It has been a long time since I’ve picked up a book in the morning and finished it by night – Mark Edwards’ Follow You Home was this book. I picked it up thinking it was an out and out horror but it wasn’t. It was so much more.

Follow You Home is a story of a couple, Laura and Daniel, who decide to take a trip around the world before settling down. The last leg of their journey, though, gets cut short. They’re forced to get down at a railway station in a village in Romania in the middle of nowhere. They find an abandoned, decrepit house in the middle of the forest – and there begins a series of bizarre experiences that leave them scarred forever. Cut to present day, Daniel and Laura are not together anymore, their relationship strained by their experiences. To make things worse, they start to feel as if something is haunting them. But what? Or who?

Edwards is a clever, clever storyteller. The first 2-3 pages don’t really hook you but the cover is enough to intrigue you to keep reading. The true strength in his writing is in the descriptions – they are long but not once do you feel that he is going over the top or he’s going into too much detail. The imagery is really powerful.

Sample this: Laura headed towards the staircase and I followed her. We trod as quietly as we could. The stairs were disintegrating in places, the floorboards loose and springy. I noticed something snagged on one of the steps and, looking closer, saw that it was a clump of hair.

Almost every single chapter ends on a cliffhanger, and that’s no mean feat. The book starts off with what looks like a horror story and stays that way till about three quarters of the book, till it transitions into psychological horror, which is just as disturbing, and then graduates into a completely different plot. One book with multiple sub-plots woven together really well. It stands the risk of having too much of everything but I loved it regardless.

After a certain point, I knew which way the book was headed but that didn’t deter me from turning the pages. As if the numerous surprises were not enough, Edwards leaves you with one final blow at the end, which in my opinion felt like an anticlimax but didn’t bother me too much. There were a couple of scenes that didn’t feel convincing enough; unfortunately I can’t reveal these without compromising the story. So I won’t.

What I liked:

• The language: it’s not simple, it’s not difficult, it’s just right.
• The way he switches between first person and third person effortlessly – this would be a good example for those who often wonder how to switch between POVs.
• The visuals – really, really liked these.

What I didn’t like:

• Laura’s character isn’t convincing at times, especially towards the end.

In a nutshell: I really liked this book. Would recommend picking it up.

Author: Mark Edwards
Publisher: Thomas & Mercer
Kindle Price: Rs. 129
Buy it on Amazon here.