A Book I Read: Home Sick by Rhiannon Grist

Hello everyone. Very much aware I've let the blog go very quiet, so I'm going to start trying to rectify that. And where better to start than telling you about an excellent book I just finished?

“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.

Disclaimer: It should, of course, go without saying, but this is my personal opinion and nothing more. Yours may be different, and that's cool.

Daniel's thoughts: I loved Grist's award-winning novella The Queen of the High Fields; in fact, scrolling back along the timeline, I can see it was actually the last book I reviewed here, back in the mists of dawn (otherwise known as August 2024.)

I ended that post with the words: "I am absolutely sure that you, whoever you are, should read The Queen of the High Fields, and also that you should keep your eye out for anything else with Rhiannon A. Grist’s name on it, because it will almost certainly be worth your time." I still stand by that, and even more so after reading Home Sick.

I was greatly looking forward to Girst's first novel, and it doesn't disappoint. Tamsin has moved out to the Scottish countryside in a desperate attempt at a fresh start, her old life in Edinburgh having come apart spectacularly. She is - always has been - socially awkward; always saying the wrong thing, feeling like a perpetual outsider, caught constantly between fear and rage. She's bought a cottage, Sgathan Sith, sight unseen, and her first unpleasant surprise is when she arrives to find it is, in fact, a semi-detached building, with a neighbour she only glimpses but whose behaviour grows increasingly unsettling - except how much of it is real, and how much in Tamsin's head?

The book is superb just as a character study: Tamsin is beautifully and concisely drawn, and being in her head is both compelling and deeply uncomfortable. I don't know how much of Grist's portrayal is based on direct experience, but it strongly evoked memories of similar episodes in my own past. But there's also a strong supporting cast, a brilliantly realised setting, and hauntingly visionary passages, all woven into a dark comedy of paranoia that fans of Ramsey Campbell will greatly appreciate. Tamsin is an awkward, spiky character, but I never lost interest in her - in fact, I spent most of the book desperately worried about her. You can't ask for more than that from a fictional character!

I loved Home Sick, and as before, very much look forward to seeing what Grist does next. 'Tis a belter.

You can buy Home Sick here.