Well, I think I’ve found another horror author to add to my reading list!
The Thing That Followed You Home by Boris Bacic is the first book I’ve read by him, and I can already tell you it won’t be the last. I’m officially a fan, and I’m looking forward to finding more of his books.
First of all, can we talk about that cover? I absolutely love it! I knew just by looking at it that I was getting into something creepy. And I was right.
I’ve always loved stories about people getting lost in the woods, especially when there’s something mysterious or supernatural waiting for them. Give me an isolated cabin, a strange forest, and something that doesn’t want you to leave, and I’m interested.
This book gave me all of that and more.
In fact, I finished it last night, and I’m still thinking about it. I actually woke up thinking about it this morning.
The eyes. Oh, those eyes.
If you’ve read this book, you know exactly what I’m talking about.
If you haven’t, you can find The Thing That Followed You Home by Boris Bacic on Amazon.
What’s The Thing That Followed You Home About?
Three years ago, Ethan’s wife, Ava, died shortly after a trip to the Appalachians. He tells himself he’s still grieving. That the listlessness, the sleepless nights, and the sense of being watched are all part of loss.
As time passes and he sinks deeper into depression, the obtrusive signs in the house become increasingly difficult to ignore. Typing on Ava’s laptop can be heard from her locked office. Fingerprints linger on dusty surfaces that hadn’t been touched for years. At night, something touches Ethan’s hair while he’s sleeping.
As the presence in the house grows more invasive, Ethan faces a difficult choice: continue hoping there’s a logical explanation for all of it… or believe that whatever came back from the mountains never truly left.
⚠️ Spoilers ahead! Skip down to My Final Thoughts if you don’t want to read any spoilers.
What I Thought About The Thing That Followed You Home
I honestly don’t know where to begin with this one because there was so much I loved.
The atmosphere was fantastic. The mystery kept pulling me forward, and the supernatural elements were genuinely unsettling. But what surprised me was how much I felt for Ethan throughout the story.
I Felt So Sorry for Ethan
Ethan goes through an incredible emotional roller coaster, and I couldn’t help feeling sorry for him.
It starts with Ava’s trip to the Appalachians. He has a bad feeling about her going, but he doesn’t say anything. And then she disappears.
Can you imagine?
There’s the fear of not knowing where she is, whether she’s hurt, or whether she’s even alive. Then, somehow, she stumbles back into town.
But she’s not the same woman who left.
She looks practically like a corpse, and even though she’s physically home, something about her is terribly wrong.
And poor Ethan has no idea what to do.
Ava is cold, withdrawn, and depressed. She barely communicates with him, and he spends so much time tiptoeing around her, trying not to make things worse. He wants his wife back, but the woman living in his house isn’t really the Ava he remembers.
Then she takes her own life.
And Ethan has to deal with yet another complicated set of emotions, including the realization that, as awful as it sounds, his life has actually become easier without her.
I thought that was such an interesting part of the story. He’s grieving, he’s confused, and he’s carrying guilt about things he couldn’t possibly have understood at the time.
And then, of course, he starts realizing that whatever happened to Ava might not be over.
Those Eyes! I Still Can’t Stop Thinking About Them
I have to give Boris Bacic credit for this because the eyes were one of the creepiest things I’ve read about in a long time.
They’re everywhere.
And the more the book talks about them, the more disturbing they become.
I was especially creeped out by what Ava did to the house. She was so desperate to get rid of the eyes that she started tearing into the walls, trying to make them disappear.
But she couldn’t.
Just imagine being so terrified of something that you’re ripping apart your own home to escape it.
And what makes it even worse is that Ethan doesn’t understand what’s happening. He sees the damage and Ava’s increasingly strange behavior, but he doesn’t know what she’s seeing or what she’s trying to escape.
The eyes are such a simple concept, but they’re incredibly effective. I don’t think I’ll be forgetting them anytime soon.
