This is a must read book, especially during the spooky season! It’s marketed as a blend between Rosemary’s Baby and Salem’s Lot and the author delivered just that! The writing felt well-researched, I loved the cast of characters, and the horror of it all was done exceptionally. This book feels very timeless and classic as a horror read.

I loved the New York setting, and the atmospheric gothic building, that felt much like a character in and of itself. I also appreciated that this book had so much emotion at the heart of it. It explores marriage, motherhood, parenthood, and postpartum expectations. The main character, Ana, is struggling to come to terms with her new life as a paraplegic in a wheelchair , as a result of childbirth. Her husband Reid, is struggling with life as his wife’s caretaker on top of taking care of a newborn. But when they get the chance to move into the luxurious Deptford building, they think their luck has finally changed...but has it?!

Filled with tension, dread, hauntingly detailed visualizations, and pure classic horror, this is one I won’t soon forget! I will absolutely be reading more from this author. Thank you to Netgalley, Tor Nightfire for this #gifted ebook!

Immediately when I read the synopsis for this novel I thought it sounded like a sort of feminine rage story meets paranormal/haunted house horror. While it is that, in a way, I think the actuality of this narrative is far more unexpected. Whether that is a good or bad thing is entirely up to you, and what type of horror you find gratifying.
There are certain horror story archetypes that rely on reactionary characters. Characters who find themselves in situations where they are accepting of the terms being laid out to them by either the world building, or another character’s false assurances. Think of horror movies like Mother or Midsommar, where the protagonist pretty much does nothing to advance or stall the plot, and all the horror elements kind of move forward on their own. That is basically how this book plays out. It is a slow discovery as opposed to a mystery that’s being solved piece by piece.
For myself, I’m not particularly fond of this type of horror as it more-so frustrates me than creeps me out. However, that is a personal preference. Objectively, Nestlings is extremely well-written and has some very interesting theming in terms of gentrification, community, career culture, gender roles, and postpartum anxiety and depression. I also very much liked the reveal at the end and the horror imagery was top tier unsettling at times, especially in regards to the “monster” element.
While I might not have enjoyed this, I can certainly see it being someone’s cup of tea. So, if you like horror movies like Barbarian, Midsommar, or Rosemary’s Baby then I would recommend this whole heartedly.

This was such an intriguing read. Ana and Reid win the housing lotto. They get to create a home in the Deptford Building, a gorgeous skyscraper that stops tourists in their tracks. Ana is still struggling for the birth of their daughter, Charlie. Reid, well he's just struggling. When strange things start to happen to Charlie, Ana becomes upset while Reid assumes Ana has completely lost her mind. Nestlings follow this family as they are consumed by the inhabitants of the Deptford Building.

I'm not really sure what to say on this one. It was eerie and spooky but also made you second guess yourself. Nat Cassidy wrote a book that will make your skin crawl and leave you with nightmare images in your mind. Thank you Netgalley for the advanced copy of this book.

There is so much to love about this book. On one layer, it's a terrifying story of motherhood on par with Rosemary's Baby. Beyond that, there's an extreme level of humanity shown through the struggles of a mother who is stuck in an apartment that's too good to be true. There's also the additional fear of being wheelchair-bound in an apartment way up. I wasn't sure if Nat could write a better book than Mary, but he absolutely did. I highly recommend it for a dose of scares and humanity.

I knew by the look of this cover and the title of this book, it was going to give me the best horror/thriller vibes for the Halloween season and I was not disappointed in the least. I give this book a solid 4.5* but rounded it up to 5 because I will be recommending this to my audience and friends who love a good creep-fest.
A bit of a summary without spoilers: Sometimes when life has been crappy, you just need a break. That's especially true for Reid and Ana whose lives have been through the wringer since the birth of their first baby. So imagine their excitement when they win an affordable housing lottery in a gorgeous luxury apartment building in Manhattan. However, just when things should be getting better for the couple, things seem to go from bad to worse.
I was sucked in so quickly to this story and I think I finished it in about 3 days. I could not put it down. There's conflict, there's chills, and there's so much mystery about what is going on. I highly recommend this book to anyone who loves the spooky harvest season, but also anyone who loves ghost stories and scary movies. Perhaps after you've put this book down, you'll start checking your windows too for a watching face or mysterious goo.

When Reid and Ana put their names in the lottery for an affordable luxury apartment they never dreamed they'd win. They also never dreamed that their lives would be so different from the time they entered the lottery to the time they finally got called.
When they are shown the apartment it seems perfect for most people, but Ana has misgivings right away. She is confined to a wheelchair these days and can not get down the stairs from their upper floor apartment if there is ever an emergency. Ignoring her unease, and buoyed by her husband's excitement over their win. she agrees to take the apartment. After all, it will do them good to get away from their obnoxious antisemitic landlord.

