When the Wolf Comes Home Review

When the Wolf Comes Home isn’t really about werewolves at all. Let’s discuss.

Synopsis

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.

My Thoughts on When the Wolf Comes Home

So, like I said When the Wolf Comes home is not a werewolf story. There is a werewolf in it here and there, but really this is a study of fear. If you can think of a type of fear, it’s probably covered in this book. That being said please read the trigger warnings.

The story takes off right from the beginning. At one point close to the beginning if felt like it was coming to an end. There was ton of gore and action, and I didn’t think it could get any more horrific, but I was wrong. This book went in directions I never would have expected. It honestly started to feel more like a sci-fi novel. I really enjoyed that genre mashup so I will probably be searching for more sci-fi horror in the future.

Now I had to sit with the main character for a little bit. I didn’t connect with her right away and I can’t say I ever particularly liked her. Her motivations made sense though. And throughout the story there were glimpses of humanity in her. Until the end.

Speaking of the end it was a bit of a fever dream. That’s the best way to say it. It got really weird really quick. And it made me feel all of the emotions. I knew part of it was coming because of the trigger warnings, but I still sobbed. Then when the action was all said and done, and our main character had time to meditate on the events, things might have been skewed a little more than I realized. I wouldn’t necessarily say that it’s an unreliable narrator story, but it’s unreliable narrator adjacent.

This was my first Nat Cassidy book, but I’ll definitely be reading more.