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Just Like Home
“Come home.” Vera’s mother called and Vera obeyed. In spite of their long estrangement, in spite of the memories -- she's come back to the home of a serial killer. Back to face the love she had for her father and the bodies he buried there.
Coming home is hard enough for Vera, and to make things worse, she and her mother aren’t alone. A parasitic artist has moved into the guest house out back, and is slowly stripping Vera’s childhood for spare parts. He insists that he isn’t the one leaving notes around the house in her father’s handwriting… but who else could it possibly be?
There are secrets yet undiscovered in the foundations of the notorious Crowder House. Vera must face them, and find out for herself just how deep the rot goes.
Coming home is hard enough for Vera, and to make things worse, she and her mother aren’t alone. A parasitic artist has moved into the guest house out back, and is slowly stripping Vera’s childhood for spare parts. He insists that he isn’t the one leaving notes around the house in her father’s handwriting… but who else could it possibly be?
There are secrets yet undiscovered in the foundations of the notorious Crowder House. Vera must face them, and find out for herself just how deep the rot goes.
344 pages, Hardcover
First published July 19, 2022
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 5,311 reviews
January 26, 2023
Okay! Challenge accepted! It’s so hard to write a review about ultra haunting and extremely dark, thrilling book that make you scream “what the actual heck!” at least hundred times during your read without giving much away! If I accidentally write a wrong word, I may ruin your reading experience!
I can honestly say this is more BIZARRE, BLEAK, INTENSE, CLAUSTROPHOBIC and EERIE than I expected!
Quick recap of plot:
Vera reluctantly returns back to her haunted childhood house after her terrible mother( she’s terribly ill and she’s also terrible person) who is dying, calls her to say goodbyes. She swore not to put a foot into it, when she left.
Now her mother is unrecognizable, rooting alive and there’s a disturbing tenant: parasitic artist living in their guest house: probably playing mind games with Vera by leaving notes in her room. The notes seem like written by her dead father or their tenant has a talent to imitate his handwriting!
They’re so unexplainable things keep happening at this place as the monster under her bed keeps threatening Vera!
Did I attract your attention? Wait for till you read the last third: that big twist will truly rock your world!
I have to say this book truly disturbed me! It was smart, awkward, haunting! The ominous call of the story kept me attention intact. I couldn’t put it down!
It reminds me you of my favorite Stephen King quote: “ monsters are real and ghosts are real too. They live inside us, and sometimes, they win.”
Who is going to win in this story? You get to read for finding out!
Special thanks to NetGalley and Macmillan-Tor/ Forge for sharing this amazing digital reviewer copy with me in exchange my honest opinions.
I can honestly say this is more BIZARRE, BLEAK, INTENSE, CLAUSTROPHOBIC and EERIE than I expected!
Quick recap of plot:
Vera reluctantly returns back to her haunted childhood house after her terrible mother( she’s terribly ill and she’s also terrible person) who is dying, calls her to say goodbyes. She swore not to put a foot into it, when she left.
Now her mother is unrecognizable, rooting alive and there’s a disturbing tenant: parasitic artist living in their guest house: probably playing mind games with Vera by leaving notes in her room. The notes seem like written by her dead father or their tenant has a talent to imitate his handwriting!
They’re so unexplainable things keep happening at this place as the monster under her bed keeps threatening Vera!
Did I attract your attention? Wait for till you read the last third: that big twist will truly rock your world!
I have to say this book truly disturbed me! It was smart, awkward, haunting! The ominous call of the story kept me attention intact. I couldn’t put it down!
It reminds me you of my favorite Stephen King quote: “ monsters are real and ghosts are real too. They live inside us, and sometimes, they win.”
Who is going to win in this story? You get to read for finding out!
Special thanks to NetGalley and Macmillan-Tor/ Forge for sharing this amazing digital reviewer copy with me in exchange my honest opinions.
