This is a really tough review to write.

Not because the book is bad.

But because it’s a masterpiece.

And I felt so many things reading this, I sobbed through some chapters, and felt exhausted after others, it was a therapy session for me.

So, hang in there as I try and review it….but maybe just go get yourself a copy of When the Wolf Comes Home by Nat Cassidy when it hits shelves April 22nd.

“The picture scared the boy. Scared him in a way he’d never been scared before. He couldn’t shake it. He had to keep looking at it. It seemed to give a shape, a face, to every fear he’d ever had, as if this wolf had been waiting for him all along in the shadows.”

This story follows Jess, an actress/waitress in LA who’s passionate about improv, but struggling to find her place in Hollywood. After a worrying experience at work, she returns home only to find a 5-year old boy who’s runaway from home. When his violent father shows up and carnage ensues, Jess and the boy flee for their lives. But Jess soon discovers that this young boy is not what he seems, and she’s gotten herself into a situation that’s so much bigger than them both.

Here’s what I loved:

Everything.

Okay, but really, there’s so many powerful themes in this novel about loss, mental illness, abandonment, and fear. And each one is handled perfectly. There were so many moments I was able to relate to on a personal level and also so many moments that brought me clarity.

One of my favorite novels of all time is The Talisman by Stephen King (so much so that I recently set and wrote an entire D&D campaign in that world). When the Wolf Comes Home reminded me a lot of that with the writing style and the mix of dark fantasy with horror. The level of high stakes and real life consequences felt similar too, and there were a few scenes that hit me as hard as The Talisman did. There’s also this delicate line of reality blurring with nightmares that Nat Cassidy handled incredibly. And one quote in particular that I will carry with me all my life along with the moon quote from The Talisman (“Everything goes away, Jack Sawyer, like the moon. Everything comes back, like the moon.” - Stephen King).

“Fear is fear is fear when it’s slithering in the dark.” - Nat Cassidy

The ‘father’ dynamics in this book hit me hard too. Jess is reckoning with her father and the young boy is reckoning with his own. “How do you protect?” plays a big part in the story. And reading the afterword by Cassidy, it’s very clear this story was his chance to work through some things as well.

Ultimately, the big bad wolf is of course a metaphor, but it is so much deeper than that. Cassidy handles all of this fantastically and I would like to send him my therapy cheque for this month because damn, he helped me put a lot of things into perspective haha. But what else would I expect when a book starts with “All Dads are Motherfuckers.”

Overall, I adored this novel. I will absolutely be re-reading this over and over again. Jess and Kiddo live in my heart, and I’m so grateful for the time I spent in this world. Thank you so much to Tor Nightfire for sending me a copy in exchange for an honest review. Please please please read this book when it releases on April 22nd. Or just pre-order it because you’re going to want to read this.

(I might do a full spoiler review once the book’s come out so I can really get my organized thoughts together and chat deeply about the story and the characters.)