We Live Here Now

Emily nearly died. What she has now is a recovery, a husband who nursed her through it, and Larkin Lodge: a handsome country house on Dartmoor that they have moved to from London to start again.

She thinks there is something wrong with it almost immediately. Boards that creak at particular times. Fires that go out. Books that come off shelves. And a room on the third floor that she does not want to be near.

All of it happens when she is on her own, which is the problem. Sepsis has left her with a condition that can produce hallucinations, so her own testimony is the least reliable evidence available, and Freddie has every reason to treat what she reports as a symptom.

Sarah Pinborough lets the marriage deteriorate alongside the haunting, and keeps both explanations live. The house may well have something in it. Emily and Freddie also both have things they have not told each other, and by the end it is not obvious which of those is the more dangerous.