Nestlings

Nat Cassidy writes horror for the page, stage, and screen. His novels, including Mary: An Awakening of Terror and Nestlings, have been featured in best-of lists from Esquire, Harper's Bazaar, NPR, the Chicago Review of Books, Amazon, the NY Public Library, CrimeReads and more, and he was named one of the "writers shaping horror’s next golden age" by Esquire. He lives in New York City with his wife.

PRAISE FOR WHEN THE WOLF COMES HOMEGOODREADS READERS' MOST ANTICIPATED HORROR NOVELS 2025 PASTE MAGAZINE MOST ANTICIPATED HORROR NOVELS 2025 USA TODAY BESTSELLERGet your claws into this one, horror fiends. It's terrific. . . . Sink your teeth into a classic.- Stephen KingCrazy-good, balls-to-the-wall horror... When The Wolf Comes Home is so uniquely itself, comparisons are unhelpful. It moves, that's the important thing: it's full throttle from the first pages-Joe HillThis is the kind of great, big, epic horror novel we got back in the '80s that came out swinging for the fences and left everything on the field. Welcome back, you shaggy, bloody monster of a book!-Grady HendrixWhen the Wolf Comes Home is an imaginative, adrenaline-fueled wild ride through the babysitting job from Hell. Brims with both horror and heart.-Tananarive Due, author of The ReformatoryNat Cassidy is quickly becoming one of those names in horror along with Tananarive Due, Keith Rosson and Silvia Moreno-Garcia that inhabit the go to' section of my brain with it comes to picking up new books. They always delight, intrigue and horrify. Guaranteed to deliver. Patton OswaltWith fresh prose and nonstop movement, it's hard to put down. VarietySuperb . . . wildly entertaining . . . After a fresh take on ghosts in Mary, his debut novel, a twist on vampires in Nestlings, and now a shapeshifting werewolf novel that's much more than it promises, it's clear that Cassidy wants to show that nothing is old if you make it new, and that no trope is too tired in the hands of a good storyteller. NPRCassidy's novel stretches and contorts into something far stranger, more audacious, and ultimately, both heartbreaking and triumphant. There's a big appetite for earnest, retro-horror right now, and mixing the heart and characterization of '80s Stephen King with the propulsive energy of Dean Koontz at his best When the Wolf Comes Home is proof that they can still write 'em like that, but with a contemporary flair all of its own. VultureWhen The Wolf Comes Home is a sharp-edged metaphor for trauma and rage, for how they seep into us, how we carry them in us and how sometimes, we pass them on like a curse.-Cassandra Khaw, Bram Stoker Award-winning author of Nothing But Blackened TeethWhen the Wolf Comes Home has the feel of a modern-day Twilight Zone episode. Conceptually daring, riveting on the page, shockingly intense in spots, the book is bound together at the heart by a relationship between two lost souls seeking peace. Equal parts scary and soulful.-Nick CutterWhen the Wolf Comes Home is a big, brawling horror novel that moves with relentless velocity and pitiless fury. Even so, it's driven by a big red beating heart, full of compassion for its characters, if not mercy. Cassidy has raised the bar with this one. It deserves to be a bestseller.-Nathan Ballingrud, author of North American Lake Monsters and The StrangeNat Cassidy's When the Wolf Comes Home reads like a movie-in-the-mind, with relentless action ratcheting up the fear and terror, and characters portrayed with real depth and nuance. This is horror at its best.-Thomas Tessier, author of The NightwalkerUltimately, this was about the importance of stories, more importantly, the ones we tell ourselves, our internal becomes our external and shapes our reality, so make sure the story you tell yourself is a good one. It's about acknowledging your fears, giving them a little nod, and carrying on. It's clear from his third book that no one is spared when Cassidy puts pen to paper.-Scream Magazine UKWhen the Wolf Comes Home kicks so much ass! The less you know going in, the better, but I'll tell you this much-it's not at all what you're expecting! Full of heart and harrowing suspense, it belongs on the shelf next to Firestarter, and reminds me of one of my favorite short stories, which I can't reveal without spoiling the plot! Enough talk...just read it!-Christopher Golden, New York Times bestselling author of The House of Last Resort and Road of BonesHow can you outrun something that will never stop? Nat Cassidy gives us a werewolf novel that transcends horror, in which fear is not as simple as a hulking monster lurking in the shadows, but something much more complex. A thrilling journey through the darkness.