We Used to Live Here

The novel’s world of the supernatural takes the form of religious philosophy and trauma, supernatural forces like ghosts, the manipulation of perception and reality, and the eventual realization that Thomas is an ancient being. Eve grew up religious but left religion in adulthood; nevertheless, the memories of religion and the trauma of being told that she would go to hell stay with her. Eve maintains some of her gullibility and is more susceptible to believing in the supernatural than her partner, Charlie. Since her perception of reality doesn’t match anyone else’s, both she and others assume that she’s unwell. This is part of what creates doubt about whether what Eve is experiencing is real. Charlie, a complete skeptic, acts as the voice of reason, but even she can’t deny the sheer panic that Eve experiences. Eve encounters Alison’s ghost on multiple occasions, which is horrifying and disturbing for her but inspires her to act against Thomas, knowing that she could end up like Alison. Thomas, as a supernatural being, manipulates time and space, trapping people within Old House. In one particularly revealing document, random capital letters together form the phrase, “THE OLD GODS SEE ALL.” This implies that Thomas (and likely others) are omnipresent. Thomas proclaims, “[W]e were here when the light of DAY was BORN” (278), confirming that all of this is true.

Eve calls her inner voice Mo, after a chimp-with-symbols toy she had as a child. Mo (a nod to Stephen King’s short story The Monkey) symbolizes Eve’s old life and aligns with the theme of Knowing and Staying True to Oneself. One of her strongest memories, the toy is a companion that warns her and keeps her safe. Mo tends to think the worst, which many write off as paranoia, but Eve’s “paranoia” is ultimately correct in every capacity. Mo is an imitation of the classic Jolly Chimp (a chimp with banging cymbals) toy, which makes it a symbolic warning of the gradual replacement of Eve’s life and the people within it. Like Mo, Charlie and Shylo become doppelgangers of their former selves and act as cheap imitations of the real thing. Mo was stolen from Eve when she was a child under mysterious circumstances but lived on as a voice and a memory. In the present, Mo signals to Eve that something in her reality is amiss and she’s in danger. Since Mo is usually just an internal presence that is really just Eve’s conscious mind, seeing a physical version of him in Heather’s home increases Eve’s alarm. The last time Eve sees Mo is inside the hospital hallway in the house’s basement, almost like Thomas is attempting to lure Eve in with her precious memories.

In We Used to Live Here, circles represent Old House’s eternal “time loop” and Thomas’s ability to trap people within it. A circle with intersecting lines denotes the multiple timelines and how their existence thematically relates to Perception, Reality, and the Intersecting Lines Between Them. Eve’s perception of her reality is constantly in question, both by her and by those around her, and not until the final pages is Eve certain she was right. The first circle that appears is the one Alison drew, which Thomas points out during the initial “tour.” In addition, Eve notices that Paige has a faded circle tattoo on her neck, implying that Paige somehow connects to the same manipulation of reality. The Gelsheimer ants that Paige sees in the basement and the psychiatric hospital have a pronounced circle imprint on their backs and directly relate to Thomas’s presence in the house. When the ants crawl in circles, it indicates that he’s manipulating time and space. The cycle of Thomas’s world continues, while Eve’s fate turns out exactly like Alison’s, and it’s likely that they aren’t the only ones.