Synopsis:
“The symmetry should have tipped me off.”
After a violent incident at work, Tamsin goes looking for a fresh start in a remote cottage far away from her old life. Here she could make real friends, find a job she loves, become a whole new person, even.
But the solitary cottage is actually a semi-detached, with only a thin wall separating her from a total stranger. Her neighbour is an enigma. Dowdy one moment, vivacious the next, but always wearing an unnerving smile. Tamsin can’t shake the feeling that there’s something wrong with her, especially when she starts experiencing disturbances in her own home.
As the locals share strange stories about her house, and her barely contained paranoia spirals out of control, Tamsin begins to suspect that the past she was so desperate to escape might never let her go.
Review:
Hello again dear reader or listener, it’s been a minute but you’re used to this by now if you’ve been reading my ramblings a while! Ah the joys of mood reading. In truth, it’s been a busy time for me so, even though I had the time to read, I didn’t also have the time to sit and write up my delightfully verbose ahem meandering thoughts for you.
TBRCon is a big beast to wrangle! But now that that’s wrapped up, let me tell you about an author whose book I got drawn into in part due to the con itself! (So many, dear reader, I ended up adding so damn many on my TBR because of this Con… sigh).
With thanks to Jess at Solaris for pointing me towards this bit of existential crisis in literary form and the Solaris team for granting my NetGalley request, let’s get to it!
Home Sick is an interesting time to say the least, with Grist’s ability to render atmosphere doing a lot of the heavy lifting but not only. For, even though this is not your typical haunted house – the tagline of the book is after all “The house isn’t haunted. She is” – the claustrophobia is real. Except, instead of the physical walls of a building closing in on you, it is the metaphorical walls of the protagonist’s stream of consciousness-like narration that makes you feel short of breath. Instead of an entity attacking what is supposed to be the safe space of your home, the entity is attacking your own peace of mind. Don’t mistake this for an entry into the possession sub-genre however either! It’s far more sneakier than that.
The protagonist, Tamsin, is neither all that likable nor all that reliable. Her overthinking and awkwardness are at times hard to handle, either from the second hand embarrassment or the uncomfortable realization of how similar her own dark thoughts are to some of your own vicious mental circles. And yet at the same time, she is hard to look away from because she feels awfully real and is genuinely trying her best to move past her very worst. She is also a look into the younger Millennial woman who needs to navigate the unforgiving modern job landscape and field all of those wonderfully not judgmental, nor invasive surely, questions about our personal lives and milestones that everyone seems to feel entitled to for some reason.
Grist also weaves her narrative in such a way that you can both sort of remove yourself, take a step back, and see more things than Tamsin who is relating everything but in too deep herself to truly notice key details. But at the same time you may also struggle to figure out what is real and what isn’t, alongside her. There were times where I wasn’t even trying to anymore and just went along for the ride to be honest and that was perfectly fine with me as the pace was still good and building up smoothly.
The main draw for me overall though was the folk element of Home Sick, since I’ve been in a folk horror kick for a while now, and the author definitely delivered on this front. Celtic folklore is more of an untapped treasure trove than you’d imagine and I can never quite get enough of it. Part of the reason I say it’s untapped is the recent (ish) and quasi-myopic trend for a specific kind of Fae flavored fiction. I will not go into it, nor will I point any critical fingers at that as there is no need. But my main point is that there’s is much more to Celtic folklore than what has been trending and it can be dark, and gory, and haunting. That is what Grist taps into and she does so with a truly excellent amount of body horror that I dang near reveled in while also cringing a lil. Which, in case it weren’t clear, is my idea of a great time when reading horror!
The supporting cast is also strong and through them the author tackles themes of cultural tourism and what happens when people move into communities without the interest to assimilate or be a part of those cultures, sometimes even looking down on them. There is nuance and an opening for some very interesting discussions there, especially in the context of Scottish and English history, that someone more expert in it than me could delve into.
Overall Home Sick might be a touch of a hard sell for those who are more action oriented but I am not one to mind a slower buildup even if it can get a little uncomfortable when the protagonist’s self deprecation and self destructive tendencies make you want to hide behind your hands and peek through your fingers.
A testament to the author’s skill however is my wish to keep going regardless and her nearly getting under my skin as I was reading in the wee hours of the night! If psychological folk horror, with some body horror, and snark, sounds up your alley, Home Sick deserves a spot on your shelves. As for me, I’m looking forward to seeing what Grist might have in store for us in the future.
Until next time dear reader,
Eleni A.E.
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