-Cynthia Pelayo, Bram Stoker Award-winning author of Vanishing DaughtersWhen the Wolf Comes Home is a wildly inventive horror novel, and a ripping, bloody page-turner. But that's not all it is-in its beating heart there's a fierce, moving treatise about love, parenthood, and notions of familial indebtedness. I loved it.-Keith Rosson, author of Fever House and The Devil By NameNat Cassidy's mind is insane, and I mean that as the highest compliment. Only he could come up with a story as unique and universally true as this. When the Wolf Comes Home deftly explores fear and the ways in which it can consume us in childhood and beyond. It's scary, it's wild, it's heartfelt, and there's nothing else like it. I promise you have no idea where this book is going, and you're going to love every page.-CJ Leede, author of Maeve Fly and American RaptureWith this cinematic, reality-bending adventure that's as terrifying as it is profound, Nat Cassidy solidifies himself as one of the most innovative minds in this genre today (and probably ever). When the Wolf Comes Home delivers one breathless, relentless rug-pull after another, increasing in intensity as we come to adore these characters. After the last page, I was still sitting there picking my jaw up off the floor, hoping it wasn't really over and that there was yet another surprise lurking around the corner.-Liz Kerin, author of First Light and Night's EdgeAt a point it becomes clear Nat Cassidy has lost his mind, and I love it. When the Wolf Comes Home tears loose from the start. No sitting around-you're on the run with this book, driving off the ledge of full weird and into a wonderful shapeshifting fusion of terror and awe.-Hailey Piper, Bram Stoker Award-winning author of A Light Most HatefulNat Cassidy delivers another new horror classic. Inventive yet satisfyingly nostalgic, brutal and terrifying yet poignant and heartfelt, an exhilarating thrill-ride with breakneck pacing that's as entertaining as it is profound. When the Wolf Comes Home cements Cassidy's status as one of horror's all-time greats. His best yet.--Rachel Harrison, USA Today bestselling author of So Thirsty and Black SheepA savage howl into the night, When the Wolf Comes Home achieves a rare depth that is Cassidy's signature style. Here lies horror, characters you care about, in situations you can barely fathom. First class.-Gemma Amor, Bram Stoker Award nominated author of Dear Laura and Full ImmersionAn adrenalized, page-turning fairy tale of terror that hunts you down and reminds you that there's nothing more terrifying than fear itself. Cassidy's latest plunges the reader into a shape-shifting nightmare-When the Wolf Comes Home takes you in its jaws and shakes until you scream.-Ellie Marney, New York Times bestselling author of None Shall SleepWhen the Wolf Comes Home is somehow terrifying, utterly moving, and funny all at once. A rip-roaring (and sometimes simply roaring) journey through fear itself, it asks intelligent questions about what it takes to be brave when the world keeps unveiling horror after horror.-ClÈmence Michallon, internationally bestselling author of The Quiet TenantNat Cassidy's When the Wolf Comes Home isn't just about the monsters that live under your bed, it's about the monsters that live in your heart. It's a killer.-Erika T. Wurth, author of White HorseWhen the Wolf Comes Home is a wolf-headed chimera of a novel about monstrous fathers, the power of imagination, and the brutal chaos of creating-the terrors we ignite into being, intentionally and unwittingly, as parents, as children, as tender souls bound together by the pain and violence we can't stop inflicting on each other. This full-tilt, wildly imaginative creature feature moves like a four-legged beast hungry for revenge-it will rip your throat out and devour your heart. Nat Cassidy fans will be left howling for more.-Luke Dumas, bestselling author of The Paleontologist and A History of FearUtterly relentless, this kinetic hot rod of a horror novel is pure adrenalized dread that starts and never stops and nothing will save you from its breakneck tension, bone-breaking horror, and heartbroken prose.-Clay McLeod Chapman, author of Wake Up and Open Your EyesPulse-pounding and heart-wrenching, Nat Cassidy has given us a new breed of terror. This is not your granny's big bad wolf.-Lindy Ryan, author of Bless Your HeartStraight out of the Twilight Zone, a page-a-minute horror thriller that delivers ALL THE FEELS. Heart-pounding and hearts-wrenching at the same time with a twist at the end that might cold-cock you. Nat Cassidy is proving to be a singular voice in horror-crazily imaginative and deeply human.-Alma Katsu, author of The FervorPRAISE FOR NESTLINGSBest Adult Books 2023-New York Public Libary NPR Books We Love 2023 Best Horror of 2023-Esquire, Den of Geek Best Horror of 2023 (Honorable Mention)-PasteNestlings is so f***ing good it makes me mad.