I Loved Learning the Truth Through Ava’s Journal
Another thing I really enjoyed was how we gradually learned what happened to Ava through her journal.
Because she barely spoke to Ethan after coming home, there were so many unanswered questions about her time in the mountains.
What happened out there? Why did she come back so different? What was she so afraid of?
The journal gave us pieces of the story that Ethan never knew.
And I loved that.
Rather than having everything explained at once, we got to discover what happened alongside Ethan. Each new detail made the situation more disturbing, especially as it became clear that Ava had been dealing with something far beyond anything Ethan could have imagined.
It also made me feel even worse for her.
She’d been through something horrifying, and she couldn’t explain it to the person who loved her.
Going Back to the Cabin Was a Terrible Idea. And I Loved It!
Of course, Ethan couldn’t leave things alone.
He needed answers.
And when he decided to go back to the cabin in the Appalachians, I knew it was a terrible idea.
But I was also thrilled because this was exactly where I wanted the story to go!
I love creepy wilderness stories. There’s something about being surrounded by trees, miles from help, with no idea what might be watching you that makes everything so much more frightening.
And this mountain was something else entirely.
I also loved Gus and his stories.
Ethan doesn’t really believe what Gus tells him, which is understandable. Some of those stories sound completely unbelievable.
But then Ethan finds himself taking refuge in the very car Gus had never been able to find.
Oh, that was good!
And what about Ethan apparently sleepwalking into the forest, already packed and ready to go?
That was terrifying.
By that point, I was convinced the mountain was actively trying to get him. It wasn’t just some creepy place where bad things happened. It felt like something with a purpose.
Something that wanted Ethan.
The Mountain Was Absolutely Terrifying
The further Ethan ventured into the mountains, the more I felt like he was walking straight into a trap.
And when he finally allowed the mountain to take control, I wanted to yell at him.
No! Don’t do it!
But at the same time, I couldn’t wait to find out what would happen.
His journey toward the summit was one of my favorite parts of the book.
The eyes. The bodies. The horrible things he encountered along the way.
Everything about that journey was unsettling, and I loved how the story kept building toward something even worse.
There was a feeling that Ethan was getting closer to the truth, but also that every step was taking him farther from any chance of escaping.
I could picture it all so clearly.
And that’s one of the things I appreciate most about a good horror book. When the author describes something so well that you can practically see it happening, the story becomes that much more frightening.
Bacic absolutely accomplished that here.
Ava Was Trying to Protect Him All Along
One of the moments that really got me was when Ethan finally understood that Ava had been trying to protect him.
After everything he’d been through, all the confusion, fear, grief, and guilt, he finally began to understand why she’d acted the way she did.
She wasn’t simply pushing him away.
She was trying to keep him safe.
I loved that realization because it changed the way I looked at so much of what had happened earlier in the book.
And I especially loved Ethan’s reaction.
He wasn’t going to simply surrender. He was going to fight.
After everything the mountain had taken from him, he was determined not to let it win.
Unfortunately, the mountain had other ideas.
And that made the ending even more memorable.
My Final Thoughts on The Thing That Followed You Home
I absolutely loved this book.
It had everything I enjoy in a supernatural horror story: an isolated mountain setting, a mystery that slowly reveals itself, a genuinely creepy presence, and characters I cared about.
But what really made it work for me was how the horror and emotion fit together.
Ethan wasn’t just trying to survive something supernatural. He was trying to understand what happened to his wife, make sense of their last years together, and come to terms with things he never knew.
And the mountain? That was a character all its own.
I finished this book last night, woke up thinking about it this morning, and I’m still picturing those horrible eyes.
That’s the kind of creepy story I love.
This was my first Boris Bacic book, but it definitely won’t be my last. I’m already looking forward to reading more from him.
If you enjoy supernatural horror, mysterious disappearances, creepy forests, and stories that stay with you after you’ve finished reading, I absolutely recommend The Thing That Followed You Home.
Just don’t be surprised if you start looking a little more closely at the walls around you.