It's not long after moving day when Ana knows something is wrong with this building. Her baby seems to sense it too, constantly screaming and crying as if she knows this is a bad place to be. Reid becomes obsessed with learning the history of the building, to the point that he loses interest in all else, even gaslighting Ana when she points out the tiny bite marks on the baby after having seen a face at their top floor window.

Not since The Sentinel or Rosemary's Baby has an apartment building had such an unsavory past or housed such sinister tenants. I can't say much else about the plot without spoilers, but I loved the domestic drama as much as the scary parts. The psychological fear mixed with the supernatural terror combined to make Nestlings into an exquisite horror that was perfection from start to finish. This book will land firmly on my best horror of the year list.
5 out of 5 stars.

My thanks to Tor Nightfire.

3.5 out of 5 stars

This was an interesting read. While I felt like it was a rather slow start, there was loads of creeping dread and a general oppressive atmosphere. That atmosphere and the initial meeeting of the morose main characters made it a bit difficult for me to connect to them and the story initially but I actually really enjoyed the characters development throughout the novel. The ending surprised me in the best way. Nothing quite turned out like I assumed it would and yet I thought it fit so well. I'd definitely be interested in checking out more by this author.

Wow. I don't even know where to start with this one. This is probably one of the best horror novels I have read in a long time and probably one of the darkest ones too. This is not a story for the faint of heart.

Ana and Reid have just moved into the infamous Deptford apartment building in New York with their nearly 1-year-old daughter Charlie. Ana is still adapting to her new life in a wheelchair after suffering complications during Charlie's birth. But the Deptford is more than just an apartment building, it holds a far darker secret. Within days of moving into the Deptford, everything changes and they begin to experience unexplainable personality changes and utter feelings of dread.

I don't want to give too much away, but this was a fantastic, albeit horrifying story. This story is described as 'Salems Lot' meets 'Rosemary's Baby' and that is 100% accurate. I could not put this story down and I have a feeling I will be thinking about it for a long time to come. Thank you to Netgalley and Tor Nightfire for providing me with an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Ana and Reid, a young couple struggling after Ana’s difficult childbirth has left her paralyzed and confined to a wheelchair, actually ‘win the lottery’ (the apartment lottery, that is) in New York.
They are offered an apartment at the Deptford, an old and revered Manhattan building. Beautiful views, luxury finishing, could this mean their luck is turning around or is it too good to be true??
As sinister and strange events start happening to them, and especially to their 1 year old daughter (who seems to hold an unhealthy attraction for the building’s long-time odd residents, they begin to realize they may have made a mistake accepting this apartment.
Strange bite marks on the baby, delivery people who refuse to enter the building and strange noises in the apartment next door only heighten their fears and feelings of dread.
The truth about the Deptford, its residents, and what they want from AnaReid and their baby turn out to be more horrific than anything they were imagining.
Wow wow wow. I’m a huge horror fan and this book gave me NIGHTMARES!! A good thing, in my opinion. Highly recommend this book - it’s been a long time since any horror novel seeped into my consciousness like this one did. A+++

This is the first book that I have read by Nat Cassidy. What a book it is! I wouldn't recommend reading this at night however if you do have all the lights on and lock your doors and windows! This books follows Ana and Reid and Charlie thier infant daughter. Ana and Reid enter into a lottery for reduced rent in New York city. They never thought that they would actually win. When they view the apartment at the historic building the Deptford it is on the top floor of the building, Ana knows that it wil work out since she is in a wheel chair. They are given just a few days to take the apartment or it will go to the next family on the list. Once they move in their personalities start to change and they can't remember what is truly bothering them about the apartment, the staff, and the building itself. This book is has a lot of twists and turns and not for the faint of heart. I found the concept of the book facsinating. What would it be like to live in a historic building that had some kind of paranormal activity happening inside.

Nat Cassidy's second novel is a creepy story about a family with a new baby and new apartment in a mysterious building. Wife Ana is still adjusting to life in a wheelchair while husband Reid, once an aspiring musician, struggles in a job he loathes. They soon find themselves in increasingly frightening and dangerous situations as they learn more about their neighbors. Exciting, terrifying, and yet balanced by Cassidy's insights into relationships and grief.

I was nervous going into this, because I love Nat Cassidy’s debut- Mary, and I was SO hyped for this book to come out. But fear not reader, this book is really, really good. It follows Ana, Reid, and their new baby as they move to an exclusive Central Park building after winning a housing lottery. Ana, who is struggling to manage motherhood and a recent disability from her daughter’s birth that left her in a wheelchair. What at first seems like an idyllic new start starts to slowly unravel the longer they stay in the building. This book is so, so creepy. The atmosphere is incredible and the pacing is excellent as you slowly watch this family unravel. I’ve seen a lot of Rosemary’s Baby comparisons, which really hits the nail on the head. That creeping darkness in a seemingly elite, wealthy space. And as someone who would also risk imploding my life to live in one of these bougie Central Park buildings, I get the motivation. This book is so creative and original, taking a very familiar horror monster (you’ll see what I mean) and adding a modern twist that I genuinely have never seen before.

