Nestlings

Banger!!!!

Wowowowow... yes this book was creepy and weird but in the most perfect way. I felt like I was watching a horror movie the entire time I read it. I normally don't read acknowledgments at the end of books but Nat Cassidy wrote the most incredibly touching and insightful essay at the end describing the grief and pain that inspired this book and it was so moving. I think this book may be a new favorite

Cassandra Campbell did a great job with the audio, giving life to each character and the horrors that follow.

A lottery pick they never thought they’d win, Ana and Reid just won a spot at the Deptford. The affordable apartment seems too good to be true, and even after the birth of their first child left Ana paralyzed from the waist down, they decide to accept, regardless of the single elevator and high floor. Moving isn’t easy on anyone, but harbored resentments, a nearly one year old, and perhaps some evilness, all culminate into one wicked transition.

For me, with the old building, the famous, richer inhabitants, and the down-on-their-luck newbies, this had reminiscent notes of Sager’s Lock Every Door. And while I have not read Salem’s Lot or Rosemary’s Baby (yet), I can tell that those comparison titles are where Cassidy imbues his horror elements over Sager’s thriller feels. And I really enjoyed how the author bleeds anxiety and paranoia into his characters differently. Ana takes on the more literal approach, with her suspecting something is wrong and trying to get away. And then Reid is the slower, irritability that permeates over time. His job, his wife, his friends, the littlest things start to tip him over, and I feel like the author handles that very well.

This sort of slow burn infestation of fear works really well for this novel. Reid just wants to provide and do what’s best for his family. A few things going terrible wrong? Well that can just be chalked up to the moving stress, can’t it?

While trying to stay as spoiler free as possible, the twist in the end with how each parent differed, did surprise me in the best way and I’m glad I rooted for who I did. I enjoyed this take on the Jewish ‘vampire’ and the inclusion definitely made it something unique.

Old buildings and history are the heart of NYC, just make sure the ones you move to don’t have a literal heart…

We have had plenty of warnings about gargoyles over the years. Tales From The Darkside, Gremlins 2, and even The Hunchback of Notre Dame, to name a few. While these gothic-style architectural elements might speak to your personal design aesthetic, just make sure they were placed on the building to ward off the right folks. The second these stoic water spewing stone creatures were seen by Ana and Reid (a young family who moved into a historical Manhattan apartment that adorned them.) I knew something sinister was on the horizon.

First things first. The book's selling point mentions similarities between Salem's Lot and Rosemary's Baby. I'd caution anyone using the blurb to pick this one up. With that being said, it does offer a more “modern” take on the sensibilities found in the inspired books, but IMHO, I'd recommend reading those two masterpieces before tackling this one.

What's it about? Well, a young family wins a placement lottery for an old, historic apartment on the upper west side of New York. The couple has a newborn and must juggle creative jobs, friends, strange inhabitants, and other things that go bump in the night. It basically follows the plot of Ghostbusters 2. Replace Vigo with a similar antagonist, replace the ghost in the window with a different kind of baby snatcher, replace bathtub monsters with other similar entities, and replace Yanoish with another creepy “human” type helper, etc.

The book delves into themes such as postpartum depression, identity crisis, anxiety, recovering from a disability, relationship woes, and being overworked.

The characterizations grafted onto these themes, while traumatic, never really picked up steam for me. They were sort of used as fade-to-black moments at the end of each chapter. The problem is, those curtain closing moments, if explored, would have been much more fun and engaging. The flow just seemed a bit off to me. Also, it's really hard to root for either of the MC's. They both have personalities that go from zero to a hundred in a split second and neither of them have any meaningful conversations, which left me scratching my head quite a bit. When the going gets tough, and certain elements are revealed, it's just sort of accepted and the chapters fade. I wish more care would have been put into the characters and not steam rolled ahead with the plot. Clarity is not needed, but a little bit of heart goes a long way.

I guess this sounds like I did not enjoy it, but I did like some elements. It's just getting harder for “modern” horror tales to appease my inner horror spirit these days. I enjoy a good nature vs. nurture story just like the next person, but this tale just does not add much to the convo. However, even though some elements may be plucked from your favorite horror stories or movies, it still manages to send a shiver or two down the spine. I'm looking at you, relator.

The last third is sort of “info-dumpy” and pretty much aligns with your preconceived notions. It's not a stretch to say the ending was inspired by The Shining.

thought i knew where this was going multiple times but by the end i was so pleasantly surprised...and content bc there were so many opportunities for cop outs that wouldve been easy but so unsatisfying and im glad that was not the route taken. nat cassidy on my list of authors i will definitely keep up with for sure

Nestlings is truly creepy, something I was personally pretty grateful for considering my last horror read didn't feel especially spooky. I went in blind, so I had no idea what the horror aspect was, and I spent about half the book guessing, which was a lot of fun. I love that Cassidy didn't go with the typical tropes so even once I had figured it out, I was still surprised by various characteristics and rules of the Big Bad (which I'm not mentioning in case someone else wants to go in blind, but it's easy enough to look up).