August 3, 2022
3.5 stars-- After reading a good review of "Just Like Home" and noticing the creepy cover, I decided to give it a try. This is one time when perseverance paid off. Let me start by warning readers that the first 60 percent of this book is s-l-o-w. Picture reading recipe cards for several hours and that is what the first half of the book is like. However, after the unusually slow narrative in the first 60 percent of the book, “Just Like Home” begins to find its footing. The story of Vera, who returns to her family home at her dying mother’s request, begins gaining steam as the horrors that occurred inside the house when Vera was growing up are revealed. I have to admit by the end of the book I was totally invested in Vera’s character and amazed at how well the author went from no plot at all to one of the creepier, more terrifying endings to a horror novel I have read in a long time. If you can get through the longest buildup before anything happens in book history, then the fantastic last third of the novel is well worth the time. Or better yet let me help — my summary of the first 60 percent of the novel — Vera goes home to be with her dying mom and movesinto her old bedroom. Ok you can start at page 150 you’re welcome
April 17, 2024
**4.5-stars**
Returning to her childhood home is a very difficult prospect for Vera Crowder. There's a lot of hurdles mentally to overcome. As she stands before it, ready to enter for the first time in 12-years, she's filled with doubts.
Her mother, Daphne, is extremely ill and in her final days she seems to want Vera by her side; odd considering she never showed interest in Vera before.
In fact, their relationship has been hostile for years, not your typical mother-daughter relationship, but Vera's whole family history is complicated. That can happen when your father is an infamous serial killer.
Making matters worse is the fact that Vera's mother has a tenant living on the property, some sort of artist whose interest in the house makes Vera very uncomfortable.
Regardless of his annoying presence, being back in the home definitely stirs up a lot of unresolved issues for Vera. She feels things in the house, it's unsettling. She's remembering things she had forgotten.
Through past and present perspectives the Reader is filled in on the truth behind the Crowder house, Vera's family and her quite unconventional upbringing.
Just Like Home was a highly anticipated release for me. I knew with Sarah Gailey's impressive writing skills and imagination this would be a memorable story.
It absolutely was. I was drawn in from the very first paragraph. It feels morose, Vera is not necessarily a happy camper. There's not a lot to be happy about in this situation, but it was absolutely captivating in its quiet intensity.
The way Gailey weaved this story together was so good. There's a lot of balls in the air, as the Reader you are learning so much in every moment. There are no chapters wasted.
I loved being in Vera's head as she reflected on her life and the past timeline was so gripping to watch play out. In some ways it felt like a simple story, like the way it unfolded, but when you take the time to think about it, there are so many layers.
Most interesting to me was the relationship that Vera had with her father. An assumption may be that because he was a killer, he would be a harsh and dominating force in her life, but that's not quite the case.
Additionally, to see the tension between her and her mother, it almost seemed upside-down from what you would expect. And then there was the whole dynamic between the mother and father, which was equally as interesting.
One of the most important aspects for me in any story is atmosphere. I need a strong atmosphere to truly be swept up into a story. I want to feel it, smell it, taste it and generally, be unsettled by it.
Gailey nailed the atmosphere here. This house, oh my word, make no mistake, the house has soul, the house has energy. I always love when the sense of place is this thick in a story. A great example would be The Overlook Hotel in The Shining; where the place is as impactful as any of the characters.
I really had to think about this one after I finished it in order to decide on a rating. Initially, I was thinking it started too slow, but looking back, I feel it was appropriately done.
It is a bit of a slow burn, but the payoff is so over-the-top, vivid and immersive, that it just makes sense this way. Gailey crushed this. It was so freaking weird and creative in such an incredible way.
Thank you so very much to the publisher, Tor and Macmillan Audio, for providing me with copies to read and review. I will remember this one for a long time to come!
Returning to her childhood home is a very difficult prospect for Vera Crowder. There's a lot of hurdles mentally to overcome. As she stands before it, ready to enter for the first time in 12-years, she's filled with doubts.
Her mother, Daphne, is extremely ill and in her final days she seems to want Vera by her side; odd considering she never showed interest in Vera before.
In fact, their relationship has been hostile for years, not your typical mother-daughter relationship, but Vera's whole family history is complicated. That can happen when your father is an infamous serial killer.
Making matters worse is the fact that Vera's mother has a tenant living on the property, some sort of artist whose interest in the house makes Vera very uncomfortable.
Regardless of his annoying presence, being back in the home definitely stirs up a lot of unresolved issues for Vera. She feels things in the house, it's unsettling. She's remembering things she had forgotten.
Through past and present perspectives the Reader is filled in on the truth behind the Crowder house, Vera's family and her quite unconventional upbringing.
Just Like Home was a highly anticipated release for me. I knew with Sarah Gailey's impressive writing skills and imagination this would be a memorable story.
It absolutely was. I was drawn in from the very first paragraph. It feels morose, Vera is not necessarily a happy camper. There's not a lot to be happy about in this situation, but it was absolutely captivating in its quiet intensity.
