Home Sick by Rhiannon Grist is an emotionally sharp, quietly devastating novel that captures the ache of longing and disconnection with striking clarity. Grist’s writing is intimate and unflinching, pulling the reader deep into the narrator’s inner world where nostalgia, regret, and desire constantly blur together.

What makes Home Sick so compelling is its honesty. The emotions feel raw and lived-in, never overexplained, and the story trusts the reader to sit with discomfort and contradiction. Grist has a remarkable ability to make small moments feel enormous—glances, memories, half-spoken thoughts all carry weight and resonance.

There’s a tenderness running beneath the ache, a sense of searching for belonging even when “home” feels fractured or out of reach. Thoughtful, resonant, and beautifully written, Home Sick is a powerful read for anyone drawn to introspective fiction that lingers in the heart long after it ends.

5/5

First of all, thanks to Rebellion and NetGalley for this e-ARC in exchange for an honest review!

This was genuinely one of the best horror books I've read. It has body horror AND Welsh mythology. The main character is a complex character filled with regret and emotions, it sometimes makes her unlikeable or you don't get why she behaves the way she does. Everything makes sense. Plot-wise, it's absolutely magical. Very well developed and well designed.

If you like mythological horror with a very clear metaphor, this one is fully for you!

Extraordinary! I went into this having only read the blurb here on Netgalley, and was capativated!
What was going on? Why was she running away? And why so fearless? What horrors await? How was it going to resolve?

It's pacy. The writing is first-class. The tension is beautifully and cleverly written. It's present on every page, and yet you're never quite sure which genre this novel sits in. Clever!

As i got through the book, it increasingly reminded me of Steven Spielberg's brilliant early film Duel. The subject matter couldn't be more different, but the handling is strikingly similar: building tension, character development, and everyday moments seamlessly blended with looming danger.

I loved it. And surely this is destined for the screen — whether a feature film or a three-part TV series.

I was not familiar with the author, Rhiannon Grist, but I was drawn to this book based on the cover and description, as well as some ads I encountered. From the start I was impressed with HOME SICK's strong writing and unusual premise, and as the novel continued, I loved how strange it became. Grist approaches a difficult character with tenderness and honesty. I can think of a number of works to compare this to, but the overall effect is like nothing I've read before.

I never had any idea where this one was going! And I want to say nothing because I want everyone else to be as surprised as I was.

Home Sick follows Tamsin as she navigates rural living, having impulsively bought a house in a tiny village in Scotland. Her first surprise is that her cottage is a split. The second is that her new neighbor is a nocturnal nightmare.

Loved the first-person POV as Tamsin deals with social interactions, the past, and her own self-destructive behavior.

Exceptional storytelling. atmospheric Scottish highlands with a creepy freaky neighbor anyone? I cannot wait to get my hands on a physical copy of this. Unique, authentic, so so so very creepy. I had an incredible time with this one, whenever I put it down id just be thinking about when I'd get to read more pages of it. Gimme a strange village with strange traditions, lore and people I AM SAT.

My all time favorite horror vibes are feminine rage, and this one surely delivers. Tamsin turns to a Scottish cottage sight unseen, only to find out her new home is a duplex. (Having lived in several in my life, yikes) and her neighbor is totally creepy. She is vulnerable when she arrives and her paranoia is at an all time high, but mine would be too. This is a short but very spooky cottage core story that's based in Scottish folklore, which brings so much more to the table, since I haven't heard much in that aspect.

Brilliant! I absolutely loved this story. It was the perfect blend of all of my favorite elements — folk horror, unreliable narrator, small rural town, psychological reflection. This was great. I truly have no critiques, I just can’t wait for a few months to pass so I can read it again and get even more out of it. Love!!!

I have whiplash from this book, in the best possible way. I had high hopes for Home Sick and it smashed through every expectation I had. Perfectly blending psychological horror with gore and adding a heart-wrenching tale of loneliness and rage, I think I might have found perfection in these pages.

