Homesick is a mixed bag. The collection’s highest highs were transcendent but its lows left a lot to be desired. This book is hard to place genre-wise. I initially assumed it was a horror anthology because of its numerous ghost stories, but the fantastical and sci-fi elements at the root of each story make speculative a more fitting label.

The ghost stories in the first half of this collects were sufficiently spooky and “She Hides Sometimes” and “Dead Air” were the best of them. These fantastic creeping horror stories unsettled me to my core. However, a consistent problem with both of these and several others in the collection were their unsatisfying endings. I didn’t need answers to all of my questions but, without definitive resolutions, many stories in this collection felt unfinished.

This was most evident in the story “Presque Vu”. This story was particularly disappointing because it was on track to be a favourite, its characters were compelling and the hauntings central to the narrative were weird and fascinating. But the story lacked an emotional resolution to its rising tension and given my investment in its characters the fact that it didn’t seem to come to anything was particularly disappointing.

I appreciated the ways Cipri played with form throughout the collection. The story “Which Little Dead Girl Are You?” takes the form of a quiz in a teenybopper magazine to tell the tale of a gang of vengeful pre-teen final girls. Cipri’s brilliant use of horror tropes and the quiz format made this one of the most fun stories in the collection. Another example of great use of unique form was the entirely audio format of “Dead Air”.

Some stories like “Let Down, Set Free” and “A Silly Love Story” didn’t work for me holistically. These two were the only stories that gave me nothing to grab on to. They lacked an interesting speculative element, vibrant setting or compelling characters. But given that the rest of the collection did was so solid these stories don’t bother me as much in retrospect.

One of my favourite stories in this collection is “The Shape of Your Name”. It’s a perfectly constructed time travel story that uses its speculative elements to craft a fascinating character study. Its mystery unravels slowly as the reader is given slivers of backstory. Its morose atmosphere was the perfect backdrop for the unravelling of our protagonist's messy relationship with his mother and his journey of self-discovery. It was heartbreaking, revelatory and cathartic all at once. I absolutely adore it.

Another favourite was“Before We Disperse Like Star Stuff”. It’s the longest story in the collection but certainly never felt so. The story follows three researchers after the fallout of their discovery of the remains of an unknown non-human civilization. After a messy split between the three, they all come together to shoot a documentary about their findings. This story was the most grounded in the collection and charmed me almost instantly. Cipri's character writing was firing on all cylinders throughout and I ate it all up. Digging into the messy relationship dynamics of the group was equal parts genuinely moving and deeply entertaining. The potshots taken at academia, second-chance romance, and amazing found family dynamic made this story a perfect note to end the collection on.

Overall, I would highly recommend this collection despite its weaker moments if only for its best stories. Luckily “The Shape of Your Name” is freely available on Tor.com and a handful of other stories have been published in magazines. Nino Cipri is a great writer. Their particular blend of character and relationship-centric speculative fiction works for me more often than it doesn’t and I can’t wait to read more of their work in the future.