"I tried not to think about my body most of the time, or even about being in a body. I'd often thought I would have preferred not to have one at all if I'd had the choice. To be able to just exist, floating around the world, quietly, observing, never being perceived."

GENRE: Psychological Horror with Scottish Folklore
RATING: 3.5/5
FORMAT: eBook & physical ARC

Overall Impression: Overall, I did like Home Sick as the writing was atmospherical and descriptive while the story left me wanting to know more. I think I just went into it expecting something different and it's definitely because I didnt realise it was heavily a psychological Horror. I'm not a huge thriller reader but I will say that the book felt more of a mesh between Psychological Thriller with some horror and folklore in it. We also have a little bit of an unreliable narrator, which was very fitting for the story too, but I dont usually read a lot of Psychological Horror OR books with unreliable narrators so this was an interesting experience for me in wondering what the point of the book was (and getting the answers in the end, which tied everything up to make it a good read).

Review:
I picked up Home Sick as it was folk horror with a cottage setting (cottagecore), which I love in most genres. After reading this, I can definitely say it had some folklore and it definitely played a role in the story but to me, Home Sick is definitely much more heavier on the Psychological Horror/Thriller than the Folk Horror.

All in all, the story was very atmospherical in the first half, which I loved and it gave us that whole Cottagecore vibes and added to the folklore aspect of it. The author does descriptions really well, whether it's nature based on of the cottage. We also get to know Tamsin and there's a lot of conflicting feelings about who she is and we, as the readers, feel that with her. You go back and forth with Tamsin, wondering if she is a good person, what the violent incident was at work and why did she need to escape to a remote cottage. You almost get to feel what she is feeling, her fear, paranoia, anger and have to question why she's feeling this way.

At the core of it, Home Sick is about not fitting in anywhere and the effect of it on Tamsin after a whole life time of trying to fit in and it never working out. The book takes you on a Tamsin's journey to discovering who she is, why she is the way she is and most importantly, maybe learning to accept herself. I think in the first half of the story, I did wonder if Tamsin was Autistic and reading the reviews, I can see that I wasn't the only one who picked up on this.

The horror elements were quite fun to read. It was scary in the way that is very realistic kind of scary, where our fears and insecurities come to life, with a little of folklore to help it. I think I would have loved a deeper dive into the folklore aspect as I am a huge fan of adding folklore in horror and learning more about it. I would recommend this book to people who enjoy both psychological horror and thriller generally as it might be a great book to expand into folk horror as a sub-genre as well. It's also a good book for people who want a mesh of both thriller and horror, as there are some external horrors in here but Home Sick is mainly about Tamsin and her internal fears with it manifesting externally.

I was provided a free advance reader copy and I’m sharing my honest thoughts.