I specifically loved how raw the writing style was in Home Sick, I felt every emotion alongside the narrator Tamsin, and as she spiralled as the book went on, I was rooting for her at every turn. The further I got into the book, the more I felt like I was taking a deep dive into Tamsin's psychosis, struggling to know what was real and what she was truly experiencing which just added to the thrill of the book. When a horror novel makes me question my own sanity, I know it's done a good job!

I would really recommend going into this one blind and letting it shock you, avoiding spoilers is a must! For every woman who has felt left behind, overlooked, or forgotten, this one is for you.

Normally I don't really much like the "supernatural or madness" sub-genre of horror, but Home Sick absolutely nails the premise, somehow being a triple-threat of scary, sensitive, and sympathetic all at once. Holy hell, some of the scenes of this book were the scariest I've read, yet I still got behind the character driving development because the story didn't rely on (literary) jump scares or survival horror.

Its hard really to add much more to my review other than to simply say this book was good good good, READ IT!

Although October is my official spooky season at Kindig Blog, I love a horror story all year round. The blurb of Home Sick was really intriguing, and I was excited to get started!

Tamsin is ready for a fresh start – she buys a cottage in the middle of the countryside without viewing it and is ready to start a new life away from the world. However, when she arrives and discovers the house is a semi-detached with an erratic neighbour, she realises her new house might not be the peaceful haven she had imagined…

From the moment I started Home Sick, I was hooked. Rhiannon Grist has created a real, lived in character of Tamsin who I empathised with throughout. Don’t get me wrong – she has a lot of flaws; she’s angry at the world, paranoid about what people think of her and makes some silly decisions. However, none of these flaws felt out of character for her at any point – this was just who she was. Without any spoilers, her character has quite a journey and a personality arc to travel on which led to a satisfying conclusion.

There’s an undercurrent of tension and unease which runs throughout the story. As a reader, we are constantly kept on the back foot – unsure of what is real and what is happening in Tamsin’s imagination or thoughts. There is a lot of her backstory which we are also are kept in the dark about until the very end – with vague references to something that has happened at work in her past in Edinburgh which drove me forward – wanting to find out more. The supernatural and horror aspects of the book were great, although the main twist is signposted very early on which I think ruined the reveal somewhat.

Overall, Home Sick is a twisty psychological thriller which puts you right in the mind of its somewhat twisted main character and had me hooked from the outset. Thank you to NetGalley & Rebellion – Solaris for the chance to read the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

After a violent incident at work, Tamsin retreats to a remote cottage in the Scottish countryside, hoping to rebuild her life from the ground up. A fresh start, new friendships, a version of herself she can finally feel at peace with. But the isolation she seeks isn’t quite what she gets, the cottage is semi-detached, separated by only a thin wall from a deeply unsettling neighbor whose shifting demeanor and ever-present smile quickly put Tamsin on edge.
As strange disturbances begin to plague her home and the townspeople share unsettling stories about the house, Tamsin’s already fragile sense of reality starts to fracture. What follows is a slow spiral into paranoia, where the line between external threat and internal unraveling becomes increasingly blurred.
I really enjoyed this psychological horror debut. I’m always drawn to stories where the setting, especially a house, feels alive and unpredictable, and the story delivers on that front. The unease builds not just through the environment, but through Tamsin herself. As both narrator and focal point, she’s deeply self-deprecating, socially anxious, and prone to overanalyzing everything around her. At times, she’s incredibly relatable; at others, her perspective feels exaggerated, but intentionally so, reinforcing the story’s tension and ambiguity.
Grist leans into the unreliable narrator effectively, particularly in Tamsin’s interactions with her neighbor and the townspeople. Because of Tamsin’s own insecurities and tendency to overthink, we only ever see others at a distance, filtered through her perceptions, which often feel incomplete or skewed. This creates a sense of disconnection that works well thematically, though it did leave me wishing for a bit more depth and development from the supporting cast.
The novel starts on slightly uneven footing, as it establishes Tamsin’s voice and instability, but once the central mystery takes hold, the pacing sharpens considerably. The climax is especially well-executed: tense, satisfying, and, in a way, liberating for both Tamsin and the reader. The resolution ties together the psychological and horror elements in a way that feels earned and ultimately redeeming.
Overall, while the pacing may feel off at times, it seems intentional, mirroring Tamsin’s own mental state and gradual unraveling. Despite a few minor shortcomings, this book is a compelling and atmospheric read that effectively blends psychological tension with gothic horror.