--Chuck Wendig, author of WaywardThe Deptford . . . is as memorable as literature's well-known Overlook Hotel and Hill House. Nat Cassidy is good at revealing just enough to disquiet, steadily ratcheting up dread and too late? anxiety until you don't know what the right choices are. This unusual vampire novel asks what is the price of belonging; how much is survival worth. No easy answers here.-NPR's Books We LoveIt's a novel of New York, of antisemitism, of a marriage in disarray. Each of these elements is written with an enthusiasm that bounds off the page. . . . But there are also things waiting in the bowels of The Deptford for which no amount of horror reading could prepare you.--Esquire, Best Horror of 2023. . . Cassidy gracefully and viciously goes right for the throat . . . It's another elegant dance of terror from a great horror storyteller, and it'll keep you hanging on every word until the very last page.--Paste MagazineA truly creepy story of urban and bodily unease. Nat Cassidy has created a terrifyingly claustrophobic world, and his clean, beautiful prose manages to make the horrific events he describes here feel dismayingly plausible. You'll certainly never look at a gargoyle the same way again.--Scott B. Smith, Bestselling author of The Ruins and A Simple PlanI've read both Mary and Nestlings and highly recommend them both. Horror fans who enjoy edge-of-your-seat suspense, humor, colorful characters, old-school horror vibes, and cinematic tension complete with jump scares and puke-inducing body horror . . . jump in!-Sadie Hartmann (Mother Horror)Nestlings is more than a novel; it's a journey into the heart of horror. It's a visceral plunge into the abyss, an exploration of the darkest corners of the human psyche. .--MediumCassidy's exercise in horror houses the raw pain of grief . . . and, ultimately, whether one is ever out from under grief's weight,-ShelfAwarenessNestlings is a creature that buries deep beneath your skin only to sink its bloody fangs deep in your system.--FanFiAddictAn absolute triumph of a book. Propulsive and eerie . . .There's a furious grief to the book, a heartbroken rage that threads the pages together.--Cassandra Khaw, best-selling author of Nothing But Blackened TeethRuthlessly terrifying, with the relentless pace of New York City itself. Nestlings will utterly possess you. You've been warned.--Liz Kerin, author of Night's EdgeThis book will mess you up, and you'll be glad. Pitch-perfect creeping horror with heart (and viscera) in spades.--Kiersten White, #1 NYT bestselling author of HideStep into the Deptford, if you dare! Equally parts Rosemary's Baby and Salem's Lot, I was squirming with shivers and reading this behind my fingers!-Erin A. Craig, #1 NYT Bestselling author of House of Roots & Ruin and Small FavorsNestlings cleverly pays homage to classic horror while also filling its Manhattan highrise with post-2020 frights and concerns. Nat Cassidy has written a creepy page-turner where the scariest things of all are what reside in the human (or inhuman) heart.--Paul Tremblay, author of The Cabin at the End of the World and A Head Full of Ghosts.Nestlings builds on the success of Nat Cassidy's first novel, the strong Mary: An Awakening of Terror. An impressive accomplishment in its own right, Nestlings shows Cassidy expanding his range as a writer with skill and confidence, with this gripping twenty-first century take on some old terrors.--John Langan, author of The FishermanDelectably dark, gorgeously gory, and hypnotically engrossing. With its strong Rosemary's Baby vibe and contemporary sensibilities, Nestlings brings the Manhattan gothic to a triumphant new level.--Zoje Stage, bestselling author of Baby Teeth and MotheredNat Cassidy is a master of creeping fear, of urban unease, of uncanny dread and outright horror. In Nestlings he brings his considerable imagination to bear on a creature we may think we're all too familiar with and imbues it with new life, reclaiming it for terror. It's a triumph and a vision you won't soon forget.--Ramsey Campbell, award-winning authorOh you like Rosemary's Baby? 'Salem's Lot? Just wait until you read Nestlings by Nat Cassidy. It's about the curse and revelation of survival. About the intense emotional complexity of family. It's also about super weird superstar vampires. And it's just so funny and smart. This is the horror book of the year.--Erika T. Wurth, author of White HorseFinished Nestlings by Nat Cassidy and have already been recommending it left and right. So, so creepy. Well placed dashes of dark humor. Kept me on my toes till the very end!-Erin E. Adams, author of JackalI just finished reading Nestlings and Nat Cassidy has done it again, folks. Steeped in modern fears with old school horrors lurking behind every door. Go read it now!