Book Review: "I Want to Go Home But I'm Already There" by Róisín Lanigan

I think I've found a new sub-genre of horror: Screwed-Up-Sally-Rooney. If you've been paying attention, a while back I published a bit of an opinion article (which took me bloody ages to write in comparison to my more academic articles because I had no idea what I actually wanted to say). It was called Everything is Cannibalism. I had a big idea to turn it into a book before I realised I could probably never write a book (chuckles nervously). But, in the article I start talking about all these sub-genres of horror and how they are probably fun for about a year until they all become the same.

I am therefore glad to welcome a new and fresh version of this into our ever-expanding list. It is a blend of suburban life with a touch of a Shirley Jackson novel. It is therefore to be called the 'Screwed-Up-Sally-Rooney' sub-genre due to its focus on the ironies of everyday lower-middle-class life. It's therefore like a Sally Rooney novel, if Sally Rooney was way, way more fun to read.

The story is told in third person limited as we follow around the nervous everywoman that is Áine. Honestly, I have no idea how to pronounce that name, so I looked it up and I think I got close with 'Anya' or something. I'm sorry to all the people who have this name out there, I tried. Áine's boyfriend is Elliot and as they move into a new home, Áine starts to experience things that makes her boyfriend think she's crazy. This has a weird 21st century The Haunting of Hill House feel to it as Áine becomes very much this Eleanor-esque character, being taken over by the house and ultimately is repulsed by it.

Slowly, as she starts to become more and more involved with herself, we see this weird introspection where even when Áine is hanging out with her friend Laura, she is constantly looking at things from a weirder perspective. This starts with her seeing changes in people. Laura starts taking overpriced pilates classes and instead of being appreciative and happy, Áine's opinions of them through the narrator's words are inferring that Laura is somewhat more docile than Áine.

Of course, as we all know, people change as they get older and start to do new things. Laura is getting married soon and Áine doesn't sound all that entirely happy - in fact, she's not even sad. At the party where Laura's engagement is announced, Áine is strangely flat as if she could have been thinking about something else and the narrator just wanted to remain on the topic so that Áine didn't look completely insensitive. This, I believe, is thanks to the house and its connection with Áine.

The house being it's own character becomes terribly evident one night when Áine returns home and sees a man standing in the house. There is a huge focus on Áine wanting her own front door and so, it is entirely possible that this man came in through the front door in order to shake Áine's sense of belonging. Áine screams and drops her bag, revealing to us aspects of her character and who she is trying to be to others.

She not only has a pack of cigarettes and a bottle of pills, but she also has a bag of cocaine which she doesn't want Elliot to see. We've seen her with it, but this is the beginning of her hiding aspects of herself from certain people as she starts to separate herself. The house impacts every facet of her life - even to the point of making her physically and mentally sick. This is only exemplified in this same scene where Elliot confirms this to her face.

There are so many important scenes in this novel which are so subtle that it grows into a monster all of its own. The writer's control of pace and structure is brilliant, parting the chapters month-by-month so that we the readers may see the slow and steady descent of Áine's health and her unwillingness to fight back. It's all manageable until it isn't and I honestly did feel like the book spoke to me on a whole new level. It is truly a fantastic book.