Nat Cassidy, author of the acclaimed horror Mary, returns with When the Wolf Comes Home, an unabashed, adrenaline-fueled pop horror thriller where the darkest fears can become reality.
A USA Today bestseller!
ABA Indie Bookseller bestseller!
‘Get your claws into this one, horror fiends. It's terrific. . . . Sink your teeth into a classic.’—Stephen King
‘A crazy-good, balls-to-the-wall horror novel . . . it’s full throttle from the first pages.’ —Joe Hill
‘This is the kind of great, big, epic horror novel we got back in the '80s that came out swinging for the fences and left everything on the field. Welcome back, you shaggy, bloody monster of a book!’ —Grady Hendrix
Best Books of 2025—Vulture
The 25 Best and Most Anticipated Horror Books of 2025—Men's Health
Most Anticipated Horror of 2025—Paste Magazine, LitHub
One night, Jess, a struggling actress, finds a five-year-old runaway hiding in the bushes outside her apartment. After a violent, bloody encounter with the boy's father, she and the boy find themselves running for their lives.
As they attempt to evade the boy's increasingly desperate father, Jess slowly comes to a horrifying understanding of the butchery that follows them—the boy can turn his every fear into reality.
And when the wolf finally comes home, no one will be spared.
Other Books by Nat Cassidy
Mary, an Awakening of Terror
Nestlings
At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
Genre: Horror
A USA Today bestseller!
ABA Indie Bookseller bestseller!
‘Get your claws into this one, horror fiends. It's terrific. . . . Sink your teeth into a classic.’—Stephen King
‘A crazy-good, balls-to-the-wall horror novel . . . it’s full throttle from the first pages.’ —Joe Hill
‘This is the kind of great, big, epic horror novel we got back in the '80s that came out swinging for the fences and left everything on the field. Welcome back, you shaggy, bloody monster of a book!’ —Grady Hendrix
Best Books of 2025—Vulture
The 25 Best and Most Anticipated Horror Books of 2025—Men's Health
Most Anticipated Horror of 2025—Paste Magazine, LitHub
One night, Jess, a struggling actress, finds a five-year-old runaway hiding in the bushes outside her apartment. After a violent, bloody encounter with the boy's father, she and the boy find themselves running for their lives.
As they attempt to evade the boy's increasingly desperate father, Jess slowly comes to a horrifying understanding of the butchery that follows them—the boy can turn his every fear into reality.
And when the wolf finally comes home, no one will be spared.
Other Books by Nat Cassidy
Mary, an Awakening of Terror
Nestlings
At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
Genre: Horror
Praise for this book
"A savage howl into the night, When the Wolf Comes Home achieves a rare depth that is Cassidy's signature style. Here lies horror, characters you care about, in situations you can barely fathom. First class." - Gemma Amor
"When the Wolf Comes Home is a big, brawling horror novel that moves with relentless velocity and pitiless fury. Even so, it's driven by a big red beating heart, full of compassion for its characters, if not mercy. Cassidy has raised the bar with this one. It deserves to be a bestseller." - Nathan Ballingrud
"Utterly relentless, this kinetic hot rod of a horror novel is pure adrenalized dread that starts and never stops and nothing will save you from its breakneck tension, bone-breaking horror, and heartbroken prose." - Clay McLeod Chapman
"When the Wolf Comes Home has the feel of a modern-day Twilight Zone episode. Conceptually daring, riveting on the page, shockingly intense in spots, the book is bound together at the heart by a relationship between two lost souls seeking peace. Equal parts scary and soulful." - Nick Cutter
"When the Wolf Comes Home is an imaginative, adrenaline-fueled wild ride through the babysitting job from Hell. Brims with both horror and heart." - Tananarive Due
"When the Wolf Comes Home is a wolf-headed chimera of a novel about monstrous fathers, the power of imagination, and the brutal chaos of creating-the terrors we ignite into being, intentionally and unwittingly, as parents, as children, as tender souls bound together by the pain and violence we can't stop inflicting on each other. This full-tilt, wildly imaginative creature feature moves like a four-legged beast hungry for revenge-it will rip your throat out and devour your heart. Nat Cassidy fans will be left howling for more." - Luke Dumas
"When the Wolf Comes Home kicks so much ass! The less you know going in, the better, but I'll tell you this much-it's not at all what you're expecting! Full of heart and harrowing suspense, it belongs on the shelf next to Firestarter, and reminds me of one of my favorite short stories, which I can't reveal without spoiling the plot! Enough talk...just read it!" - Christopher Golden
"Nat Cassidy delivers another new horror classic. Inventive yet satisfyingly nostalgic, brutal and terrifying yet poignant and heartfelt, an exhilarating thrill-ride with breakneck pacing that's as entertaining as it is profound. When the Wolf Comes Home cements Cassidy's status as one of horror's all-time greats. His best yet." - Rachel Harrison
"This is the kind of great, big, epic horror novel we got back in the '80s that came out swinging for the fences and left everything on the field. Welcome back, you shaggy, bloody monster of a book!" - Grady Hendrix