-Brian McAuley, author of Curse of the ReaperWhen things are bad, can they possibly get worse? Life is upended in Cassidy's darkly rich and layered Nestlings, as terror sweeps across the fragile.--Cynthia Pelayo, Bram Stoker Award nominated author of Children of ChicagoA fresh take on an old monster, Nestlings is an absolutely horrifying tale. Just remember: when you're reading into the wee hours, turn on all the lights in the house. It helps. A little.--Andy Davidson, author of The Hollow KindTold with the same verve and sharpness of classic 1980s literary horror blockbusters penned by Stephen King or Robert R. McCammon, Nestlings is a modern, dread-filled masterpiece that cements Nat Cassidy as one of the most compelling and exciting horror authors to appear on the scene in quite some time.--Eric LaRocca, author of Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last SpokeNestlings is a living, breathing, bleeding, haunting marvel of storytelling that does more than create skin-crawling terror; it slides beneath the itchy flesh and burrows, tick-like, into your heart . . . Reading this book will fill you with terror and (all-too-human) moments of despair, it will flood your senses with the sweet calling of the dark. But worry not, because Cassidy leaves a pinprick of light within reach, a distant beacon that feels like hope.--Philip Fracassi, author of Boys in the ValleySurprising and mysterious. Nestlings is rich in the ominous discomfort of a prize that's too good to be true. This book sticks to your skin.--Hailey Piper, Bram Stoker Award-winning author of Queen of TeethLike The Shining meets The Changeling. And whew, is it scary. . . . I think people are going to lose their minds over this book. Like Mary, it has all the makings of a classic.--Rachel Harrison, Bestselling author of Cackle and Such Sharp TeethCouldn't put it down.--Clay McLeod Chapman, author of The RemakingCassidy builds the intense atmosphere, characters, and fascinating vampire lore without sacrificing the pacing... A visceral story that will entertain readers from start to finish, coating them in dread even as it plays with their minds and pushes their limits.--BooklistDisturbing and creepy, Nestlings is the perfect horror story to curl up with .--Books, Bones & BuffyPRAISE FOR MARYBest Horror of 2022-Esquire, Paste Magazine, CrimeReadHarper's Bazaar 15 Best Books for Spooky Season The Lineup Best Debut Horror Novels of 2022 American Writers Museum-Staff RecommendationMary is a book unlike any other: a serial killer thriller that's half ghost story and half possession horror, featuring a labyrinthine mansion and a desert-dwelling cult... Mary is a late-life coming-of-age horror that shines a necessary light on a neglected character type through black humor and scenes of gloriously gross carnage.--EsquireGenius ... Intense ... No two readers will experience [Mary] quite the same. The reading discoveries are exciting and thrilling. Cassidy has a skilled storytelling voice capable of intense, graphic imagery and scary scenes as well as laugh-out-loud humor.--Sadie Hartmann, aka Mother Horror, author of 101 Horror Books to Read Before You're MurderedHeads up, Nat Cassidy's debut novel is not for the faint of heart. It's gory and horrific, but underneath the blood-soaked pages is a commentary on society's view of older women and their place in the world.--The Seattle TimesNat Cassidy's Mary: An Awakening of Terror reads like a riposte to King's Carrie; Cassidy has the audacity (and the skill) to write convincingly about perimenopause.--EsquireLeading with one of the most unforgettable first chapters in recent horror history, Nat Cassidy . . . will rattle your nervous system from the very first page, and basically never stop. . . . One of those horror novels that will make your skin crawl while also seducing you into never putting it down.--Paste MagazineNat Cassidy's Mary was truly dark and creepy, and a novel that clearly and unequivocally announced the arrival of a superb new voice in horror.-LocusOne of the best horror novels of the year, and destined to become a cult classic, Mary, like its heroine, is not to be sidelined.--CrimeReadsRazor-sharp horror debut.... Cassidy expertly twists the invisibility and disposability of society's most vulnerable into qualities ideally suited to a terrifying avenging angel. It's as scary as it is smart.--Publishers WeeklyThis tale of horror is a good read-alike for Stephen King's Carrie and Paul Tremblay's A Head Full of Ghosts.--Booklist[An] emerging genre star . . .