My Most Anticipated Read of the Year — Did It Meet the Hype?

Hinzugefügt: 2026-05-09

[00:00:00]Hey everyone, I'm Tom and welcome to the channel. Today we are here to talk about my most anticipated new book of the year. And to be honest, probably just my most anticipated read of the year. Of everything that I had planned, this is the thing that I was looking forward to the most. And that is going to be The Caretaker by Marcus Kilwart or not Kilwart, Cleaver, if you believe the audio book. So this is my second uh book by this author. The first one being We Used to Live Here uh by them. And it's funny, the audio book for We Used to Live Here said his last name, I believe, said his last name differently than the Caretaker audio book. So, the Caretaker audio book said Cleaver, I'm pretty sure. So, I'm going to say Cleaver and hope that that's uh actually correct.

[00:00:38]Now, obviously, I I just mentioned this is the second book by this author I've read. Uh their debut author, We Used to Lie, I read last year, and it was one of my favorite books I've ever read. I think it's like a top 15 book all time for me. It was like my second favorite book last year. I absolutely loved it. I didn't shut up about it. I I tried to get so many people to read it. So all of that preamble to say this book had extremely high expectations to try to live up to and um maybe unfair expectations. I I do want to say that obviously expectations are a a you know a mystery box of sometimes they help things, sometimes they hurt things. You can go into something expecting so so much more than you get from it and even though the product is fine, you wanted so much more so you feel worse about it.

[00:01:17]Uh that's not the case here. Uh thankfully I can I can say with plenty of confidence that this is my favorite book that I've read this year so far. Uh do I like it more than We Used to Live Here? No. Uh there are a couple things that I can get into a little bit later in this video that just keeps it just a step below uh We Used to Live Here, but this is still an absolutely fantastic book. I had so much fun with it and this is another book that I would absolutely recommend it to a whole lot of people because I think you're going to have a wide variety of experiences with it.

[00:01:44]There are going to be people and I said the same thing last year when I was talking about we used to live here.

[00:01:48]There are going to be people who this clicks for. The atmospheric pressure that this book is able to make you feel the unsettling nature it has. Oh, it just is so beautifully done. It's what I love about this author, what they've been able to do so far. Um, it's just like if that clicks for you, it's going to be amazing. And then if you're somebody who maybe has a little bit of a harder time letting go of maybe what you would do in a situation versus what a character is doing, this is the kind of story that might not work for you as well. Same thing with We Used to Live Here. Um, you could feel like the author was present in not present in both those books, but you could tell that like, okay, this is a this is a Marcus story, right? And to me that was great because I just wanted more from what I got in the first book. So, a lot of preamble there. The caretaker uh just like we used to starts out with a very simple premise. We have our uh down out of their luck main character uh and they are trying to find a job. They they desperately need money. you know, all everything's going poorly for them and they find a Craigslist ad looking for a caretaker of a house. Uh, and the story really unravels from there. Once again, this these are stories where I feel like if I give too much away, it it hurts the reading experience, which makes talking about them a little bit difficult. But I think part of the strength of this book is such a simple premise. Uh, We Used to Live Here had a similar thing where so much of it was believable. You can understand how the characters got here.

[00:03:11]you can understand that like we're not taking giant leaps of faith where we're not jumping the shark. We I we don't need to believe something that's so unbelievable that no rational person would do it. And I think that is is the hook that really brings you into the story. And then the the unsettledness that you can feel, the creepiness that you can feel in something that feels so mundane. Um once again, I don't normally get like scared when I read. That's just not even when I read other horror books.

[00:03:35]It doesn't happen. This author is the only one who's really ever been able to make me do it. like to the point where I didn't read this book when I was home alone because it was just unsettling enough to like walk by a dark room or a door or look down a hallway that didn't have lights on it to the point where it's just like I shouldn't be like I'm in my own house. I I'm here all the time. Like none of this should matter.

[00:03:57]And yet this book is able to just like make me unsettled enough to not to. I was reading this at one night at one point I was reading this book at night and I had to stop because I was like if I keep reading this I'm going to scare myself to the point where I'm not going to be able to fall asleep. I'm going to be like making sure the doors aren't opening by themselves or something. And like the fact that this author is able to do that I think paints the picture of what these kinds of stories are. Um, one I I I already kind of mentioned this a little bit, but when I compare and I I I was going to try not to compare them as much as I am, but I I just have to with We Used to Live Here and The Caretaker because there's so many similarities, but they are different. I I don't want you to think if you've read one, you have read the other. The stories are different, but that unsettling nature is just like that over overarching like feeling you get throughout it. Uh, I will say that this story is definitely a little bit faster. This is I would say We Used to Live Here is a much slower burn than The Caretaker. uh which I think I enjoyed the more slow burn compared to this one which is maybe why this one is a little bit further or is a step down compared to it. Uh it's a little bit faster. Things are are moving quicker. So like that that'll vary for you and what your personal reading tastes are. Um this is a a little bit faster of a pace story. Things start unraveling faster. Um I will say that there are how can I say this without giving anything away? There are some things that uh the our main character has to do in this story to um stop the plot from progressing, I guess. And there's such simple tasks that at certain points it was maybe a little frustrating that they weren't able to accomplish those things. Uh and that all is going to make no sense to you if you haven't read this book. But I do think that they were so mundane that it works in both ways. For me, um, the first time it happened, it was fine, but as things kept spiraling, I was like, we're really going to fail again. There was a little bit of a a repetitiveness of failure, which, um, you know, I'm trying to nitpick as best I can because I really liked this book, but there was this repetitive nature that towards the end of the book, it was like, okay, I I got what's going going to happen here because you've shown what your abilities are and we we know what the outcome are is going to be based on what you've been able to do. Um, this book I don't think is as ambiguous as We Used to Live Here, which once again I loved some of the ambiguess of We Used to Live Here to the point where I think that, you know, is what people either really like or really don't like about that book. I don't think this book is exactly the same.

[00:06:22]There is hints of that, but not to the same level. Um, and once again, I could see some people just like with We Used to Live Here, not loving the ending the same way that I do. I I think this ending is great. Once again, I thought it was the same thing for We Used to Live Here. Not everybody else thought the same thing. I know some people didn't like uh maybe not I don't want to I don't even want to say anymore because spoilers and I like I said I think these books really excel when you know less.

[00:06:50]So my basic pitch to this is if you want something that's going to unsettle you uh make you look down the hallway and wonder if something's going to pop out and scare you that really good classic horror movie feel this is a book for you. We used to live here. I mean this is I'm pitching you that one as well.

[00:07:06]But the caretaker absolutely delivers on everything that I wanted it to be. I'm so excited for there's a short story collection coming. I don't know if I mentioned that already or not. There's a short story collection coming from this author later this year. I will absolutely be reading that as well.

[00:07:19]Whatever they put out next, I'm going to be reading it. Uh it's crazy to say like after two books that they're like probably like working their way up my all-time favorite author's list, but they are just what they're able to deliver. I've not ever had another author be able to do in the way that they are. And that is just that unsettling dread, but not in a horrific the world is ending kind of way, but just in a mundane, creepy kind of way that just works so well. So, I I just wanted to talk about this book and highlight it because I have enjoyed it so much. Um, if you have read it, I would definitely like to know what you thought of it down below in the comments. Um, if you plan on picking up, definitely let me know. That's going to be all for me.