marriage is teamwork

Emily is out of the hospital and apparently moving to the country. Her husband Freddie thought it would help her recovery. And he found the real estate listing on her iPad, so he knew that she would love it. Larkin Lodge is a large country house in southern England is beautiful, and it will give them a chance to start again.

As soon as they move in to the house, Emily starts to notice things. There are noises coming from the room upstairs, where she can’t get to. The stairs are narrow, and her leg injury makes it very difficult to climb them. There is a foul odor from time to time. And when Freddie is there, he complains about a cold draft and always feels cold. He is still having to work in London for a couple of weeks, but when he makes it down to Larkin Lodge, he accuses Emily of opening the windows, even though she knows how cold he is. Emily had no memory of opening the window.

Emily had fallen off a cliff and broken her leg. While she was in the hospital, she had developed sepsis. As she recovers, her doctors warned her that the sepsis, while long gone, could still interfere with her mental acuity. Post-sepsis syndrome could cause fatigue, anxiety, sleeplessness, pain, and even PTSD. Emily tries to figure out if what she is experiencing is from her sepsis, or if she’s going crazy, or if there is something about the house that is haunting her.

And if that’s not enough for Emily to deal with, she is starting to think that Freddie is keeping secrets from her. And she knows that she has secrets from him.

As Emily starts to make some friends in the small village, she tries to ask questions about the history of Larkin Lodge. She meets a small book club, who gives her a collection of short stories from Edgar Allan Poe. She meets an actress who had lived there previously, who is not happy to see her and refuses to answer questions about the house. A local artist and his wife had lived there, but they say their time at the lodge was uneventful.

Emily doesn’t believe them. She is certain there is something going on in the house, and she’s determined to find it, no matter what the cost. Even if it costs her sanity. Even if it costs her life.

We Live Here Now is a twisty thriller from beloved writer Sarah Pinborough. It tells the story of a marriage where the couple are struggling together but also struggling as individuals, and about the secrets that could bind them together or tear them apart. Larkin Lodge acts as another character in this story, one with a history and an agenda, and learning what is really going on in that house is a true surprise.

For years, I have heard readers rave about Pinborough’s stories, and I read them, and I liked them, but I never felt the same affinity for her as other readers seemed to. I felt there was a little something missing, something I couldn’t put into words. But as I listened to We Live Here Now, I didn’t feel that same misgivings. Maybe I was just waiting for her to grow into the writer I thought she could be, the one I wanted her to be, and I think this time she nailed it. I loved this book, and I would recommend it to anyone who likes a book about possible haunted houses and definite haunted people.

I listened to the audio book of We Live Here Now, narrated by actors Helen Baxendale and Jamie Glover, with Pinborough herself lending a voice. The chapters alternate between Emily and Freddie, with an occasional chapter from a local raven, and these voices bring these characters to life masterfully. This is a complex story, with twists and secrets for days, and the narration brought all of it to life so beautifully.

A copy of the audio book for We Life Here Now was provided by Macmillan Audio through NetGalley, with many thanks, but the opinions are mine.