Rating:

“Love is a shape-shifting monster . . .a werewolf with a bottomless stomach.”

Author: Nat Cassidy

At the end of her work shift, Jess accidentally stabs her hand with a needle left in a vomit spattered bathroom. Now, her mind is calculating all the horrifying possibilities, frantically searching through Google, trying to find out if it’s too late to see a doctor. In the middle of her panic, she meets a young boy, hiding outside her apartment in the woods. She saves the boy from his naked, malevolent father and then, shortly thereafter, from a powerful attack on the complex by a half bear/half wolf creature.

Only Jess and the boy escape the massacre, and now they are on the run. The boy claims that the creature that killed everyone IS his father. That his father is a real-life monster. And after what Jess saw, she doesn’t know. Maybe it’s true. The animal is still at large and so is the boy’s father, who disappeared suspiciously before the attack.

And thus begins When the Wolf Comes Home, a story driven by the powers of fear, the elusive nature of safety, companionship forged through trauma, the legacy and complexities of family, and the consequences of innocence shattered by abuse. The story alternates between high-powered action/escape sequences and intense emotional exploration as Jess and the boy grow closer through their shared fear. Soon, it becomes apparent that fear is a self-fulfilling prophecy in more ways than one. Together, Jess and the boy seek both a cure and safety, but does either truly exist?

Nat Cassidy has proven himself before, through Mary, a story of a menopausal woman struggling with identity and fate. Here, he showed his emotional intelligence and a surprisingly tender sensibility alongside some hardcore horror. When the Wolf Comes Home delivers more of the same – only harder, bloodier, and more fraught. If you don’t feel the need to scream and alternately reach for a Kleenex, then you might want to have a doctor check you out, because this book has it all.

The boy – unnamed, personified by his terror and what he does with it – is still an innocent child. He is only five. We get a brief moment of his backstory, but through it we capture a young lifetime ensnared by abuse, although not quite in the way you think. Indeed, even the father is not a true villain, but another multifaceted representation of the complexities of family and how we create lineages of pain. The damage here is astronomical and the body count astounding (we literally see a man un-made) but the real-world applications are hardly subtle. We get what Cassidy is showing here, through a grim fairy tale like allegory, and it takes the narrative to a whole new level. Again, get ready to get creeped out AND get your Kleenexes ready.

Image by Judas from Pixabay

Of course, the boy is not the only character worth grieving here. Jess herself identifies with him through her own experiences. She, at 31, has just lost her abusive father, who died unknown and unmourned. He left so many questions, and Jess is now unanchored. She never got to confront him, never understood him, and in her own adult pain, she sees the seeds of the boy’s complicated future. She forges a bond not only through the instinct of a good adult to protect and nurture a child, but through a fellow survivor recognizing someone else on a difficult path.

But what about the horror, you say? Oh, it’s there. And it rocks. I don’t want to give away the impetus behind if (although, it’s not a surprise per say and an attentive reader picks up the breadcrumbs early on). But, driving force set aside, we get some really creative creatures and scenarios here, chasing our two beleaguered people. The wolf creature scenes are pure carnage, and other scenes, such as the Halloween masks coming alive in a mundane Target, pack no less of a punch for their real-world settings.

The ending is just as complicated and thoughtful as the entire tale. If you’ve ready Cassidy before, this will be no surprise. You’ll be left with some big quandaries too. Should one suffer and die for many? What if that one is a child? Should many die for the protection of an innocent? How many? What if their deaths are horrible? Where does responsibility for another begin and end, and how far can a bond be stretched by sheer terror?

Another stellar novel, When the Wolf Comes Home is Cassidy’s best to date, and I continue awaiting more from his creative pen with bated breath. As usual, be sure to read his thoughtful afternote, which adds even more to the narrative and leaves you with some serious food for thought.

 

– Frances Carden

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Frances Carden
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