Home Sick, by Rhiannon Grist
The Book
Synopsis:
“The symmetry should have tipped me off.”
After a violent incident at work, Tamsin goes looking for a fresh start in a remote cottage far away from her old life. Here she could make real friends, find a job she loves, become a whole new person, even.
But the solitary cottage is actually a semi-detached, with only a thin wall separating her from a total stranger. Her neighbour is an enigma. Dowdy one moment, vivacious the next, but always wearing an unnerving smile. Tamsin can’t shake the feeling that there’s something wrong with her, especially when she starts experiencing disturbances in her own home.
As the locals share strange stories about her house, and her barely contained paranoia spirals out of control, Tamsin begins to suspect that the past she was so desperate to escape might never let her go.
My Review
Home Sick is a psychological/folk horror novel written by Rhiannon Grist, published by Solaris. A slow-burn psychological proposal that is sprinkled with some paranormal elements, delivering a novel that is at the same time dark and cozy, creepy but sweet, all built around Tamsin and the cottage, creating what is by moments a study of her character and how she's trying to flee the past.
Looking for a fresh start, Tamsin buys a remote cottage far away from her old life; an opportunity to forge new bonds, find a job she doesn't hate, and rebuild herself as a person. But the cottage is a semi-detached, with just a thin wall separating her from a complete stranger, the enigma that is her neighbour; something must be wrong with her, but Tamsin can't pinpoint what it is. When more strange things start happening in her own house, Tamsin can't avoid thinking that the past she was trying to flee will not let her go.
Grist builds all the novel around the own character of Tamsin, using her voice as a way to give us a closer insight into Tamsin's tormented mind. She's not a lovable character, in fact, I think at many points you might want to just yell at her; but if you take a closer look, you can see how she hates herself, and how all this charade of becoming a new person is also deeply affecting her. She's certainly trying to get better, to start a new life, but at the same time, insecurity is killing her.
Another reason I loved how Grist approached this novel is that there's a constant blur in the line between reality and imagination, making the reader wonder what's real about what Tamsin is experiencing, getting the maximum from that unreliable narrator figure.
The pacing is relatively slow, leaning more into the psychological elements of the plot, carefully creating the foundations needed for all the story to eventually make sense; I found it to be pretty bingeable despite that, as the author keeps us engaged all the time while the atmosphere is being built.
Home Sick is a remarkable debut, an excellent psychological horror that I totally recommend if you like the genre and prefer a more grounded approach, putting the weight on what could be called a character study. Rhiannon Grist is an author to watch in the future!
