Book Review: The Caretaker

Author: Marcus Kliewer 

Title: The Caretaker 

Genre: Horror, thriller, paranormal 

Number of Pages: 320

Plot Summary: Down on her luck and struggling to find a job, Macy Mullins responds to a strange Craigslist ad looking for someone to care for an elderly man. She isn't exactly in a position to turn down the paycheck, but it quickly becomes clear that this isn't a normal caretaking job. Macy is given a bizarre set of Rites that she must follow, and breaking them could have consequences far beyond the house she's been hired to watch. As increasingly unsettling things begin happening around her, Macy realizes there is much more to the job, the house, and its Visitors than she was ever told.

My Verdict: The entire experience of reading The Caretaker was unsettling. There were multiple times when I realized I was literally holding my breath or breathing heavily because I was so tense. This book creates this constant feeling that something is wrong, and even when nothing particularly scary is happening, it never really lets you get comfortable.

The Rites were probably one of the creepiest parts for me. There's something about being handed a strange list of rules without fully understanding why you need to follow them that immediately gets under my skin. The more you learn about the consequences behind those rules, the worse it gets. The Visitors also completely freaked me out. Kliewer does a great job of creating horror around the things you don't fully understand, and I spent so much of this book waiting for something terrible to happen.

What I wasn't expecting was how emotional the story would be.

Underneath all of the supernatural horror, The Caretaker is a beautiful exploration of grief and what grief can do to a person. Grief isn't something the characters simply experience and eventually move past. It changes them. It affects their choices, their relationships, and what they're willing to do when faced with the possibility of losing someone or somehow holding onto someone they've already lost.

I think that's part of what made the horror so effective for me. The supernatural elements are terrifying, but the emotions driving the characters are incredibly human. When someone is grieving, what would they be willing to sacrifice for another moment with the person they lost? What happens when accepting a loss feels more impossible than whatever consequences might come from refusing to let go? The book takes those feelings and turns them into something much darker.

That also made the horror feel sad in a way I wasn't expecting. Terrifying things are happening, but so much of what happens is rooted in love, loss, desperation, and the inability to move forward. The scariest parts aren't completely separate from the grief. They're tangled up in it.

My biggest complaint is the ending. I wish there had been just a little more of a final ending because it felt almost like the book was cut off. I wanted more closure after spending the entire book trying to understand what was happening. At first, I wasn't sure how I felt about being left there.

But the more I think about it, the more haunting it becomes.

Maybe getting a perfectly wrapped-up ending would have taken away some of that feeling. The book spends so much time making the reader uncomfortable and uncertain that something is fitting about not being given all of the closure I wanted. I'm still not sure I completely love the choice, but I can't deny that I'm still thinking about it.

The Caretaker was creepy as hell, but it was also much more than I expected it to be. I came for the supernatural horror and ended up with a story about grief, love, loss, and what happens when someone can't let go. The Rites were freaky, The Visitors will probably be living in my head for a while, and I am now significantly less interested in ever housesitting for anyone.

Subject Headings:

Grief -- Fiction
Caregivers -- Fiction
Supernatural -- Fiction
Horror fiction

Similar Authors:

T. Kingfisher – Kingfisher blends supernatural horror with characters who feel incredibly human, often using strange and unsettling circumstances to explore deeper emotional themes. Try A House with Good Bones or The Twisted Ones if you liked the creeping sense that something was very wrong in The Caretaker.

Darcy Coates – If the house, The Visitors, and the constant feeling of dread were your favorite parts, Coates is a great place to go next. Her horror frequently features haunted houses, supernatural threats, and characters trapped in increasingly terrifying situations. Try The Haunting of Ashburn House or From Below.

Carissa Orlando – The September House is a particularly good read-alike for The Caretaker. Orlando combines a horrifying house and supernatural rules with a story that has much more happening emotionally underneath the horror. Both books use the supernatural to explore grief, relationships, and the ways people learn to live with terrible things.