"Straight out of the Twilight Zone, a page-a-minute horror thriller that delivers ALL THE FEELS. Heart-pounding and hearts-wrenching at the same time with a twist at the end that might cold-cock you. Nat Cassidy is proving to be a singular voice in horror-crazily imaginative and deeply human." - Alma Katsu
"With this cinematic, reality-bending adventure that's as terrifying as it is profound, Nat Cassidy solidifies himself as one of the most innovative minds in this genre today (and probably ever). When the Wolf Comes Home delivers one breathless, relentless rug-pull after another, increasing in intensity as we come to adore these characters. After the last page, I was still sitting there picking my jaw up off the floor, hoping it wasn't really over and that there was yet another surprise lurking around the corner." - Liz Kerin
"When The Wolf Comes Home is a sharp-edged metaphor for trauma and rage, for how they seep into us, how we carry them in us and how sometimes, we pass them on like a curse." - Cassandra Khaw
"Nat Cassidy's mind is insane, and I mean that as the highest compliment. Only he could come up with a story as unique and universally true as this. When the Wolf Comes Home deftly explores fear and the ways in which it can consume us in childhood and beyond. It's scary, it's wild, it's heartfelt, and there's nothing else like it. I promise you have no idea where this book is going, and you're going to love every page." - CJ Leede
"I finished reading the book about a week ago, and it keeps sliding back into my thoughts and conversations. ... Wolf carries with it a harrowing inevitability. The feeling you get, maybe, when one enters the Twilight Zone, and you just know things will be different now. ... Nat Cassidy has tapped into something with this one: it's the mood all us readers are always digging for: the Truth, a truth, his truth... the sort of truth you add to your own." - Josh Malerman
"An adrenalized, page-turning fairy tale of terror that hunts you down and reminds you that there's nothing more terrifying than fear itself. Cassidy's latest plunges the reader into a shape-shifting nightmare-When the Wolf Comes Home takes you in its jaws and shakes until you scream." - Ellie Marney
"When the Wolf Comes Home is somehow terrifying, utterly moving, and funny all at once. A rip-roaring (and sometimes simply roaring) journey through fear itself, it asks intelligent questions about what it takes to be brave when the world keeps unveiling horror after horror." - Clémence Michallon
"How can you outrun something that will never stop? Nat Cassidy gives us a werewolf novel that transcends horror, in which fear is not as simple as a hulking monster lurking in the shadows, but something much more complex. A thrilling journey through the darkness." - Cynthia Pelayo
"At a point it becomes clear Nat Cassidy has lost his mind, and I love it. When the Wolf Comes Home tears loose from the start. No sitting around-you're on the run with this book, driving off the ledge of full weird and into a wonderful shapeshifting fusion of terror and awe." - Hailey Piper
"When the Wolf Comes Home is a wildly inventive horror novel, and a ripping, bloody page-turner. But that's not all it is-in its beating heart there's a fierce, moving treatise about love, parenthood, and notions of familial indebtedness. I loved it." - Keith Rosson
"Pulse-pounding and heart-wrenching, Nat Cassidy has given us a new breed of terror. This is not your granny's big bad wolf." - Lindy Ryan
"Nat Cassidy's When the Wolf Comes Home reads like a movie-in-the-mind, with relentless action ratcheting up the fear and terror, and characters portrayed with real depth and nuance. This is horror at its best." - Thomas Tessier
"A teeth-snapping, heart-racing, stomach-churning thrill ride. Fans of Nick Harkaway's The Gone-Away World will eat this one up, because that's what I did - devoured it in a single bite. Deliciously painful." - Ally Wilkes
"Nat Cassidy's When the Wolf Comes Home isn't just about the monsters that live under your bed, it's about the monsters that live in your heart. It's a killer." - Erika T Wurth
"When the Wolf Comes Home is a big, brawling horror novel that moves with relentless velocity and pitiless fury. Even so, it's driven by a big red beating heart, full of compassion for its characters, if not mercy. Cassidy has raised the bar with this one. It deserves to be a bestseller." - Nathan Ballingrud
"Utterly relentless, this kinetic hot rod of a horror novel is pure adrenalized dread that starts and never stops and nothing will save you from its breakneck tension, bone-breaking horror, and heartbroken prose." - Clay McLeod Chapman
"When the Wolf Comes Home has the feel of a modern-day Twilight Zone episode. Conceptually daring, riveting on the page, shockingly intense in spots, the book is bound together at the heart by a relationship between two lost souls seeking peace. Equal parts scary and soulful." - Nick Cutter
"When the Wolf Comes Home is an imaginative, adrenaline-fueled wild ride through the babysitting job from Hell. Brims with both horror and heart." - Tananarive Due
