Please note that I received this book via NetGalley. This did not impact my rating or review.
This was so freaking good. You want to read a horror novel set in Scotland? Well here’s your book. I honestly worried at first that since I didn’t really care for the main character, Tasmin, I wouldn’t enjoy. But one of the great things that Grist did here, is that you realize you don’t like her, heck she doesn’t like herself. So once you lean in on the whole thing, you just enjoy the ride. The ending was great I thought and definitely want to read more books by her in the future.
Home Sick follows thirty something year old Tamsin. She has left Edinburgh for a small village and a cottage in the middle of nowhere. Tamsin we quickly find is fleeing ‘something bad’ and thinks this new house/village is where she can finally make herself over. But things go wrong starting with her showing up to find that her cottage is actually a semi-detached cottage with only a wall between her and her neighbor. Her new neighbor seems withdrawn. And Tamsin thought the villagers would be welcoming, or at least she would have options to make friends. Instead, wherever she goes, she feels as if someone is laughing at her. When Tamsin starts hearing noises at night and feels as if she is going crazy.
So Tamsin. There’s a bigger longer thread to pull with this character that Grist does not reveal right away. I liked how we got different layers to Tamsin as she becomes more unraveled and in the end, can’t hide from herself anymore. I did end up feeling sorry for her to a certain extent, but also a couple of times went, well she definitely has a few screws loose. And that’s the thing, you go in knowing there’s something off with Tamsin but you can’t name it for a while.
And the other characters we get to know such as Rowan, the older man and his wife, Rowan’s partner, Fergus, were great. They added to the story without taking away from the main plot I thought.
The setting of this far and away place with no one for miles definitely had me feeling dread. From the very first moment Tamsin is in her new place I was like, um nope. Not for me. But you see her trying to see what it could be in her heard. And that’s something that she does a lot. She thinks about how great things would/could be if only.
The ending as I said was great. I don’t want to get into spoilers, but I liked how Grist brings up stories and authors we know to explain what is going on with Tasmin and thought how it was resolved was a great way to complete the circle there.
Updated to include for bingo:
- One – the first book in a series; the author’s first book; a standalone; one star rating; the one book you would recommend. I am including this for the one book I would recommend. I gave it 5 stars.