Man did this book rip my anger-filled little heart right out of my chest, toss it around a bit, and put it back in upside down. I have always loved psychological horror and HOME SICK fit the bill perfectly and exceeded any expectations I had going in. Not to mention the self-reflection mirror that Grist holds up to their readers as if they are right alongside Tamsin, and the deep-rooted and at times suppressed memories or feelings that it stirs.

While I think (like most horror that isn't "typical" horror that non-horror readers expect) that this will not necessarily be the book for everyone, I really, really think it will find it's fucked up little home with those that it is. If you have enjoyed the horrifying vibes from books such as THE NIGHT GUEST, WE USED TO LIVE HERE, or INSOMNIA, give this gem a read when it publishes July 14th.

Huge thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for my early copies - my only gripe is now how long I have to wait before I can fangirl with other horror lovers over it...

This is one of those classic horror stories where you immediately understand that something bad has happened, which has sent the main character running for hills – quite literally, in this case. As such, the foreshadowing sense of suspense is partly what will carry you through the narrative until the end. There, at the end, you’ll see how all of the little signs, symbols and hints all fit together and paint a complete picture. And like a lot of psychological and folkloric horror, symbolism plays a huge role in this story. As does liminal spaces and permeable borders. You'll find plenty of intricate layers to the storytelling, especially as we delve into the main character’s psyche where the true driving force for the story lies. We have a heroine who is not who you think she is – largely because she is not who she actually thinks she is, except she yet has to realize this when the story opens – and while this doesn’t exactly make her an unreliable narrator (in my opinion), it does make her delightfully unpredictable to read.

This is the type of horror that looks inwards, at the sinew and bones of our bodies, and you'll enjoy every second of it!

Folk horror and weird girl come together in the best way. These are the type of stories that I have been ravenous for and the author absolutely delivered what I needed. Unsettling and creepy, I was enthralled from the start and it wrapped up as a satisfying ending!

What a strange, creepy read! The Scottish countryside made for the perfect setting for this dark and unsettling book. The plot was unique and intriguing to me, and it ended up being a twist I had never come across in a horror book before. Home Sick blends psychological and folk horror and will leave you guessing whether you’re following an unreliable narrator, if her house is haunted, or if you all just might be crazy.

Even though Tamsin is dealing with a lot, being in her head was a wild, fascinating ride. We don’t know what Tamsin is running from at first or why she thinks the way she does, but her thought spirals are entertaining while you’re trying to puzzle it together.

I really loved the ending and felt like it brought it all together as a very cohesive story. This is one I’ll be thinking about for a while.

4.5 stars rounded up

<b>Home Sick by Rhiannon Grist | Pub Date Jul 14 2026 </b>
Oh my, what a ride this book was! I absolutely loved it. Interestingly enough, I always thought that horror genre wasn’t for me. But when I finally gave it a chance, I realised I actually kind of like it. Now, saying that, I’m aware I haven’t really read full-on horror yet, but not everything at once, right? And, Home Sick felt more creepy than scary, if that makes any sense.
So, what do we have here? After something goes wrong at work in Edinburgh, Tamsin makes an impulsive decision to take a mortgage on an old cottage somewhere - middle of nowhere “on the way to the Highlands” - not far from a small village called Carlinsrest. When she arrives, she discovers unpleasant surprise. The cottage has two front doors, as a duplex. Safe to say, Tamsin wasn’t expecting (and didn’t want) to have a neighbours quite that close.
And meeting that neighbour doesn’t exactly reassure her.
From the start, Tamsin feels like something is off, but she can’t quite place it. Strange noises behind the shared wall, things moving around on the neighbour’s side, that constant feeling of not being alone, a strange door in the basement, a small rug and an axe. It all builds into something deeply unsettling.
Grist did such an amazing job weaving all of this together with touches of folklore. A lot of time I was wondering, was this really happening to Tamsin or was it all in her head? That uncertainty and eery atmosphere is what kept me go page after page, discover through weird things, layer after layer, the truth.
I’ll be honest, I’m often drawn to characters who have some kind of mental or emotional issues. As a mum of an autistic child, I find it especially interesting to see different perspectives of the world through a writer’s imagination. It gives you a glimpse into how differently reality can be experienced. In Home Sick, it was interesting to see how Tamsin reacts to situations with her social awkwardness, paranoid, anxiety. Even the way she overthinks about how people (and not only) see her. It all added depth and made her feel very real to me.
Overall, it’s a strange (in a good way), unusual read with a tense and creepy atmosphere. I strongly recommend add it to TBR and don’t keep it there for too long.
</i>Thanks to #NetGalley, the author and publisher for this ARC in exchange for my honest review.<i>

