You may not know his name, but there’s a chance you’ll recognize him from different television shows, or perhaps even know the covers of his books. His name is Nat Cassidy, and he seems to be one of the best upcoming names in horror. At least, that’s the impression I’ve personally gained after finishing my first of his efforts; that being his newest novel, When the Wolf Comes Home. Now that I’ve done so, I need to get my hands on the others, because it was just that good.
Here’s why you need to read it, too.
Stories of werewolves have existed for a long time, and have made their way into both popular fiction and popular culture. Hell, the Wolfman was a big part of the Universal Monsters of approximately 85 years ago. I bring that series up because of the recent reboot, Wolf Man, starring Julia Garner, which I watched a few weeks ago. I won’t spend much time talking about it here, but since I can and have the chance, I’d like to say how shockingly god-awful it was. I mean, I knew it could be bad, but never expected it to be that bad. How did it even get green-lit, let alone made and released? I’ve seen a lot of bad horror movies, but that was one for the record books.
Anyways, this isn’t a review of Wolf Man, the 2025 horror ‘movie’. Then again, that piece of utter garbage does help show that the quality of things based on werewolves can vary. You knew that, though, as it’s a given.
Thankfully, When the Wolf Comes Home by Nat Cassidy is the opposite of that. It proves that there’s still a way to tell a great werewolf story, and also shows that there’s a lot of room for creativity within the subject matter. It definitely wasn’t the book I expected I’d be reading, upon starting page one, but that wasn’t a bad thing whatsoever.
This story begins as an unnamed young boy hides from his father, who’s on an abusive sounding rampage. Making himself small, with his favourite (and only) book in hand, the boy does his best to avoid being spotted by the angry man, who is said to be tearing their house apart. He eventually flees, causing the beast to take chase.
After this opening, we meet a young woman named Jessa Bailey, who’s working the midnight shift in a nondescript and forgettable diner located by a Los Angeles underpass. The diner is nearly empty, the clientele is quiet, and things are going alright during what is an otherwise boring and depressing shift. Thankfully, Jessa and her relatively new, but older, coworker get along well and are passing the time talking in friendly ways.
Things change when a drug addicted and very unwell looking man comes into the diner, makes his way to the bathroom and makes a mess of the place. The two workers deliberate as to who will go in, see how bad it is, and ]clean it up, with Jessa eventually volunteering to do so. In return, she’ll be able to go home early. This ends up being a mistake on her part, though, because — despite taking the dirty job in stride and singing to herself in order to make it go faster, and keep her mind off of things — she ends up pricking herself on a used needle hidden behind the toilet. This leaves her scared, worried and revolted, all the while wondering if she maybe picked something up from the addict’s dangerous garbage.
Jess doesn’t go to a hospital right away, and ends up at home first. There, at a nondescript apartment building, she drinks a beer and does some research. It’s during this late night Googling that she begins to hear something outside, and goes out to investigate. It’s then where she finds a young boy hiding in a bush amidst strange, yellow, birds who fly out when she gets close. She takes this scared little boy in, tries to make him comfortable, and attempts to get answers from him. Then, the shit hits the fan. First, a naked man appears and seems like he’s the father the boy is running from. Then, a monster appears out of nowhere and wreaks havoc on the place, killing almost everyone in the vicinity.
As you’d expect, Jess and her young charge flee. They get in her car and take off, heading for presumed safety. Thus begins a book about running from danger, and what that danger is. One that also delves into parental issues, how not all people are meant to be parents, and other human things. Jess is a flawed main character, but she’s a likeable one who’s trying her best. She carries a lot of baggage, though, and it feels real.
What’s best about When the Wolf Comes Home by Nat Cassidy is how it’s not what you’d expect. I know I said that above, but it’s true and needs to be said again. You’ll go into this story expecting one thing, but will get something a bit different. I was surprised, but I appreciated that. This book went in directions I never would’ve expected, and it’s memorable because of that. You’ll need to find the rest out for yourself, though, because I’m not interested in spoiling things for anyone.
I will, however, say that this is one of the more unique and memorable novels I’ve read in a long time. The person who urged me to read it, on social media, was correct and I thank them.
It helps, too, that the writing is strong and that it does a great job of building tension. Nat Cassidy also proves himself talented at creating characters you empathize with, care for and want to read more about, even if they sometimes do bad things. There were even some really unique and memorable descriptors that unnerved me and may stick with me, despite my bad memory, like when the author compared a wolf’s fur to a stack of dead women with their hair hanging down.
That said, despite that unnerving imagery, I do feel like When the Wolf Comes Home is a book that will appeal to both horror fans and fans of less frightening books alike. It’s tense, but I didn’t find it terrifying, and that’s OK. Then again, I’ve become very desensitized to this genre after decades of consuming it, through movies, TV shows, books, music, short stories and video games. It’s not an unnecessarily gory or outrageously violent story, but it contains dark things. I think that people will enjoy the story, the characters, their relationship and the subject matter, not to mention the themes and messaging, even if they don’t normally enjoy horror. As such, I urge people to check this novel out even if this isn’t normally their genre. It’s really good, and it’s worth reading.
Do yourself a favour, and read When the Wolf Comes Home by Nat Cassidy! Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to acquire his other books.
This review is based on an advance reading copy of the book that we were provided by its publisher.