Congrats to When the Wolf Comes Home for being my first five-star read of 2025. Tartlets, this book. Blew. My. Freaking. Mind.
Nat Cassidy is a relatively new author to me. I read his previous novel, Nestlings, which I thought was fantastic. When the Wolf Comes Home is billed as a monster story, which isn’t my favorite genre of horror. I was tempted to sit this one out.
I am SO glad that I didn’t miss reading this one!
What’s When the Wolf Comes Home about?
When The Wolf Comes Home follows Jess, a 30-something diner waitress/struggling actress who comes home to her L.A. apartment one night to find 1) a little boy hiding in the bushes, and 2) a freakin’ werewolf-like monster ripping everyone in her apartment complex to smithereens.
Jess and the little boy go on the run from the werewolf’s rampage while also trying to evade a Men In Black/X-Files type of agent who’s also chasing them. Because this little boy isn’t an ordinary kid. (Of course not.) This boy has the power to do a lot of damage all on his own.
What happens along the way is bonkers. Fucking bonkers.
What I loved about When the Wolf Comes Home
At first glance – and for the first few chapters – When the Wolf Comes Home seems like it’s going to be your typical werewolf story. But that’s where Cassidy and his amazing author’s brain change it up.
Once Jess and the little boy go on the run, so much crazy shit happens. Like, you cannot predict what is coming next. At all. The novel takes a sharp turn and you’re like, okaaaaay, how is this happening?
After that moment, all bets are off. Delightfully, wildly, impossibly off. It’s glorious.
That’s really all I can tell you about this novel, though. The less you know about When the Wolf Comes Home before reading it, the better. You want to go into this story without many expectations so you can be as utterly flabbergasted as I was when events unfold.
So much more than a werewolf story
Prepare to get invested in Jess and the little boy, folks. When the Wolf Comes Home is my favorite type of horror story: horror with a heart. Cassidy made me feel angry, anxious, scared, bereft, and hopeful all at once.
On the surface, this is a monster story. It’s about shape-shifting creatures coming to life and coming after you. But you don’t have to dig very deep to find the subplot about fathers and parenthood.
When the Wolf Comes Home astutely addresses how parents embody so many roles for their children: loving parent, protector, disciplinarian, savior, failure, and so much more. Parents shift, unwillingly, from one moment to the next in their kids’ eyes, and there’s not a darn thing they can do about it. Cassidy beautifully captures this complicated dynamic in his novel.
Should you read When the Wolf Comes Home?
You absolutely need to read When the Wolf Comes Home. Even if you’re not a horror fan. This novel truly is so much more, though the concept of “what is fear?” does play a huge part in everything that happens.
I don’t know how Cassidy developed this story concept and then delivered with such aplomb, but he’s a genius. I’m pretty sure this is going to be my favorite book of 2025. I know it’s only June, but I read this back in March, and nothing else I’ve read so far even comes close to the punch that When the Wolf Comes Home packed for me.
What’s the book-inspired recipe for When the Wolf Comes Home?
Check back in for the book-inspired recipe: Big Bad Wolf Claw Cupcakes.
Although I received a complimentary advance copy of When the Wolf Comes Home from Kaye Publicity, all opinions expressed in this review are my own, and I was not compensated in any way for this review or for any other promotion/publicity I’ve done related to this book.