The way Gailey weaved this story together was so good. There's a lot of balls in the air, as the Reader you are learning so much in every moment. There are no chapters wasted.
I loved being in Vera's head as she reflected on her life and the past timeline was so gripping to watch play out. In some ways it felt like a simple story, like the way it unfolded, but when you take the time to think about it, there are so many layers.
Most interesting to me was the relationship that Vera had with her father. An assumption may be that because he was a killer, he would be a harsh and dominating force in her life, but that's not quite the case.
Additionally, to see the tension between her and her mother, it almost seemed upside-down from what you would expect. And then there was the whole dynamic between the mother and father, which was equally as interesting.
One of the most important aspects for me in any story is atmosphere. I need a strong atmosphere to truly be swept up into a story. I want to feel it, smell it, taste it and generally, be unsettled by it.
Gailey nailed the atmosphere here. This house, oh my word, make no mistake, the house has soul, the house has energy. I always love when the sense of place is this thick in a story. A great example would be The Overlook Hotel in The Shining; where the place is as impactful as any of the characters.
I really had to think about this one after I finished it in order to decide on a rating. Initially, I was thinking it started too slow, but looking back, I feel it was appropriately done.
It is a bit of a slow burn, but the payoff is so over-the-top, vivid and immersive, that it just makes sense this way. Gailey crushed this. It was so freaking weird and creative in such an incredible way.
Thank you so very much to the publisher, Tor and Macmillan Audio, for providing me with copies to read and review. I will remember this one for a long time to come!
August 24, 2022
This is the most stunning cover I have ever beheld with my two human eyes. Period. It takes the cake.
Unfortunately, the insides didn't deliver an iota of the yum that is the outside.
I love Sarah Gailey's writing and I ADORE Xi Sands narration. But the ending and the reveal was so lackluster and underwhelming to me.
I was grasping at straws for 95% of the book. Hoping to be proven wrong in what I assumed would turn out to be the plot twist. Even when the reveal was happening, I was hoping for a second twist to say 'SIKE! You really thought, didn't you!' But no. It was incomprehensible and absurd to be honest.
I really enjoyed the loving relationship between the daughter and father and the tense relationship between the mother and daughter.
But when I tell you that ending ruined everything. It is just ridiculous. I don't recommend this book.
Unfortunately, the insides didn't deliver an iota of the yum that is the outside.
I love Sarah Gailey's writing and I ADORE Xi Sands narration. But the ending and the reveal was so lackluster and underwhelming to me.
I was grasping at straws for 95% of the book. Hoping to be proven wrong in what I assumed would turn out to be the plot twist. Even when the reveal was happening, I was hoping for a second twist to say 'SIKE! You really thought, didn't you!' But no. It was incomprehensible and absurd to be honest.
I really enjoyed the loving relationship between the daughter and father and the tense relationship between the mother and daughter.
But when I tell you that ending ruined everything. It is just ridiculous. I don't recommend this book.
October 1, 2023
VERY GOOOOD. The audiobook is honestly incredible. I might actually change my rating to 5 stars 🫠
August 11, 2022
My first thought on finishing this book was "crikey, that was a hot mess" 😬, but it's lonely on outlier island so I gave myself a week to think it over and nope, it's still a hot mess. I wanted to love it - oh that gorgeous cover, that tantalizing premise - but no, it was not to be. I did like the theme that there can be different kinds of monster, some more obvious than others, but sadly I felt nothing for the characters except frustration. The stifling atmosphere was nicely done but I never fully bought into the creepy bits, I felt sort of detached. I also found the story incredibly slow, filled with sooo much of the main character's dark musings (don't get me wrong, I'm absolutely here for the dark musings - endless, repetitive ones not so much), pointless uninteresting filler - at one point Vera deliberately drives 1½ hours to a bar, takes an instant dislike to the barman, and the minute her drink arrives leaves and drives home again. And as for the bonkers ending, what the hell was all that about? 😶 I'm a massive fan of supernatural stories and know they require great suspension of disbelief, but this was really stretching it, absurd even for a story of this kind, comedic almost. I previously read The Echo Wife by the same author and felt similarly underwhelmed. Oddly I did love the acknowledgements, kind of different and moving. Take my review with a pinch of salt however, don't let it put you off, I'm thinking I must've read it wrong as just about every other reviewer loved it, I only wish I felt the same. Perhaps Sarah Gailey just isn't for me 🤷♀️, a regretful 2 stars.
