in soot. He finds Emily in a disheveled state, panicking about sepsis and is inwardly relieved. As long as Emily is preoccupied with her psychosis, she won’t find out his secret. 

Freddie does help her bandage up her foot but Emily doesn’t think that the footprints he found were hers since her feet are absolutely clean. 

The next morning, there is no infection, much to Emily’s relief. But then she meets a neighbor who is curious about who bought the house and then flees without making proper introductions. Sorry, but the horror clichés keep coming. 

Emily later finds the woman again at a pub along with other men. One of them is a vicar called Paul Carr, Joe Carter, an artist, and his wife Sally. Sally immediately calls Emily very pretty while Emily finds herself blushing as she talks to Paul. 

They are all curious about her since she is the new owner. As Emily heads outside to meet with Freddie, her new friends drive off in a car, and don’t respond to Emily’s wave. In fact, Emily thinks they look a little disturbed. 

Why are all the locals concerned about the house and the new owners?

READ OR SKIP?

The initial chapters of the book hold a lot of horror tropes, but they also come with the promise of a thrilling story. Just what secrets is Freddie hiding? What are the strange noises Emily hears? And why is Larkin Lodge so special?

The pacing is good so far and the story flows well. Emily’s paranoia for her health is also pretty relatable and hopefully Freddie doesn’t win the ‘Worst Husband of the Year” award. 

This is a READ for me. I am keen to find out just where the story goes and if all the horror tropes may in fact just be a red herring to something more sinister. Or surprising. 

Check out the book for yourself and let me know what you think