I'm posting this review on my Instagram @boozehoundbookclub in October.

Nestlings by Nat Cassidy: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Format: ARC from Tor Nightfire

In the much anticipated (second) novel from Nat Cassidy, the horrors of New York City real estate, the first year of parenthood, and the (supernatural) converge in this chilling book. Inspired by Rosemary’s Baby and Salem's Lot, Nestlings opens with Ana and Reid as their luck finally turns around after a very hard year. They believe winning the housing lottery for a beautiful luxury apartment in a famous building will be the start of things looking up for their young family. But life at the Deptford is not as picture perfect as it would seem, and this is not just a few bumps in the night. Though Reid would rather turn a blind eye to the red flags, Ana knows there is something not right in their new home, and races against time to discover the truth behind the Deptford before its too late.

Many authors comment on the challenges of writing their second novel, especially when their first is a smashing success, so I was very intrigued to read this after finishing Cassidy’s first book last week. There are some changes in the writing style- Nestlings has dual POV between Ana and Reid, and is told in a single, linear timeline (though there were some brief flashes to other characters called “City Interludes”). This really highlights the rift between the couple as the story progresses, so I think it was a good change for this story. The setting created by Cassidy for this novel was very dark and disturbing which enhanced the unsettling plot, which revealed the secrets of the Deptford piece by twisted piece.

Overall, I enjoyed this book and I recommend it to horror readers, especially those who enjoy urban settings and corporeal antagonists. Nestlings has topics of postpartum psychosis, antisemitism, physical disability & ableism, and others, so be sure to review the content guide before reading.

Many thanks to Tor Nightfire for the review copy of Nestlings, which publishes on October 31st.

Whew.

Ana and Reid, and their nearly 1-year-old daughter, Charlie, have won a housing lottery. They are somehow, impossibly, now residents of the Deptford, one of the grand old apartment buildings of New York City. They break their Brooklyn lease in the middle of the night and move into their top-floor unit. Living in an apartment only reachable--and escapable--by a rickety Art Deco elevator is especially uncomfortable for Ana, who experienced a serious injury in childbirth and is now using a wheelchair to move around. Reid, on the other hand, is delighted by their good fortune, and immediately takes to the building and its mysterious, aging beauty. Charlie hates it, and screams and sobs in her crib.

Plagued by depression and anxiety, Ana is miserable from the start. That said, she's been miserable since before Charlie was born, struggling to get pregnant and then emerging from her labor racked with pain, mobility issues, and a sense that everything is wrong.

And really, everything is wrong. The Deptford is not normal, and the residents -- wherever they are, since the place feels empty to Ana -- are definitely not normal. Charlie isn't normal. Nothing is ok in Nestlings, and as creeping dread turns to something much more horrifying, the reader can't help but be sucked into this story that's simultaneously a terrifying drama and a meditation on grief.

I can't say I loved this book. It was well-structured, effectively executed, thoughtful, and deeply unnerving. There were some bits so scary I had to put it down. (I admit I skimmed anything to do with bugs; next time I'll read the content warnings more carefully.) It would make an incredible film. But I wanted to care more about and sympathize more with Ana and Reid. I came down a little more on the side of the villains, who were tremendous fun. I would love to read the same book from their perspective, in fact. And maybe that's ok. It's a pastiche of Rosemary's Baby and The Shining and a lot of other unsettling tales of two parents arriving in a very bad place physically, in addition to a bad place emotionally, and those stories often contain very bad people who are a lot more interesting than the purported main characters.

In any case, I certainly can't fault Nestlings for not being 100% what I wanted, when it was so brilliantly what the author wanted it to be. Highly recommended for horror fans (but please, check the content warnings!). 4.5 stars, rounded up.

Mary was such an amazing book that when I got approved for the ARC for Nestlings, I knew I was going to love it. Right from the jump, the creepiness just exudes from the story. You get the first taste of it from Vera, the realtor, and how she decides to eat a cockroach she found in the apartment she was showing. I loved how, as the book progressed, that you would get little glimpses of things that happened in the past like Ana and the knife. The moment gets caught off abruptly leaving you wanting to know what happened. Then when Ana finds a random key and uses it to open her neighbors door, I was like "Girl you’re just asking for something bad to happen to you!" Then things became even stranger as you started to learn more about the residents of Deptford and the weird things that would happen. Like when Bizzie saw the old woman drink the vomit and Charlie biting Eliot. I loved how Nate Cassidy had the characters be involved in something book related. Reid gets the book of the building they live in while also loving bookstores. While Ana is the narrator for an audio book of a series titled Blood Rink.  
Thank you to @netgalley and Nat Cassidy for allowing me to read this one ahead of time. Nestlings is out on October 31, 2023!
The Good: The creepy, eeriness that lingered. As if you were being watched too. The description of people and things occurring could be pictured in your mind. 
The Meh: Some parts were a little too long. The book itself could've been a bit shorter.