I love how complicated Ana was. She struggled with bitterness over her parapalegia and resentment of her daughter in addition to the normal postpartum stuff. After all, she wouldn't be paralyzed if she hadn't had Charlie. The constant fight in her mind between loving and hating her baby, and then the guilt she felt afterward, the worry she wouldnt and couldn't be a good mother, was heartbreaking. Ana struggled with Reid as well, but in my opinion, anyone would. Reid was a colossal ass. Once upon a time, before this book began, he may have been a good guy, but not anymore. He didn't feel like a complex character, he just felt like an incredibly selfish jerk that only does things that will serve him. He was suffering mentally, just as Ana was, but the ways in which they handled it were so different. Sometimes I did feel like he had a right to be the way he was, or that it made sense, but I was constantly angry at him and even had to remind myself once that he isn't a real person.

There were a few things that were brought up or events that took place that confused me. I understood what was going on, but I didn't really know why it was going on. It didn't feel like filler, exactly, but it didn't feel necessary either. So yeah, a few things had me scratching my head, but the story was good enough that it was easy to shrug them off.

The formatting of the book was very pleasing to me, so I want to mention it too. Short chapters were broken down into small, numbered chunks, and paragraphs were small. I've never complained about paragraph or chapter length before but I liked this very much. Nestlings takes place during the pandemic and in a note at the end, Cassidy explains why. He wanted to “capture the incredibly strange period of time we were living through in 2021 (and '22)” where people wanted the pandemic to be over, but it wasn't quite. Some pretended it was. Some couldn't. It was just a very odd, nebulous time. I think he did a good job of capturing that uncomfortable feeling of the unknown.

Nestlings is a story of grief. It's a story of the complexity of motherhood. It's about feeling like you don't belong . And it's about an ancient evil that predates crosses 😉

Ok now that was weird, but also immensely fun

Mary is one of if not my favorite book of all time so I had very high hopes for this one and it was more than I could've asked for and I loved everything about it and how the plot unfolded, Nat Cassidy please never stop writing books!

I knew I was going to like this book when I saw the epigraph was two of my favorite songs by the Mountain Goats (The house that dripped blood and This year) but oh my goodness, I'm floored by how much I ended up loving it! it's reminiscent of early Stephen King (and no doubt inspired by it, as mentioned in the author's afterword). The themes of grief and disability particularly struck a chord with me, and certain imagery made my skin crawl. There was something visceral about this book that really worked for me. Also that afterword? Beautiful. It made me sob.

4.5 stars!! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️✨
It was a great exploration of grief and postpartum depression. The characters were well thought out and raw with a great deal of sympathy for what they were going through. You can tell this was carefully written.

I love the writing style. Comedic horror is to the likes of Grady Hendrix (in my opinion). They say this a mix of Rosemarys Babe and Salems Lot, but it also reminded me a lot of Lock Every Door by Riley Sager. If you enjoyed that one and are looking for a more in depth horror version, I'd highly recommend Nestlings!

I brought it down a half star only because of how dense the information was. For an under 300 page book, we still could've done without interludes and would still be jam packed with things going on.


Regardless, this was a great read.

There were some scenes that really made me squirm. I had a great time with this. Definitely take the content warnings at the beginning seriously. 

This book broke my heart. I loved every minute of it.

Thank you to Netgalley for my very first ALC/ARC!
This book was marketed as mystery/thriller on Netgalley, but I would definitely call it horror. I'm not a huge horror reader, especially not body horror, so it threw me for a loop. I still enjoyed it for the most part, though! This book twists and turns until the very end and leaves you guessing. The conclusion had me on the floor.

My only gripe was how the audiobook was split into very small sections, but that might have been a Netgalley thing? I'm hoping so.

Rating: 2.8 leaves out of 5-Characters: 2.75/5 -Cover: 4.5/5-Story: 2/5-Writing: 4/5Genre: Horror, Mystery, Contemporary, Thriller, Fantasy, Vampire-Horror: .5/5-Contemporary: 2.75/5-Mystery: 2.5/5-Thriller: 1/5-Vampire: 3/5-Fantasy: 5/5Type: AudiobookWorth?: EhHated Disliked Meh It Was Okay Liked Loved FavoritedWant to thank Netgalley and publishers for giving me the chance to read this book.This book just wasn't for me. I found I had to force myself to pick this book back up. I didn't care for any of the main characters and the horror just wasn't there. I know it was suppose to be like two big books put together but I don't think it did the best job.