NESTLINGS by Nat Cassidy

Other Books I Enjoyed by This Author: MARY

Affiliate Link: https://bookshop.org/a/7576/9781250265258

Release Date: October 31st, 2023

General Genre: Horror, Supernatural

Sub-Genre/Themes: New York City, Physically disabled MC, City Life, Apartment Complexes, New parents, Marriage, Neighbors, Racial tension, Jewish MCs, Antisemitism, Social commentary,

Writing Style: Multiple POVs, intimate, intricately plotted, suspenseful

What You Need to Know: I listened to the audiobook (NetGalley provided) and read my physical copy because I found the narrator’s voice (Cassandra Campbell) a bit annoying after a while. Specifically, sometimes her voice for Ana was light and delicate/sophisticated–almost soothing, at other times, it sounded almost “valley girl”--I tapped out during one scene where she had to repeat the word, “okay” and I just couldn’t hang with it anymore. So I don’t recommend the audiobook.

My Reading Experience: A couple, Ana and Reid win an affordable housing lottery for an apartment in an affluent apartment complex/highrise in New York City. They tour the apartment and decide to accept the offer to move in despite Ana’s misgivings about accessibility issues (she’s paralyzed from the waist down and in a wheelchair).
The comps to Rosemary’s Baby are valid. Both stories begin with a young, newly married couple moving into a desirable apartment complex with stars in their eyes at the prospect of having such a treasured address in the City. Ana has a lot of concerns and seems to notice off-putting, curious things about their new residence, while Reid is slightly less attuned to their surroundings.

I enjoyed the growing sense of dread and the carefully orchestrated progression of their life slowly spinning out of control. The author is keen to drop the reader breadcrumbs; revealing things going on behind the scenes that readers are privy to but the main characters are not through multiple POVs. In the middle, the pacing does meander a bit.
Nestlings and Rosemary’s Baby have almost the exact same page count of 300 and yet, the latter manages to escalate the dread, suspense, and terror throughout the entire length of the book with masterful precision causing the pages to fly by, while NESTLINGS suffers a little with several breaks in tension where the reader isn’t prompted by a hook to keep going-but I did because I had to know what would happen and because I did not want to miss out on any of Cassidy's imaginative/original, creepy scenes of terror.
I absolutely love his storytelling voice. I think it’s accessible and engaging. He’s great at authentic dialogue and characterization. I love his sense of humor that permeates through the atmosphere, lightening things up once in a while. I appreciated Cassidy’s authorial asides, peppering the plot with social commentary through the couple’s former landlord–I loved to hate him.
Other reviewers are mentioning some key elements about the plot that I think are best to protect for the sake of reader’s discovery so I’ll just say there are some intense scenes of body horror that are exhilarating.

Final Recommendation: Horror fans who crave those old, Paperbacks From Hell vibes will love this story. It feels like a horror book from the ‘80s or ‘90s. The setup, the build, the scares, and the body horror are classic. The visuals are extremely cinematic and at times, felt like those old school, black & white movies that take place in one setting–in this case, a creepy old apartment complex. Really a lot of fun.

Comps: I like the author’s comps that he included in his Goodreads “review” Rosemary’s Baby by Ira Levin, Salem’s Lot by Stephen King, The Changeling by Victor LaValle (yes!), Baby Teeth by Zoje Stage, and The Tribe by Bari Wood