Introduction: I am here for the haunted house in the middle of nowhere, complete with a creepy neighbor and unknown small town. The first few chapters were intriguing, and I was fully hooked.
Vibes/Impressions/Themes: Haunted house, small towns, middle of nowhere, creepy neighbors, unsettling, haunting, creepy, paranoia, mysterious, fever dream, dark, gruesome, scary, anger, self-absorbed, insane, gritty, visceral
What didn’t work for me: My only, small complaint (and a completely “me-problem”), is I felt the end was a bit too tidy and clean and overexplained.
Overall: Wow, this was just incredible! Our main character, Tamsin, is a complete unknown. Is she sane, paranoid, self-absorbed – or is she really just going through it. A violent incident is hinted at, but what really was the cause. Self-defense, jealousy, something else? As Tamsin down-ward spirals, and her mysterious neighbor keeps creeping up, you being to wonder if this is a fever dream or Tamsin’s own making. And the forest scene – amazingly visceral and one of my favorite things I have read.

4/5 stars

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the free digital ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Well, I'm bloody unsettled. Rural scottish setting, eerie atmosphere and the sense that something is off with the village people will do that to me.

Tamsin is not the sort of person one warms up to on sight. Watching her trying to be “the friendly one” was absolutely painful and made me cringe in horror a lot. I think we all met people who are always low key miserable and grumpy, constantly agrrieved, everyone's always out to get them. Not someone most people want to be around. Well, Tamsin is like that, and we are in her head. As bad as it is, it's worse for her. She has to live with herself, after all.

This one is a slow burn, character driven psychological horror with a fairytale-esque vibe. I loved it.

The eerie atmosphere slowly builds with each chapter, creating a constant sense of unease that lingers long after you stop reading. A haunting, creepy story that keeps you looking over your shoulder. Definitely will be recommending this book to my friends to read!

Home Sick is slow-burn psychological horror that presses the same bruise with methodical precision until the discomfort becomes something close to revelation. Rhiannon Grist has written a debut that understands female rage not as empowerment but as wreckage, and builds a claustrophobic folkloric dread from nothing more than a thin shared wall and an unstable narrator who cannot outrun herself.


Full review will be published closer to the publication date

Well this was chilling! I read an eARC of this book on NetGalley so thank you to the author and the publisher.

We follow Tamsin as she abandons her life and job in the city to move to a rural cottage that she’s never seen before. She gets a shock when her deliberate isolation is interrupted by the cottage being semi-detached and she has a mysterious neighbour. Tamsin’s peace is disturbed by unnerving noises in the night and the changing appearance of the lady next door.

I found this absolutely gripping and I read it in one day. Tamsin is already quite unhinged, she’s got major family issues and she’s dealing with guilt and trauma over something that has happened at work that caused her to flee. The strange events next door are disquieting her further, pushing her towards her darkest impulses and self-destruction. We follow a battle with herself as she’s forced to deal with her issues.

The cottage is a great setting, so isolated and yet quite claustrophobic from the noises next door, the weird sloping ceilings and the odd things left behind. There is a village nearby but it’s a forty minute walk so she’s still quite isolated.

I found this book so engrossing. Tamsin isn’t exactly likeable but I was rooting for her, she’s flawed and she can be abrasive, but we understand why as the book goes on. This was a fantastic read!