The Homecoming - Andrew Pyper

Psychological Horror

Rating: 8.5/10

This brilliant book straddles the fence between terrifying horror and family saga. Never have I seen it portrayed more acutely that family members often have different versions of the same truth.

After the death of the absentee patriarch of the family, the others gather at a remote estate for the reading of the will.  They are informed that they must spend thirty days there to meet the conditions of their inheritance. It takes no time at all for the nightmarish revelations of past and present to descend and have them questioning if any sum of money is worth this.

Like Stephen King, Pypers’ writing evokes his characters dimensions such that the reader feels they can reach out and touch them. Which ensures a good night’s rest remains out of ones grasp for the duration of the story.

Footnote: A good writer can leave the reader with a sublime arrangement of words that linger past the turning of the last page. Here, for me, it was, “Two deaths result from dying. The first is the failure of the body. The second is the failure of the living to remember.”