September 3, 2022
one of the best books I’ve ever read. Holy shit. I loved my time in Crowder House so much, I’m devastated it’s over. What a beautifully dark, fucked up love story. Best book of the year? Probably 🖤🖤 🏠
July 31, 2022
Buddy Read with Ruby! 👻🤟 3.5 Stars
Oh my.. this is not JUST LIKE HOME, It's the hell ya' creepy home !!
The home I don't want to live, but want to stay away !
The home with not warm atmosphere, but shiver cold !
The home what the f*ck is this? Gothic, thiller and horror !
The home I'm confused till end, read it if you want to know !
"This was Crowder House. The house her father built."
** But seriously guys, the most enjoyable part is my journey while reading this book. Sharing my experiance with friends boost my fun so much! Hahaha
👻 *Want to know how this book is? See my reading status below! hehe* 😁✌ Thank you Ruby and everyone! <3
Oh my.. this is not JUST LIKE HOME, It's the hell ya' creepy home !!
The home I don't want to live, but want to stay away !
The home with not warm atmosphere, but shiver cold !
The home what the f*ck is this? Gothic, thiller and horror !
The home I'm confused till end, read it if you want to know !
"This was Crowder House. The house her father built."
** But seriously guys, the most enjoyable part is my journey while reading this book. Sharing my experiance with friends boost my fun so much! Hahaha
👻 *Want to know how this book is? See my reading status below! hehe* 😁✌ Thank you Ruby and everyone! <3
July 29, 2022
3.5 stars: Creepy, creepy, creepy! I wanted to read something a bit outside my usual genres and found “Just Like Home” to be a highly rated gothic thriller. I think it’s more horror. This story creeped me out.
Vera Crowder is coaxed by her mother to return home. Daphne Crowder is dying and wants Vera home. Vera has a disturbing relationship with her mother and with her childhood home. Slowly, we learn of the history of the Crowder house. Vera’s father, Francis is in jail, and we learn why.
If you had any childhood fears of boogeymen under your bed or hiding in the closet, this story will bring it all back. The story flips between the current timeline and when Vera was a child. Vera had a very disturbing childhood. Daphne is the mother from hell that we all had nightmares about. Plus, Daphne has allowed artists to come to the house after Daphne’s father was convicted and incarcerated. When Vera arrives, she finds a particularly strange man, an artist allegedly, staying in the house. This stranger “ups” the creep factor.
This is a fantastic haunted-house story. It just might bring back your childhood fears. I got my horror fill!! I’ll remember it because it is the most nightmarish story I’ve read since I was a young pup.
I listened to the audio performed by Xe Sands. I wasn’t sure about her voice, whether I liked it or not. But, Xe’s ethereal voice modulation added to the unsettling feeling of the story.
Vera Crowder is coaxed by her mother to return home. Daphne Crowder is dying and wants Vera home. Vera has a disturbing relationship with her mother and with her childhood home. Slowly, we learn of the history of the Crowder house. Vera’s father, Francis is in jail, and we learn why.
If you had any childhood fears of boogeymen under your bed or hiding in the closet, this story will bring it all back. The story flips between the current timeline and when Vera was a child. Vera had a very disturbing childhood. Daphne is the mother from hell that we all had nightmares about. Plus, Daphne has allowed artists to come to the house after Daphne’s father was convicted and incarcerated. When Vera arrives, she finds a particularly strange man, an artist allegedly, staying in the house. This stranger “ups” the creep factor.
This is a fantastic haunted-house story. It just might bring back your childhood fears. I got my horror fill!! I’ll remember it because it is the most nightmarish story I’ve read since I was a young pup.
I listened to the audio performed by Xe Sands. I wasn’t sure about her voice, whether I liked it or not. But, Xe’s ethereal voice modulation added to the unsettling feeling of the story.
July 19, 2022
HAPPY PUBLICATION DAY!
“This house, the house her father built, the house where her mother would die—this place was safe. This place knew her. This place was where she belonged.”
Sarah Gailey’s Just Like Home is a gripping Gothic Horror thriller that oozes dread, drips with suspense, and bleeds terror.
In other words, it is very, very disturbing.
This book makes you squirmy and uncomfortable, yet it intrigues until the very end with its clever and thought-provoking themes. Can love and hate exist together? What makes a person good? Can hope and desperation be a liability? Are all men evil?
