I Want to Go Home but I'm Already There

288 pages

English language

Published 2025 by Penguin Books, Limited.

ISBN:: 978-0-241-66853-5

(1 review)

Renting is a nightmare.

Áine should be feeling happy with her life. She’s just moved in with Elliot. Their new flat is in an affluent neighbourhood, surrounded by bakeries, yoga studios and organic vegetable shops. They even have a garden. And yet, from the moment they move in, Áine can't shake the sense that there's something not quite right about the place...

It's not just the humourless estate agent and nameless landlord: it's the chill that seeps through the draughty windows; the damp spreading from the cellar door; the way the organic fruit and veg never lasts as long as it should. And most of all, it’s the upstairs neighbours, whose very presence makes peaceful coexistence very difficult indeed.

The longer Áine spends inside the flat - pretending to work from home; dissecting messages from the friends whose lives seem to have moved on without her - the less it …

Renting is a nightmare.

Áine should be feeling happy with her life. She’s just moved in with Elliot. Their new flat is in an affluent neighbourhood, surrounded by bakeries, yoga studios and organic vegetable shops. They even have a garden. And yet, from the moment they move in, Áine can't shake the sense that there's something not quite right about the place...

It's not just the humourless estate agent and nameless landlord: it's the chill that seeps through the draughty windows; the damp spreading from the cellar door; the way the organic fruit and veg never lasts as long as it should. And most of all, it’s the upstairs neighbours, whose very presence makes peaceful coexistence very difficult indeed.

The longer Áine spends inside the flat - pretending to work from home; dissecting messages from the friends whose lives seem to have moved on without her - the less it feels like home. And as Áine fixates on the cracks in the ceiling, it becomes harder to ignore the cracks in her relationship with Elliott...

2 editions

matthewmincher reviewed I Want to Go Home but I'm Already There by Róisín Lanigan

Grim & lethargic

4 stars

I'm not really sure what it is I've read. A chronicle of generation rent cast as a ghost story - trials of mental health, gaslighting, relationships, and self doubt.

I enjoyed this, though I think enjoyed is probably the wrong word. It had a rich atmosphere, but I would have enjoyed a bit more depth on most of the themes, or possibly it could have been shorter.

I enjoyed the self-talk justification of why other people know better or are obviously right and you are wrong.

The main character was interesting and generally likable. Slow at times - a darkly gothic reflection of our electrically lit relationship with where we live.