One night, Jess, a struggling actress, finds a five-year-old runaway hiding in the bushes outside her apartment. After a violent, bloody encounter with the boy’s father, she and the boy find themselves running for their lives.
As they attempt to evade the boy’s increasingly desperate father, Jess slowly comes to a horrifying understanding of the butchery that follows them—the boy can turn his every fear into reality.
And when the wolf finally comes home, no one will be spared.
I read Nat Cassidy’s book MARY a few years back & for one reason or another, I just never got around to reviewing it. I remember digging the hell out of it, though. It had some dark & creepy serial killer vibes, it was weird & horrifying, and features one of the most hilariously foul-mouthed (yet deeply, deeply awful) characters ever, Aunt Nadine. I did feel like the book was a bit longer than it necessarily needed to be, but it was clear that Nat Cassidy was a talented horror writer with a really keen eye towards characterization.
I’ve been meaning to read NESTLINGS & definitely will soon, but I just couldn’t wait to dive into WHEN THE WOLF COMES HOME! I mean…THAT COVER! Straight-up nightmare fuel & one of my favorite horror covers of the year, for sure. Shoutout to Sam Wolfe Connelly (the perfect name for this!) for such a memorable illustration.
So, wow. I mean.
Fuck.
One thing this book does not do is overstay its welcome. WHEN THE WOLF COMES HOME is lean & mean, and moves just about as fast as any horror novel I’ve ever read. Nat Cassidy stomps on the gas in the first chapter of this book, and barely lets up. What a fucking ride this one turned out to be.
I’m going to have to get extremely creative & a bit cagey with this one, because this is a book that all hinges on a central idea, and I will not reveal that here (obviously). But I do want to say just one thing that could be, at most, moderately spoilery. Fair warning.
When it comes to the overall…flavor of this book. Hmm. Is there a werewolf? There sure is.
Is this a werewolf book? Kinda-sorta-no?
So, ok. We meet our main character Jess on a really, really bad night. She’s a struggling actress who works the night shift at a diner. Jess is trying to process the (very recent) death of her father, from who she was estranged. She’s…angry, and sad, and maybe angry about being sad? It’s a lot for her, clearly. But she has a great friend at the diner to help her, an older woman named Margie.
Jess and Margie give each other shit all night, joking around & trying to make the most of a pretty thankless job. But after getting stuck cleaning up an…unfortunate mess in the bathroom one night, Jess find herself on the wrong end (read: the pointy end) of an improperly discarded hypodermic needle.
Oof. Panic sets in & Jess flees to her apartment. Annnnd as soon as she starts to calm down and starts to come up with a plan to get herself to the emergency room, a whole entire small, frantic, terrified little boy appears in the bushes outside her apartment. Followed soon after by his monster of a father.
Like, a literal monster.
“A massive, hulking animal, more like a bear or an ape, but thinner limbed. Seven feet tall, at least. Perched on painfully bent hind legs. Shoulders heaving with exertion. In the chiaroscuro of the backyard floodlight, its fur looks black and gray, except for the many places where it’s sopping and matted with blood as slick as tar. Relative to the rest of its body, its head is huge and angular, with large, shaggy triangles for ears pointed high, probably catching their rapid, fluttering heartbeats through the glass. Its muzzle is long, lips rippling across gigantic yellow fangs bathed in froth—a rooting snout, the better to dig into your insides and tear into your organs, my dear.”
Jess & the boy hit the road, trying to outrun the monster, master their own fear, and stay alive.
There’s so much more happening in this book, but the less I reveal about the plot the better.
WHEN THE WOLF COMES HOME is a book that never lets you get comfortable. A book that really “goes there,” again & again & again. It’s shockingly violent & grotesque at times, but oof…this is an incredibly big-hearted & emotional novel. The relationship that develops between Jess & the boy is so messy, complex, and painfully sweet. It’s tempting for me to slot this book into the “Lone Wolf & Cub” subgenre, but Jess is just…not always the most together/clear-headed person.
There’s such an incredible sense of wonder about this book, which is not necessarily the most common ingredient in horror. For sure, the book is a deep exploration of fear & how it impacts us. And this book takes us to some incredibly dark places (there’s some content warnings thoughtfully provided by Cassidy at the beginning of the book, and they include but aren’t limited to: grief, abuse, alcoholism, parent death, child endangerment)
But there’s joy in this book, too. And forgiveness. Self-acceptance, in a way. There’s just so much going on here & I haven’t even bothered to mention certain aspects of the book give off a very distinct X-Files vibe. So there, now I’ve mentioned it.
This is a fucking gem of a story & one of my favorite horror novels of the year! Big thanks to Nightfire for sending the ARC my way! This one is out TODAY!
Grimdark Dad 