In an effort to be a better person, Vera Crowder is coming home for two reasons:
1. To clear out the house her dad built
2. To watch her mother die
It has been 12 years since Vera left Marion, New York. She couldn’t escape fast enough after Hammett Duvall wrote a true crime book about her family with information she unknowingly provided. You see, her dad was a serial killer.
Upon her return, she meets an artist named James Duvall, who is renting the shed on the Crowder property. He also happens to be Hammett’s Duvall’s son. What does he want? Can he be trusted?
What actually happened inside the Crowder house all those years ago? Vera must discover the house’s secrets in order to find a way to move on with her life.
As in any good Gothic novel, the Crowder house is the main character. And it is FABULOUS! Is this a ghost story? Is the supernatural involved?
And….What is under Vera’s bed?
If you have not yet read Sarah Gailey, I suggest you immediately add them to your TBR! Gailey is a fantastic writer, who proves that they are the master of any genre.
4.5/5 stars rounded down
Expected publication date: 7/19/22
Thank you to NetGalley and Macmillan-Tor/Forge publishing for the ARC of Just Like Home in exchange for an honest review.
“This house, the house her father built, the house where her mother would die—this place was safe. This place knew her. This place was where she belonged.”
Sarah Gailey’s Just Like Home is a gripping Gothic Horror thriller that oozes dread, drips with suspense, and bleeds terror.
In other words, it is very, very disturbing.
This book makes you squirmy and uncomfortable, yet it intrigues until the very end with its clever and thought-provoking themes. Can love and hate exist together? What makes a person good? Can hope and desperation be a liability? Are all men evil?
In an effort to be a better person, Vera Crowder is coming home for two reasons:
1. To clear out the house her dad built
2. To watch her mother die
It has been 12 years since Vera left Marion, New York. She couldn’t escape fast enough after Hammett Duvall wrote a true crime book about her family with information she unknowingly provided. You see, her dad was a serial killer.
Upon her return, she meets an artist named James Duvall, who is renting the shed on the Crowder property. He also happens to be Hammett’s Duvall’s son. What does he want? Can he be trusted?
What actually happened inside the Crowder house all those years ago? Vera must discover the house’s secrets in order to find a way to move on with her life.
As in any good Gothic novel, the Crowder house is the main character. And it is FABULOUS! Is this a ghost story? Is the supernatural involved?
And….What is under Vera’s bed?
If you have not yet read Sarah Gailey, I suggest you immediately add them to your TBR! Gailey is a fantastic writer, who proves that they are the master of any genre.
4.5/5 stars rounded down
Expected publication date: 7/19/22
Thank you to NetGalley and Macmillan-Tor/Forge publishing for the ARC of Just Like Home in exchange for an honest review.
September 4, 2022
4.5 Stars - Someone buy me the hardback 🤣😂
What the hell…
Did I just read….
Well, bless little Crowder House’s heart!!! It’s a whole thing! 😳
I can’t people, you need to just read the "bloody" book. <—- see what I did there 😏😉
Just know there is all kinds of messed up stuff going on with this kid and her dad! And her mom is not great either. The weird thing is, even though her dad is what he is, he tries his best to be a good dad to his kid. It really is a bit gruesome and bloody here and there. Also that house! I mean I never would have thought of these things! The author really wrote an original with this one, at least to me!
Mel 🖤🐶🐺🐾
What the hell…
Did I just read….
Well, bless little Crowder House’s heart!!! It’s a whole thing! 😳
I can’t people, you need to just read the "bloody" book. <—- see what I did there 😏😉
Just know there is all kinds of messed up stuff going on with this kid and her dad! And her mom is not great either. The weird thing is, even though her dad is what he is, he tries his best to be a good dad to his kid. It really is a bit gruesome and bloody here and there. Also that house! I mean I never would have thought of these things! The author really wrote an original with this one, at least to me!
Mel 🖤🐶🐺🐾
August 3, 2022
4 Stars. I ended up enjoying this more than I thought and closer to my original expectations. This is a story about a young woman whose mother is dying so she goes back home to say goodbye and to help get the house up for sale. It just so happens that the house is the house of a famous serial killer… her father. This is a dark psychological drama /horror book and because you are in the house of a serial killer, you never know what could be hiding around the next corner.
