Ana and Reid have been dealt a hard hand. Fertility treatments that drained their savings, complications during the birth of their daughter that resulted in Ana’s paralyzation. Being first time parents and adapting to newfound paralysis has been a tough battle. A stroke of good luck seems to materialize when they are selected in an affordable housing lottery to live in one of the most prestigious apartment buildings in NYC. Sharing a space with the one percenters and existing amongst to die for architecture feels too good to be true, like they don’t belong there. Maybe it’s because they don’t.

I read Mary last year and the title solidified Cassidy as an auto-buy author for me. The ability to write women in a way that is so deeply rooted in the traumas we endure while consistently being cognizant of the nuances of those traumas, as a man, is impressive. In Nestlings, the characters are faced with unimaginable hurdles that build on one another and calcify. The weight of these events is palpable to start, and by the end of the novel downright suffocating. The very real themes: postpartum depression, ableism, anti-Semitism, and PTSD amplify the horrors revealed later in the story. Ana and Reid are scarred from the hardships they’ve endured, making decisions that complicate things, leading the narrative into a frenzied, dark space. Flawed characters make for realistic ones, allowing room for the fantastical elements of the story to take hold and SCARE. 

I really loved this one, it had me really wanting to jump into the book and be a shoulder for Ana to lean on. If you’re into horror that’s heavy on the empathy, this is a must.