This book is a mess. The only reason it got three stars is that it kept me interested enough to finish it. ( )

"This is my home," she said. "And you're just passing through it."

Shocking and gritty - this one pulled me in and never let up.

Vera has been called back home. Her mom is sick and her father's already gone. She needs to help her mom and work on the house before she is gone. Because Vera's family isn't like other families. They have a past - with this town and with this house. And Vera needs to try to protect her family before it all goes wildly out of control.

It's great to go into this one a little blind. I did this as an audio book and I can't recommend the narrator enough - it was so good! I liked letting the secrets and the twists slowly reveal themselves. I found the reveals shocking and I didn't anticipate any twists, I was so sucked into the story!

This one was great, I can't wait to read more from this author! ( )

Starting off, this book was not for me. What caught my attention was the gothic-esqe haunted house, troubled protagonist with a dark past, and family secrets. The pacing is slow and repetitive, and there were a lot of areas in which I had trouble visualizing and understanding what I was reading. The story is much more focused on the internal struggle of the main character than the environment she is in, which is fine, but it didn't work for me. In the end, I felt like I still wasn't entirely clear on the motivations of the protagonist, and while it seemed to have a resolution, it fell rather flat.

It is difficult to write about this book without giving anything away. I would recommend for readers who enjoy a slow-burn and are open to supernatural stories. I will say that the final quarter of the book is where it finally picks up, but there is a lot of trudging through the first three quarters to get there.

Thank you Netgalley and Tor Books for an eARC of this title! ( )

Serial killer dads, mean mothers & creepy houses.

Don’t think I could stand hearing the word “grease” one more time.
The cover is stunning and that’s what drew me in.
But for me this was just ok - I also feel like it could have been cut down a lot. ( )

Too slow. ( )

4.5 rounded up. ( )

I just….I couldn’t stop reading this. I thought I knew what was going on and then I didn’t and then I definitely did. But the whole time I just felt…compelled to know exactly what happened next. But also. Wtf. ( )

oof! what a book. based on other reviews this is very much a love it or hate it book. you're not going to kinda like this. but this was a huge win for me. this had so many things i love/look for in a thriller/horror book like a main character with a dark past, a dysfunctional family, body horror!, claustrophobic - i didn't even know that that was a feeling authors could make you feel through WORDS! and unexpected plot points i never saw coming. i said what the actual heck many times while reading this one. this book truly disturbed me.. in the best way. it was smart, awkward and haunting. it reminds me of this Stephen King quote: “Monsters are real and ghosts are real too. They live inside us, and sometimes, they win.” ( )

Viserally disgusting. I liked a few parts but will stand by my 1 star review because I would physically fight this book given a chance. ( )

When her dying, estranged mother calls Vera back home, she packs her life into her car and drives cross-country. If that wasn't strange enough...it gets better. The house she is returning to was built by her father...who was...ready for this?...an infamous serial killer. She also finds an artist, who could well be described as a parasite, renting a space in the backyard shed. His plan is to “collaborate” with the house’s psychic residues. Between her ailing mother’s cruel mood swings, and this artist creep consuming her childhood memories for "inspiration"...the legacy of her father’s love along with his crimes, dd the creepy Crowder house itself derail Vera’s attempts to settle the estate rapidly as she had hoped. The house is filled with secrets, lies, and rot: what else lurks beneath those glossy floorboards is anybody's guess. Another book review describes this story perfectly "This is visceral gothic horror story dedicated to everyone who ever loved a monster.” Nothing in the book gets any easier as the story goes on. The family's drama is full of cruelty, fear, betrayal, and nightmares. The reader begins to understand that there is more than one monster in Crowder House. Overall: I did very much enjoy the story even though it felt a tad uneven, for lack of a better description...in places...but it does leave an unsettling feeling in the atmosphere along with a delightful chill on the back of your neck...so what more could you really ask for from a good horror story? ( )

Excellent horror, this is how I like to be unsettled. ( )

This is not your usual haunted house story or serial killer thriller. Where do I begin? 1) My jaw hurts because I was clenching it as I read every page; 2) Sarah Gailey created scenes that were SO vivid and dark that I was thinking about them long after reading, especially once the lights were turned off and it was time for sleep! 3) This book made me question traditional ideas of good vs. evil, light vs. dark, loyalty vs. betrayal -- what family means, if forgiveness is possible, and what is the true meaning of home? It made me question all of these things in a deeply disturbing, sometimes gory way, but I loved it despite my sore shoulders and neck from being so tensed out. I also don't think I'll ever think of grease in the same way again after this one! This was perfection. ( )

I believe that everyone's childhood is a little traumatic, but some of us have more trauma than others, and it's those people who this book is going to truly speak to.

