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Leo is just trying to catch his train back home to the village of Malacstone in North East England. But there’s disorder at the station, and when a loud young man heading for London boards the train accidentally, a usually easy journey descends into darkness and chaos. The train soon breaks down in the middle of nowhere, and as night falls, something...or someone steps out of the distance. Is it a man or something far more sinister?
When one of the passengers goes missing, Leo fears that a folkloric tale whispered to him in childhood might be the culprit.
It's my pleasure to be sharing my review of (Don't) Call Mum by Matt Wesolowski today. Many thanks to Wild Hunt Books for my advance copy of the novella.
(Don’t) Call Mum is part of the Northern Weird Project; throughout 2025, Wild Hunt Books will publish six pocket-sized novellas from authors based in the North of England and who are also engaging with the North as setting, subject and character. I’m a huge fan of Matt Wesolowski’s Six Stories series and particularly enjoy the way he combines urban grittiness with chilling folkloric elements in his books. I also remember loving reading horror books as a teenager and still have the copies of the Pan Books of Horror Stories given to me by my uncle so I was excited to read (Don’t) Call Mum and put aside a few hours to indulge myself as I knew this would be a compelling, one-sitting read.
Despite only being a fairly short book, the plot and character development is superb throughout. Readers are introduced to Leo as he waits on the platform for the train that will take him to York before he catches the Northern Sprinter service back to his mum and the Northumberland village he grew up in. He is a rather jaded postgrad student who isn’t really comfortable with who he is and is both irritated and amused by the undergraduates also waiting at the station. His luck initially appears to be in though as they are headed in a different direction and for once his train is on time.
The steady pacing of the story mirrors the rhythm of a train journey as it gradually picks up speed. At first everything seems to be running smoothly; he is looking forward to a Chinese takeaway and enjoys some lighthearted conversation with fellow traveller, Jodie. They continue to exchange pleasantries when it transpires they are both catching the train north east but even at this early stage there is another, more introspective side to Leo. He is drawn to a news article about a missing man and a thought pops into his head about Underwood, a village that has long haunted him. His own father walked out on him and his mum years ago and as a child, he was told dad had gone to Underwood and later warned never to go there himself.
There’s an unnerving sense of foreboding with this revelation because Underwood is one of the stops on his journey home. However, a more immediately obnoxious presence comes in the form of Angus, a southerner whose arrival changes the dynamic of the storyline. We’ve all had the displeasure of coming across an Angus at some point; he’s a rude, braying loud-mouth and so it’s initially difficult to feel much sympathy with his predicament when it turns out he is on the wrong train.
It’s from this point that this dark, twisted tale takes a disturbing turn and the creepily atmospheric descriptions really escalate the sense of dread. I’ve never travelled that far north on a train but I’ve passed through plenty of eerily quiet village stations late at night and Matt Wesolowski captures the unsettling feeling of isolation perfectly. As the train draws inexorably closer to Underwood, the descent into chaos and terror had my heart in my mouth; I read (Don’t) Call Mum in the afternoon but I can imagine that reading it at night or worse on a train would be even more spine-chilling.
As Leo’s trip home becomes a journey into madness, the tension is almost unbearable and the shocking conclusion is both desperately poignant and absolutely horrific to contemplate. However, while (Don’t) Call Mum is a grimly thrilling story, it bears all the usual hallmarks of a Matt Wesolowski novel. It is beautifully written, with vividly haunting descriptions and is a moving, perceptive exploration of human behaviour – after all, isn’t it natural in times of dire need to want to call mum…
(Don't) Call Mum will be published by Wild Hunt Books on 8th May 2025. It can be pre-ordered from their website or from Hive, Waterstones, Kobo or Amazon.
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