--Library Journal[An] outstanding debut horror novel. ... [T]he kind of debut that will surely help establish its author as one of the best new voices in horror. Mary is a fun, creepy, strange read. ... Nat Cassidy has written an impressive debut in which supernatural horror collides with real horrors, and that makes Mary the kind of novel you keep thinking about long after you've turned the last page.--LocusSearing imagery. Immediate chills. Also, you see this cover?-Rachel Harrison, author of CackleGripping from the start. What begins in a bloodbath leads us through decades into a nightmare of cults, ghosts, and self-hatred, where great and terrible expectations await. Mary is a devastating threat made manifest.--Hailey Piper, Bram Stoker Award-winning author of Queen of TeethOperatic and tremendously unsettling, there's a dangerous current churning beneath the pages . . . a current that will carry you far away and forever change you the way all excellent books do. This is first class horror.--Eric LaRocca, author of Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last SpokeGenius... Intense... No two readers will experience [MARY] quite the same. The reading discoveries are exciting and thrilling. Cassidy has a skilled storytelling voice capable of intense, graphic imagery and scary scenes as well as laugh-out-loud humor.--Sadie Mother Horror Hartmann, author of 101 Horror Books to Read Before You're MurderedWho doesn't want to read the book equivalent of vampire Kathy Bates killing some hipsters in the fifth season of American Horror Story? Middle-aged women's rage is in this year, and I couldn't be happier.--CrimeReadsCassidy's character-building is so incredibly complex that I can't help but . . . make a comparison to Stephen King. . . . An extraordinary metaphor for women's struggles, Mary is edgy as hell. A chilling compilation of horror with masterful storytelling.--Cemetery DanceOne of the scariest, freaky, and mind bending horror novels of 2022 and you should absolutely pick this one up!-Horror ReadsAll I can say is, it has haunted me since I read it, and I may have to re-read it again soon.--Horrorble BooksThere's something here to scare even the most jaded horror lover... this book also makes a fascinating bookend to Stephen King's Carrie as a character study of a woman at a very different stage of life.--The LineupCassidy has given us a classic horror novel of a middle-aged woman tormented by all the little-town horrors of her past-those she can remember and those she is forced to remember. Who is Mary, or better yet, what is Mary? She has been called home to find out. A fine read.--Elizabeth Engstrom, author of When Darkness Loves UsA collision of supernatural and real-life horrors, Nat Cassidy's Mary throbs with a relentlessly sinister energy. Packed with visceral shocks and quiet menace, breakneck storytelling and profound character work, Mary is absolutely riveting. I can't recommend it highly enough.--Jonathan Janz, author of The Siren and the Specter and The RavenMary, Mary, quite extraordinary... How does your novel grow? With pillow cases hiding sliced off faces, and porcelain dolls all in a row. With an acidic sense of humor more barbed than any cactus, Nat Cassidy's fast-paced Mary is a perfect blend of Stephen King's Dolores Claiborne and Frank De Felitta's Audrey Rose. This book goes out to all those bad seeds who have gone beyond their bloom and entered the twilight of their murderous lives.--Clay McLeod Chapman, author of The RemakingOh my god so Nat Cassidy's Mary is one of the most engaging, most cathartic, and above all most fundamentally *satisfying* books I've read in a while. If you like scary stories you really really really need to read this one. [T]his is up there with Dolores Claiborne for me and that's really saying something. Many cis men suck at writing women. Nat does not. Nat does NOT.--Sunny Moraine, author of Singing with All My Skin and Bone[E]very bit as brilliant as everyone's saying: a gory, body horror-soaked exploration of menopause, cults, self-worth, & true crime junkies. I can't recommend this book enough-even the afterword is revelatory.--Ally Wilkes, author of All the White SpacesJust finished Mary: An Awakening of Terror by Nat Cassidy & WOW! The horror arrives like a monsoon thunderstorm: ominous page 1 rumbles that build to a frenzied, spectacular conclusion that'll leave you awestruck & trembling. Smart, scary & full of heart, Mary is a force of nature!-KC Jones, author of Black TideGenuinely scary, and at times both heartfelt and heartbreaking, Mary is a powerhouse of a horror novel, with something important to say. We need more like this. Standing ovation!-Brian KeeneNat Cassidy's Mary is a bravura journey into horror, cults, and the estrangement of middle age. It's one BANANAS ride, by a very talented writer.--Sarah LanganCongrats on a loud and bloody Mary. She's going to make herself heard and then some.--Kathe Koja