A review by thomaswjoyce
They Don't Come Home Anymore by T. E. Grau

5.0

Grau is firmly at home in the Weird fiction genre and this is no exception. I first heard about this book through the This Is Horror podcast when they interviewed Grau and, from the little details they gave away, I had a small idea of what it was about. But not much. I was immediately gripped by his writing style. The protagonist, Hettie, is a teenage girl yet he manages to get her voice just right. There is an innocence to Hettie that is very endearing. Is it wrong that I related to her a bit? It probably says more about Grau's excellence as a storyteller more than anything else. He has the reader fully invested in Hettie's quest from early on in the book and we are rooting for her to save the day. But her methods and behaviour grow increasingly weirder until the brilliant ending. The cover art (designed by Ives Hovanessian and created by Candice Tripp) is beautiful and the interior design by Pye Parr is very high quality. As a publisher of horror novellas, This Is Horror are really setting a very high standard with both the writing within and the package as a whole. Overall, wonderful storytelling, great complex characters, and beautiful, poetic prose. This is an instant classic that will live long in the memory.