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.
Review:
When the Wolf Comes Home finds Nat Cassidy once again reimagining and remixing classic horror tales with his own distinct vision. Mary: An Awakening of Terror is his bizarre riff on King’s Carrie, Nestlings looks like Rosemary’s Baby on the outside and opens into something infinitely stranger and more interesting, and now we have a delightful cross between Firestarter and an old, classic episode of the Twilight Zone, with maybe a little nod to Dean Koontz’s Watchers as well, but it rises well above these inspirations, creating what is sure to become a modern masterpiece.
Jess is an aspiring actor working the night shift at a diner when her life goes sideways. Things are already not going great before her apartment complex is attacked by what appears very much to be a nine foot tall wolf walking on its hind legs.
She escapes this carnage and in the process picks up a nameless five year old boy who is even more traumatized and terrified than Jess herself. Whatever is going on, it becomes clear that the boy’s father is looking for him, and he’s not a nice guy. What’s the connection between dad and the wolf? The answer, which at first seems obvious, is just one twist in a twisty tale.
Thus begins a cross-country chase that carves a bloody path behind this odd couple. They meet lots of helpers along the way, and the bond between Jess and the boy she calls Kiddo grows strong. Meanwhile an up-and-coming FBI agent with Mulderish aspirations is assigned to the case, adding yet another layer of danger to the journey.
It’s the relationship between Jess and Kiddo that’s the heart of When the Wolf Comes Home, and it’s so effective, so effortlessly accomplished, that it was as if I could feel myself being manipulated in the very best ways. Jess is no heroic protector. She’s just a young woman in a tight spot, and she’s allowed to make bad choices, think bad thoughts, and long for the whole thing to just be over and out of her hands, but the bond is real, and it carries a story that has absolutely no qualms about getting real, real weird. Let’s just say that both Who Framed Roger Rabbit? and the Loch Ness monster play pivotal roles. Bonus points for a heavy nod to one of my personal patron saints, Ursula LeGuin.
The road trip is a timeworn narrative structure, but it is also an internal journey for Jess, who manages to find time amidst all of the chaos to work through feelings about the death of her deadbeat dad, as well as all the friends and loved ones she looses along the way. If that sounds like a lot of balls to keep in the air, you’re right, but it’s all so thematically cohesive that it somehow works.
It’s a testament to the power of this story that even after unravelling the stories essential red herrings and twists, is manages a climax that is both utterly surprising and thematically right. Fear, Cassidy seems to tell us, is inescapable, but it also contains the seeds of bravery, creativity, and finally, love.
I have no doubt that When the Wolf Comes Home will be Cassidy’s breakout novel, cementing his place amongst a roster of Horror superstars, and I can’t wait to see what comes next.
Leave a Reply