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Looking for brisk, reality-warping horror born from one bad decision after Sometimes I Scare Myself by Jeneva Rose? We Used to Live Here by Marcus Kliewer awaits.

Curated by NextBookAfter Editors. This read-alike match weighs tone, themes, pacing, character dynamics, and emotional payoff rather than genre alone. See how recommendations are chosen.

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Why It's Your Next Read

  • Same social politeness tightening into an inescapable supernatural trap
  • Shared close-viewpoint mistrust inside a vulnerable queer partnership
  • Equally brisk escalation from domestic unease to bloody unreality
  • Documentary interludes echoing the source's tonal resets
  • One sustained nightmare instead of three sharp novellas
We Used to Live Here Cover

Genre

Subgenres

Tags

  • Haunted Houses
  • Reality Distortion
  • Relationship Mistrust

When a family claiming to be a house's former residents talks their way inside, homeowner Eve's politeness becomes a trap and her partner's disappearance leaves her unsure whom—or what—to trust. The visit tightens into a bloody, reality-warping nightmare that keeps finding new ways to close off escape.

Sometimes I Scare Myself keeps turning ordinary choices into narrowing exits; We Used to Live Here builds an entire nightmare from that same social reflex. Eve lets a family of strangers tour her house because saying no feels rude, then every attempt to restore normality deepens the trap as her partner disappears and the house itself becomes impossible. Marcus Kliewer's short sections and documentary interruptions keep recalibrating what can be trusted while the unease climbs from awkward hospitality to bloody, reality-warping terror.

Choose this when Rose's bad-decision ratchet and intimate mistrust mattered most.

This is one long descent rather than three reset-and-sting novellas, and its ending prefers destabilizing ambiguity to tidy closure. In exchange, the close focus makes every doubt about Eve, Charlie, and the visitors feel intensely personal.

The most dangerous door is the one politeness opens for you.

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What Readers Are Saying

"It scared me in the middle of the day." — Emily May, Goodreads

What Readers Are Saying

"The plot was so mind bending to me not knowing what to believe." — Destiny Sidwell, Goodreads

Awards & Recognition

Two more ways to follow the feeling

Go Deeper—or Sideways

Cover of The Murders of Molly Southbourne by Tade Thompson

Under the Radar

The Murders of Molly Southbourne

by Tade Thompson

Every Cut Breeds Consequences

Molly has lived by a brutal rule: whenever she bleeds, an identical copy appears and eventually tries to kill her. Her struggle to outlive her own doubles turns a compact horror novella into a bloody, psychologically intimate reckoning with identity and isolation.

  • Same ordinary injuries spawning fresh lethal consequences
  • Self-mistrust replacing the source's fractured relationships
  • Same one-sitting compression with a cruel lingering payoff
  • Colder isolation instead of nervous social comedy
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Cover of Fever Dream by Samanta Schweblin

Wildcard Pick

Fever Dream

by Samanta Schweblin

Maternal Dread in Dialogue

While Amanda lies dying in a rural clinic, a strange boy presses her to reconstruct the chain of events that endangered her daughter and poisoned their countryside. Their feverish dialogue collapses maternal devotion, distrust, and ecological dread into a short, tightening nightmare.

Its elliptical Argentine ecological nightmare abandons pulpy social comedy, yet preserves intimate uncertainty, breakneck dread, and a poisonous final afterimage.

  • Shared intimate uncertainty refracted through a dying mother's account
  • Relentless questioning tightening another claustrophobic narrative
  • Equally compact dread with a poisonous afterimage
  • Elliptical dialogue replacing the source's pulpy directness
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Beyond the Book

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A grieving teenager joins friends in treating spirit possession as party entertainment, only to push the ritual past its limits and unleash something vicious. Her need to reach the dead makes every attempt to repair the damage more dangerous.

Like Sometimes I Scare Myself, it turns a recognizable social gathering and one reckless choice into rapid, bloody escalation, while grief and fraying friendships keep the supernatural threat intimate and uncertain. Its single sustained tragedy offers less structural variety and less nervous comedy than three novellas, but delivers the same bleak momentum and cruel final sting.

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On the last night of summer camp, nine counselors become prey to blood-soaked locals and creatures hiding in the woods. You control each counselor, making decisions that determine who survives and how the night ends.