It is very much a horror novel, not a thriller like it was marketed. There is a slow, creeping sense of dread throughout until it just explodes in the last few chapters. And while the serial killer aspect is what made me want to read it, it is also very much a haunted house story as well, maybe even more so.

I'm sure there's deeper meanings than what I'm getting (I've never been good at metaphors), all I can say is that I loved it, but not everyone will and that's alright. ( )

I really only gave this book 4 stars because of the twists. It was a really difficult to read and work through, but then the last 100-80 pages were really good! Overall, I didn't think I would enjoy this book as much as I did, but I was pleasantly surprised.

I will say- if you like the haunted house trope in writing- this book plays on those themes REALLY well. ( )

This is a very creepy book! It does a great job with the slow building horror of what happened in Vera's past, what might be happening now, and who the real monsters are. ( )

Sarah Gailey is a must-read author for me, and Just Like Home once again proves why - every genre they choose to tackle feels like the one they have been writing in forever. Their prose is gorgeous, their protagonists complicated and unforgettable, and their stories take me places I couldn't imagine.

This particular novel is fully gothic horror, with the creepy house, the potentially dangerous stranger, the mother near death - all the things the genre requires. But because it's Gailey, it's so much more - lonliness, anger, jealousy, and the core question, "Who is the monster". This is a slow burn, so be prepared to be patient, soak in the atmosphere, and wait for the scares to start. ( )

I got this in my Once Upon a Book Club "spooky" themed halloween box. I'm not really one for true crime or horror, but I thought I'd give it a go. The story was good. My main downside is that i'm a wimp so I quickly found out after about 50 pages that this was a day time hours only read (it creeped me out reading it after dark) and because of that it did take me longer to read.
The ending was unexpected for me (won't give it away) and I couldn't decide how I really felt about it.
So while I probably won't read another book like this for a good while, I don't regret spending time with this one! ( )

I know I’m in the minority on this… but seriously Wtf did I just read? I was intrigued enough and expecting some supernatural chills, but the last 10% of the book was just a hot mess. Bummer of an ending. ( )

Ooh! What a deliciously creepy book this is! It resists definition at every turn. Just when I thought I'd figured out what it was about, something---usually bizarre---would happen, and I'd have to regroup. It's filled with the thing I find scariest and love most about scary books: that moment I sit on the edge of my bed and put my foot on the floor and feel the cold anticipation that something is about to grasp my ankle from under the bed. ( )

https://tamaranth.blogspot.com/2022/09/2022122-just-like-home-sarah-gailey.html ( )

If you decide to read this book, keep in mind that the first half of the book is quite slow but it really picks up in the last half. Slogging through the beginning is worth it, for the ending, in my opinion.

Your following Vera, whose mother has never had any love for her and whose father was sentenced to prison for his horrendous acts. Her mother is dying, so Vera returns home to get the house in order. The house may have other plans for her.

I really enjoyed this book and think it's worthy of 4.5 stars. ( )

Just Like Home
by Sarah Gailey
I did like the slow build up to the main excitement. I know I am in the minority but it gave me time to absorb the many facets of this peculiar family and their history. It gave so many hints of what was to come that I wasn't really surprised when certain things happened.
I liked the ending. Is that what her childhood friend meant when he said she had another friend? Ummm. Did he see? ( )

I did not love this book. I hated the ending. ( )

Absolutely effective, wildly unsettling horror. I've had a while to sit on the twists and turns of the narrative, and I honestly still don't know quite which way is up. Lots of body/gore horror and plenty of the quieter, psychological horror and mystery of terrible familial relationships and confused adolescence. ( )