When I first heard about this book I was really excited. I have this odd book thing with Sarah Gailey books. All of her books look so good to me, which isn’t the odd thing. I love how she writes YA and adult, sci-fi, magic, LGBTQ+, witches, and westerns, she just writes the kind of books I want to read. If you looked on my Kindle you would see Upright Women Wanted, When We Were Magic, and The Echo Wife, all sitting there. How many have I read? Well here’s the odd thing... none but I keep buying her books anyway. I think we all know how our TBR’s grow and sometimes I feel the only books I have time to read are books related to promised reviews. When I saw Gailey had a new horror book out, and Tor was kind enough to let me review it, I thought finally, finally I would be reading a Gailey book for sure. But what did I do when I had it in hand, I kept putting off reading it because of some reviews that while mostly liked the book, though it was slow or that not a lot actually happened. I had such high expectations that I could feel myself getting pretty disappointed. Anyway, I finally read it and realized those reviews in a way were right. This was what I would call a slow moving suspense book. But it was slow moving in a way that still kept me on my toes. I never knew when something would happen so I could never put the book down. And yes, not a lot always happened, but when things did happen, it made them seem really impactful. There was a reason I chose to read this book until 6am yesterday morning because I knew I would get no sleep just wondering what the ending would be anyway. It was not the book I originally expected, but I ended up enjoying it as much as I had hoped to anyway.
I do want to mention that this book is tagged LGBTQ+ because the main character is queer and mentions this to a douchebro character who seems to think his dick can cure her queerness anyway. That is it. This is not a coming out story, or romance, this as a horror/serial killer story.
To be very clear here I will not spoil anything so don’t worry. You might have heard people talk about the ending. I ended up really enjoying it and I’m not surprised that it's something on a lot of people’s minds. While I did guess correctly and see parts of it coming, I’m happy to say that some part of it was a totally surprise. There are parts of the ending you might figure out absolutely, but some of it is almost impossible and I really liked that about it. Let’s just say that wherever Gailey gets some of her ideas, I want a ticket to go visit that place:)
If you are interested in a dark psychological drama, with slow moving suspense and a shot of horror, than give this book a chance. This book is very different and it won’t be for everyone but it really showcased Gailey’s skills and I really enjoyed that ending. I could not be more excited that I took a chance on buying so many of her other books and I can’t wait to read them.
A copy was given to me for an honest review.
When I first heard about this book I was really excited. I have this odd book thing with Sarah Gailey books. All of her books look so good to me, which isn’t the odd thing. I love how she writes YA and adult, sci-fi, magic, LGBTQ+, witches, and westerns, she just writes the kind of books I want to read. If you looked on my Kindle you would see Upright Women Wanted, When We Were Magic, and The Echo Wife, all sitting there. How many have I read? Well here’s the odd thing... none but I keep buying her books anyway. I think we all know how our TBR’s grow and sometimes I feel the only books I have time to read are books related to promised reviews. When I saw Gailey had a new horror book out, and Tor was kind enough to let me review it, I thought finally, finally I would be reading a Gailey book for sure. But what did I do when I had it in hand, I kept putting off reading it because of some reviews that while mostly liked the book, though it was slow or that not a lot actually happened. I had such high expectations that I could feel myself getting pretty disappointed. Anyway, I finally read it and realized those reviews in a way were right. This was what I would call a slow moving suspense book. But it was slow moving in a way that still kept me on my toes. I never knew when something would happen so I could never put the book down. And yes, not a lot always happened, but when things did happen, it made them seem really impactful. There was a reason I chose to read this book until 6am yesterday morning because I knew I would get no sleep just wondering what the ending would be anyway. It was not the book I originally expected, but I ended up enjoying it as much as I had hoped to anyway.
I do want to mention that this book is tagged LGBTQ+ because the main character is queer and mentions this to a douchebro character who seems to think his dick can cure her queerness anyway. That is it. This is not a coming out story, or romance, this as a horror/serial killer story.
To be very clear here I will not spoil anything so don’t worry. You might have heard people talk about the ending. I ended up really enjoying it and I’m not surprised that it's something on a lot of people’s minds. While I did guess correctly and see parts of it coming, I’m happy to say that some part of it was a totally surprise. There are parts of the ending you might figure out absolutely, but some of it is almost impossible and I really liked that about it. Let’s just say that wherever Gailey gets some of her ideas, I want a ticket to go visit that place:)
If you are interested in a dark psychological drama, with slow moving suspense and a shot of horror, than give this book a chance. This book is very different and it won’t be for everyone but it really showcased Gailey’s skills and I really enjoyed that ending. I could not be more excited that I took a chance on buying so many of her other books and I can’t wait to read them.
