When the Wolf Comes Home

I have had my fill of Vampires. They are the Primadonna of the undead world hogging all the limelight with their films and TV shows. They are also all over books. One of my family member’s entire book collection is just vampires. What about the other supernatural beings? A vampire's erstwhile enemy is the brutal Werewolf. Now there is a monster I can get behind with all the ripping, tearing, and rendering. Nat Cassidy has one heck of a wolf in When the Wolf Comes Home but wait around a little longer and there is a far greater power hidden within the pages. 

Jess is a struggling actor holding down a series of part time jobs, barely making ends meet. Her only friend is her mother who has moved into an assisted living village miles away. When Jess discovers a lost little boy, she can have no idea of what the consequences will be of providing aid. The boy is being hunted by something, a being that rips and tears its way to its goal. A being that may just be the boy’s father. 

Horror is a more complex and layered genre than some would have you think. It is not just shock and gore. You can have subtle horror, old school monster horror, the subgenres are numerous. In Wolf, Cassidy plays with some of the tropes of the horror genre, giving you one type of monster of the week story, but then delving into something far deeper. 

The depth of the novel comes from Cassidy exploring what and where this wolf creature came from. You could write a straight werewolf book, never explaining the origins, but that is not Cassidy’s style. By revealing the nature of the beast, the book opens far wider into magical realism. The tone shifts to a dark magical horror that reminded me of the later works of horror maestro James Herbert. 

By drawing in elements of magic and fantasy, Cassidy never forgets the book’s roots in horror. There are plenty of disturbing and gruesome scenes to entertain any lover of the crimson. Enjoy seems the wrong word to use, but the scenes in which the werewolf appears amongst normal people are powerful and sick, in the right way. There are also scenes of high tension as the boy and Jess hide in the shadows as the monster creeps outside. There is also another form of body and gonzo horror that occurs later in the book as new powers are revealed. 

All the jump scares and tension are for nought, if the characters have no impact, so Cassidy spends time developing Jess and the young child’s character. There is more horror in knowing these people and their loved ones. As in any true horror story, no character is safe, so a tension runs throughout the book.  

As a fan of multiple genres and not just what would be considered traditional horror, Wolf is a book that appealed to me. It went above and beyond just being a monster novel and morphed into something far more complex and ethereal. Will this appeal to every fan? I think some people will be enjoying the awesome werewolf scenes in the early parts of the book so much that the change in direction will annoy them. However, this pivot allows for some unusual types of bizarro horror that you will not want to miss.