"When the Wolf Comes Home is a wolf-headed chimera of a novel about monstrous fathers, the power of imagination, and the brutal chaos of creating-the terrors we ignite into being, intentionally and unwittingly, as parents, as children, as tender souls bound together by the pain and violence we can't stop inflicting on each other. This full-tilt, wildly imaginative creature feature moves like a four-legged beast hungry for revenge-it will rip your throat out and devour your heart. Nat Cassidy fans will be left howling for more." - Luke Dumas
"When the Wolf Comes Home kicks so much ass! The less you know going in, the better, but I'll tell you this much-it's not at all what you're expecting! Full of heart and harrowing suspense, it belongs on the shelf next to Firestarter, and reminds me of one of my favorite short stories, which I can't reveal without spoiling the plot! Enough talk...just read it!" - Christopher Golden
"Nat Cassidy delivers another new horror classic. Inventive yet satisfyingly nostalgic, brutal and terrifying yet poignant and heartfelt, an exhilarating thrill-ride with breakneck pacing that's as entertaining as it is profound. When the Wolf Comes Home cements Cassidy's status as one of horror's all-time greats. His best yet." - Rachel Harrison
"This is the kind of great, big, epic horror novel we got back in the '80s that came out swinging for the fences and left everything on the field. Welcome back, you shaggy, bloody monster of a book!" - Grady Hendrix
"Straight out of the Twilight Zone, a page-a-minute horror thriller that delivers ALL THE FEELS. Heart-pounding and hearts-wrenching at the same time with a twist at the end that might cold-cock you. Nat Cassidy is proving to be a singular voice in horror-crazily imaginative and deeply human." - Alma Katsu
"With this cinematic, reality-bending adventure that's as terrifying as it is profound, Nat Cassidy solidifies himself as one of the most innovative minds in this genre today (and probably ever). When the Wolf Comes Home delivers one breathless, relentless rug-pull after another, increasing in intensity as we come to adore these characters. After the last page, I was still sitting there picking my jaw up off the floor, hoping it wasn't really over and that there was yet another surprise lurking around the corner." - Liz Kerin
"When The Wolf Comes Home is a sharp-edged metaphor for trauma and rage, for how they seep into us, how we carry them in us and how sometimes, we pass them on like a curse." - Cassandra Khaw
"Nat Cassidy's mind is insane, and I mean that as the highest compliment. Only he could come up with a story as unique and universally true as this. When the Wolf Comes Home deftly explores fear and the ways in which it can consume us in childhood and beyond. It's scary, it's wild, it's heartfelt, and there's nothing else like it. I promise you have no idea where this book is going, and you're going to love every page." - CJ Leede
"I finished reading the book about a week ago, and it keeps sliding back into my thoughts and conversations. ... Wolf carries with it a harrowing inevitability. The feeling you get, maybe, when one enters the Twilight Zone, and you just know things will be different now. ... Nat Cassidy has tapped into something with this one: it's the mood all us readers are always digging for: the Truth, a truth, his truth... the sort of truth you add to your own." - Josh Malerman
"An adrenalized, page-turning fairy tale of terror that hunts you down and reminds you that there's nothing more terrifying than fear itself. Cassidy's latest plunges the reader into a shape-shifting nightmare-When the Wolf Comes Home takes you in its jaws and shakes until you scream." - Ellie Marney
"When the Wolf Comes Home is somehow terrifying, utterly moving, and funny all at once. A rip-roaring (and sometimes simply roaring) journey through fear itself, it asks intelligent questions about what it takes to be brave when the world keeps unveiling horror after horror." - Clémence Michallon
"How can you outrun something that will never stop? Nat Cassidy gives us a werewolf novel that transcends horror, in which fear is not as simple as a hulking monster lurking in the shadows, but something much more complex. A thrilling journey through the darkness." - Cynthia Pelayo
"At a point it becomes clear Nat Cassidy has lost his mind, and I love it. When the Wolf Comes Home tears loose from the start. No sitting around-you're on the run with this book, driving off the ledge of full weird and into a wonderful shapeshifting fusion of terror and awe." - Hailey Piper
"When the Wolf Comes Home is a wildly inventive horror novel, and a ripping, bloody page-turner. But that's not all it is-in its beating heart there's a fierce, moving treatise about love, parenthood, and notions of familial indebtedness. I loved it." - Keith Rosson
"Pulse-pounding and heart-wrenching, Nat Cassidy has given us a new breed of terror. This is not your granny's big bad wolf." - Lindy Ryan
"Nat Cassidy's When the Wolf Comes Home reads like a movie-in-the-mind, with relentless action ratcheting up the fear and terror, and characters portrayed with real depth and nuance. This is horror at its best." - Thomas Tessier
"A teeth-snapping, heart-racing, stomach-churning thrill ride. Fans of Nick Harkaway's The Gone-Away World will eat this one up, because that's what I did - devoured it in a single bite. Deliciously painful." - Ally Wilkes
"Nat Cassidy's When the Wolf Comes Home isn't just about the monsters that live under your bed, it's about the monsters that live in your heart. It's a killer." - Erika T Wurth
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