Nestlings was absolutely everything I thought it would be. Rosemary's Baby and Salem's Lot couldn't more perfectly describe the vibes. There was a perfect mix of supernatural horror and real-life horrors, whether they were from rotten people or just general bad luck in life. Ana's struggles felt real and even though they weren't things I can relate to, they called on very real fears I have, and I truly appreciated Reid's arc. The whole thing was so believable, and that makes for the best sort of horror!

Thank you to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review!

In a world without enough Jewish horror, Nat Cassidy takes a firm look at the genre and decides to do his part for more. “Nestlings” is a story of family, loss, parenthood and identity spun through a lens of Jewish identity and featuring Jewish folklore that works only to its benefit. Easily Cassidy’s best work thus far and one that shows his utter flair for the horror genre.

Ana and Reid are a couple struggling after the birth of their child. In need of a break, they find one when they win a new apartment that overlooks the most beautiful areas of Manhattan. But paranoia soon sets in, and the couple begin to discover bite marks upon their baby. Their neighbors seem nice, but grow increasingly strange and disturbing. Eventually, Ana and Reid are left to wonder just what they’ve gotten themselves into-and if there’s any hope of escape.

Cassidy writes “Nestlings” with a razor whit. The book is intelligent and incisive, with commentary on current events. Most poignant is the portrayal of Reid’s own Judaism and how it has become even more vital to him in the current climate of rising antisemitism. For Reid, reclaiming his heritage is a statement against oppression and is the most real that Reid feels throughout the book.

Ana and Reid’s relationship feels all too real and familiar. They love one another, but have their problems and drama. Cassidy does not shy away from the portrayal of love, with all its problems. And simultaneously, he shows the difficulty of being parents and bringing a child up in an unjust world, asking what choices a parent might make to protect them when the terrifying unknown awaits.

Cassidy builds the terror to an absolute crescendo. Every piece of the novel lines up, with Jewish vampires portrayed in a positively brilliant and frightening manner. “Nestlings” understands the fear of parenthood, love, and choice while pushing the reader from their nest of comfort.

After winning an affordable housing lottery in NYC, a couple and their baby move into their dream apartment, but (of course) strange and haunted things are afoot. The horror elements were genuinely scary, the bug stuff in particular had my skin crawling. Not only is the mother dealing with postpartum depression, but she uses a wheelchair after a labor related injury and that representation was great. This story manages o be frightening and emotional but still a ton of fun.

Yo, as if new motherhood isn’t terrifying enough!!

Nestlings is a story of grief, healing, and generational (and cultural) shared trauma.

Ana and Reid seem to have hit the jackpot after a rough labour of their daughter has left Ava in a wheelchair. They win an affordable housing lottery for a prestigious building called The Deptford. The Deptford is New York City royalty, a beautiful old apartment building full of the rich and famous. Of course, not everything is what it seems.

I’m going to go against the grain and say this is a mashup of The Strain and Archive 81 (both WONDERFUL shows)! You’ve got a NYC apartment building with a secretive and dark history, unsuspecting tenants, and gargoyles!!

I felt on the edge of my seat the whole time and I thought Nat Cassidy handled the issues of postpartum depression and the struggles of being a caretaker for a loved one really well. It really captured the fear of change and new chapters in life. Those additions made Nestlings wonderfully creepy and real!

Stick around for the afterword, it’s a really great note from Cassidy about his personal inspirations and struggles that come through in this novel.

⭐⭐⭐⭐

Available October 31, 2023.

Thank you to Netgalley and Tor Nightfire for an advance review copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

Thank you Tor and NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Tw: antisemitism, ableism, postpartum depression, discussion of infanticide

The story follows young couple, Ana and Reid with their newborn baby Charlie. They win the lottery for a low income apartment in a historic high rise in Manhattan. Ana is in a wheelchair due to problems during childbirth. She struggles with postpartum depression so the couple thought a change of scenery would help. They soon realize the apartment is on the top floor of the building which makes Ana nervous considering her condition however, they take the chance and move in. Shortly after they settle in, strange things begin to happen… specifically with Charlie.

This book gave me a lot of feelings. I wasn’t a fan of the pacing as it started very slow and then all of the action happened halfway through and then it got super slow again until the end. The redeeming qualities would probably be the character development of Ana, the plot reveal, and the authors notes at the end that explain certain aspects of the story. I wish some of those things were more clear from reading the story.

Overall I liked the plot and the main character so I’m giving this book 3 stars.