Thanks to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for the ARC. It hasn’t affected the contents of my review.
In an attempt to catch up on my life—which was laughably behind even before I had surgery to get my gallbladder out two weeks ago—I am now reviewing one of my favorite books of the year so far. Reviewing favorite books is something I hate doing, but I foolishly accepted an ARC so now I have to anyway. I should have known this would happen, because I have literally given Nat Cassidy five stars every time I’ve read from him (four times so far; I haven’t read his sci-fi podcast adaption book thingy yet).
When the Wolf Comes Home is a hard book to describe without giving things away. The most basic premise is that our main character, Jess, comes home from working a traumatic shift at the diner to find a little boy hiding in her bushes. It soon becomes apparent he’s running away and hiding from his father, who soon shows up. A violent confrontation ensues, and Jess goes on the run with the little boy, who she now feels obligated to protect. And that is just the very beginning of the story. It will not go where you think it will go.
What’s so fun about this story is that Cassidy is playing with a bunch of tropes and story structures that he grew up reading, but taking them in new directions or subverting them. From his Goodreads note about the book: “It’s a little bit Twilight Zone, a little bit Dean Koontz, a little bit FIRESTARTER, a little bit IT, a little bit Ursula K. Le Guin, a little bit TERMINATOR 2, and a lotta bit gonna melt your face off.” This is accurate. This book is scary, extremely unsettling, at times anxiety-inducing, and might give you existential dread.
As always with this author, make sure to read his Author’s Note. He is so good at writing them, and giving context to the creation of the story you’ve just read. (The Author’s Note is included in the audio, unlike many audio productions which leave that kind of thing out.)
The audiobook was really well put together, and I enjoyed Helen Laser as the main narrator (with some cameos by the author himself, who also reads the Author’s Note).