It converts the book's consequence-driven pressure into player agency: every panicked choice can tighten the trap, rupture relationships, or kill someone, while shifting viewpoints keep trust unstable and multiple endings supply sharp payoffs. The tradeoff is a longer, campier slasher rhythm with exploration and quick-time challenges instead of compact novella sprints and creeping prose.

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What to read after Sometimes I Scare Myself

Readers searching for adult books like or similar to Sometimes I Scare Myself by Jeneva Rose usually value these qualities in Sometimes I Scare Myself by Jeneva Rose: relentless thriller pacing and consequence-driven escalation, intimate uncertainty built through vulnerable viewpoints and mistrust inside close relationships, and three novella-length arcs with distinct horror rhythms and decisive sting-in-the-tail payoffs.

If your search is specifically for books similar to Sometimes I Scare Myself for adults, this match keeps the grown-up stakes, voice, and reader payoff central rather than drifting into younger or purely genre-adjacent suggestions.

If you like Sometimes I Scare Myself and want to know what to read next, start with We Used to Live Here. It is the closest NextBookAfter match for readers who want a book like Sometimes I Scare Myself with the same core appeal.

We Used to Live Here is a similar next read for fans of Sometimes I Scare Myself by Jeneva Rose. It shares parts of that appeal, while the comparison above identifies both what it preserves and where it departs. It moves through psychological horror and supernatural thriller.

Books like or similar to Sometimes I Scare Myself: quick answers

What should I read after Sometimes I Scare Myself by Jeneva Rose?
Read We Used to Live Here for politeness curdling into a reality-warping trap, The Murders of Molly Southbourne for bloody consequence-driven novella compression, and Fever Dream for intimate maternal uncertainty delivered as a tightening, hallucinatory dialogue.
If I like Sometimes I Scare Myself, what should I read next?
Read We Used to Live Here next. The key point of comparison is this: Same social politeness tightening into an inescapable supernatural trap. This is one long descent rather than three reset-and-sting novellas, and its ending prefers destabilizing ambiguity to tidy closure. In exchange, the close focus makes every doubt about Eve, Charlie, and the visitors feel intensely personal.
What is a book like Sometimes I Scare Myself for adults?
We Used to Live Here is the closest adult readalike here for readers drawn to what Sometimes I Scare Myself does best: Relentless thriller pacing and consequence-driven escalation. The key point of comparison is this: Same social politeness tightening into an inescapable supernatural trap. This is one long descent rather than three reset-and-sting novellas, and its ending prefers destabilizing ambiguity to tidy closure. In exchange, the close focus makes every doubt about Eve, Charlie, and the visitors feel intensely personal.
What are good books similar to Sometimes I Scare Myself by Jeneva Rose for adults?
We Used to Live Here matches what readers value in Sometimes I Scare Myself: Relentless thriller pacing and consequence-driven escalation. The key point of comparison is this: Same social politeness tightening into an inescapable supernatural trap. This is one long descent rather than three reset-and-sting novellas, and its ending prefers destabilizing ambiguity to tidy closure. In exchange, the close focus makes every doubt about Eve, Charlie, and the visitors feel intensely personal.
Is We Used to Live Here similar to Sometimes I Scare Myself by Jeneva Rose?
Yes. The key point of comparison is this: Same social politeness tightening into an inescapable supernatural trap. This is one long descent rather than three reset-and-sting novellas, and its ending prefers destabilizing ambiguity to tidy closure. In exchange, the close focus makes every doubt about Eve, Charlie, and the visitors feel intensely personal.
Why recommend We Used to Live Here for fans of Sometimes I Scare Myself by Jeneva Rose?
Recommend We Used to Live Here. The key point of comparison is this: Same social politeness tightening into an inescapable supernatural trap. This is one long descent rather than three reset-and-sting novellas, and its ending prefers destabilizing ambiguity to tidy closure. In exchange, the close focus makes every doubt about Eve, Charlie, and the visitors feel intensely personal.
How many books like Sometimes I Scare Myself are on this page?
This page lists 3 curated recommendations for readers looking for what to read after Sometimes I Scare Myself by Jeneva Rose.

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