A copy was given to me for an honest review.
June 1, 2022
1 ⭐️. Well I’m definitely in the minority when it comes to this one. Let me start by saying that I VERY RARELY give below 3 stars if I’ve stuck through a book and finished it. Usually if it’s feeling like a 1-2 star then it’s a DNF for me. Well, I finished this one and I feel dumber for having read it and I’m mad at myself for wasting my time on it. Let me at least give a couple positives before I say everything that was awful about this. The synopsis and cover are very intriguing! With that said, I did not expect the ending to be like it was. I enjoy a good thriller/mystery and I don’t even mind a few ghosts or creepy things thrown in there but this…this was just dumb!! The only other positive thing I have to say is that the first 30-40% really was pretty good. But then it started to drag around 50% and then by 85%…oh dear Lord it took a complete nose dive! Only word I can describe it as is dumb!!
Now to explain why it was so bad will be hard to do without giving spoilers. So if you still plan to read this one, you might want to stop reading here. The last 15% of the book had me rolling my eyes and thinking to myself that I can’t believe this book was even published. This was my first book by Sarah Gailey and will absolutely be my last. After an ending like that, I don’t think I could give an author a second chance! 🤣 In a nutshell, there was a monster that warped into the dead body of Vera’s mother. Okay that doesn’t sound so bad. Sounds like it could be a scary movie for someone who likes horror books but when the house starts talking…yes, you read that correctly, the HOUSE is communicating with Vera, it just became so incredibly dumb. It wasn’t even written scary. It just sounded so stupid. And Vera at the end…killing to PROTECT the house! I just can’t! It was a total waste of time and I do not understand the high reviews with this one at all!
Thank you to NetGalley and Tor Books for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.
Now to explain why it was so bad will be hard to do without giving spoilers. So if you still plan to read this one, you might want to stop reading here. The last 15% of the book had me rolling my eyes and thinking to myself that I can’t believe this book was even published. This was my first book by Sarah Gailey and will absolutely be my last. After an ending like that, I don’t think I could give an author a second chance! 🤣 In a nutshell, there was a monster that warped into the dead body of Vera’s mother. Okay that doesn’t sound so bad. Sounds like it could be a scary movie for someone who likes horror books but when the house starts talking…yes, you read that correctly, the HOUSE is communicating with Vera, it just became so incredibly dumb. It wasn’t even written scary. It just sounded so stupid. And Vera at the end…killing to PROTECT the house! I just can’t! It was a total waste of time and I do not understand the high reviews with this one at all!
Thank you to NetGalley and Tor Books for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 7, 2023
This might be my new favorite book!!! Definitely my favorite of the year so far. So many elements I loved.
-MC with a dark past
-Dysfunctional family
-Body horror
-Claustrophobic sequences
-Weird, unexpected plot points I never saw coming
It’s like if Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn and The Deep by Nick Cutter had a nightmare baby (it’s not nearly as disturbing as The Deep but very much has similar vibes).
Based on reviews, this is very much a love it or hate it book, but it very much worked for me.
-MC with a dark past
-Dysfunctional family
-Body horror
-Claustrophobic sequences
-Weird, unexpected plot points I never saw coming
It’s like if Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn and The Deep by Nick Cutter had a nightmare baby (it’s not nearly as disturbing as The Deep but very much has similar vibes).
Based on reviews, this is very much a love it or hate it book, but it very much worked for me.
July 16, 2022
3.5 stars
Told in two time-lines, Just Like Home is an odd and interesting book. It is truly unique and original. At times I wasn't quite sure what I thought of it, but it was compelling and kept me intrigued.
Vera has returned to her childhood home - the home where she lived with her estranged mother and serial killer father. Yes, you read that right! Vera is in the house with her mother, while an artist lives in the guest house out back. He insists that he is not the one leaving notes around the house in her father's handwriting, but if he isn't leaving them then who is?
Plus, what the heck is going on with Vera's bed????
Parts of this were a little slow for me and yet, I wanted to keep reading/listening as the plot was compelling and I had to know what was going on. I did not even come close to guessing what was happening.
Thank you to Tor Books/Macmillan Audio and NetGalley who provided me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All the thoughts and opinions are my own.
Read more of my reviews at www.openbookposts.com
Told in two time-lines, Just Like Home is an odd and interesting book. It is truly unique and original. At times I wasn't quite sure what I thought of it, but it was compelling and kept me intrigued.
