This book made me think deeply about reincarnation, and I now know very clearly that I want none of it! A mysterious young woman driving to a destination (unknown to the reader) gets caught in a freak snowstorm and has an accident. The car packed with all her worldly possessions (we do not know why she’s carting them) falls into a river but she manages to escape with her cat. While fumbling through blinding snow she finally passes out and is vaguely aware of a pair of strong, reassuringly familiar male arms lifting her. Ah! Soulmate! is the thought that flashes through her muddled mind. When she comes to, she realises to her despair that she’s lost her memory completely. But hold on, the house she’s been brought to seems familiar. Which should be reassuring but it isn’t because the people in this house are a bit, well, strange. There’s Jadie, a little girl, who is an elective mute: she hadn’t spoken for two years since her sister Amber died. Jadie takes to the heroine instantly and breaks her silence. Her dad, whom our heroine thinks is her soulmate, is a tragic figure. His wife “apparently” left him a few months after Amber passed away and he just can’t cope with his grief. And there’s their young housekeeper who is very hostile. Add to this a neighbour who talks about the presence of ghosts in the adjoining house and you’re already shivering in your shoes. It doesn’t help that they are snowed in, the telephone lines are down and there’s a power failure. Flickering candles make everything infinitely worse! The plot thickens and you don’t really know whom to believe or trust. The cast expands to include the residents of a neighbouring farmhouse and the hostile housekeeper’s brother. He’s a psychoanalyst and offers to hypnotise the heroine in the hope of helping her discover who she is. The heroine does stumble upon her past — not the one in this life, but a previous one. She now has a second chance to right all the wrongs in her past life. Will she take it Right. This is not frothy, giggly chicklit. It’s more grim Bronte sisters than witty Jane Austen. Do not be fooled by the back cover blurb that sweetly says, “An enchanting and magical novel...” — it’s more like being trapped in a nightmare. I kept expecting Jadie’s dad to creepily groan “Jane, Jane,” like Mr Rochester in Jane Eyre and hear wild shrieks of an insane woman locked in an attic. Fortunately, we are spared that. Be warned, though: your spine won’t merely shiver, it will shudder violently as well! Coming Home is quite unputdownable after the first chapter, but read it after the sun sets at your own risk. Oh, and make sure you’re not home alone either!
Rupa Gulab is the author of Girl Alone and Chip of the Old Blockhead.