Vera has returned to her childhood home - the home where she lived with her estranged mother and serial killer father. Yes, you read that right! Vera is in the house with her mother, while an artist lives in the guest house out back. He insists that he is not the one leaving notes around the house in her father's handwriting, but if he isn't leaving them then who is?
Plus, what the heck is going on with Vera's bed????
Parts of this were a little slow for me and yet, I wanted to keep reading/listening as the plot was compelling and I had to know what was going on. I did not even come close to guessing what was happening.
Thank you to Tor Books/Macmillan Audio and NetGalley who provided me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All the thoughts and opinions are my own.
Read more of my reviews at www.openbookposts.com
September 15, 2022
Vera gets a call one day from her mother to come home. It turns out that Daphne is dying and she needs Vera to sort out her things and prepare the house for sale. The mother she hasn't seen in twelve years. Home, also known as The Crowder House, is the last place she ever wants to return to but she wants to be a good daughter and this is what a good daughter does.
The Crowder House became infamous after the arrest of her father, a serial killer, that preyed on men. After his arrest her mother began renting out the back cottage to artists, writers, mediums, spiritualists - anyone that had a keen interest in learning more about a serial killer and their rent money helped keep Daphne afloat.
When Vera arrives home she finds that the cottage is being rented by an artist, James Duvall, and his intentions seem more sinister than simple curiosity.
Back in her childhood bedroom she is riddled with fear because it appears she isn't alone during the night. There is something living under her bed. Does she dare to look? You'll have to read this to find out.
This book is weird and creepy for any of you folks out there that likes that sort of thing, I know I do. I loved the beginning and was hooked easily in Gailey's claws but I admit that the meandering way in which she told the story really slowed the pace down through the middle. Vera is our narrator and being in her head at times could get repetitious with her thoughts constantly swirling around and around. I definitely skimmed some passages that seemed to go on forever. I thought initially this story would focus on her serial killer father, Francis, but it doesn't really. This is much more of a haunted house story and it's as gory as can be. That ending though, wowza! Gailey went full throttle into the pitch black abyss and for that I'm thankful. Now having finished this I can tell you just how truly perfect the cover of this book is. 4 stars!
Thanks to Overdrive for the loan!
The Crowder House became infamous after the arrest of her father, a serial killer, that preyed on men. After his arrest her mother began renting out the back cottage to artists, writers, mediums, spiritualists - anyone that had a keen interest in learning more about a serial killer and their rent money helped keep Daphne afloat.
When Vera arrives home she finds that the cottage is being rented by an artist, James Duvall, and his intentions seem more sinister than simple curiosity.
Back in her childhood bedroom she is riddled with fear because it appears she isn't alone during the night. There is something living under her bed. Does she dare to look? You'll have to read this to find out.
This book is weird and creepy for any of you folks out there that likes that sort of thing, I know I do. I loved the beginning and was hooked easily in Gailey's claws but I admit that the meandering way in which she told the story really slowed the pace down through the middle. Vera is our narrator and being in her head at times could get repetitious with her thoughts constantly swirling around and around. I definitely skimmed some passages that seemed to go on forever. I thought initially this story would focus on her serial killer father, Francis, but it doesn't really. This is much more of a haunted house story and it's as gory as can be. That ending though, wowza! Gailey went full throttle into the pitch black abyss and for that I'm thankful. Now having finished this I can tell you just how truly perfect the cover of this book is. 4 stars!
Thanks to Overdrive for the loan!
August 19, 2022
I wanted SO badly to love this. The synopsis drew me in and I was sold… well, the synopsis lied.
This is NOT about a serial killer. It’s 95% paranormal, 3% additional unneeded details, and 2% about the serial killer. Not what I expected.
Writing style was great. Execution of the premise really disappointed me. Ending was NOT satisfying in my opinion.
Damn. At least it was a library rental and not my own copy, thank goodness…
2.5 sad, disappointing stars.
This is NOT about a serial killer. It’s 95% paranormal, 3% additional unneeded details, and 2% about the serial killer. Not what I expected.
Writing style was great. Execution of the premise really disappointed me. Ending was NOT satisfying in my opinion.
Damn. At least it was a library rental and not my own copy, thank goodness…
2.5 sad, disappointing stars.
Currently reading
October 31, 2022My trusted friend gave it 5 stars and it's on sale for $2.99 so I bought it without even reading the blurb or the sample HAHAHA. #LivingDangerously
February 17, 2023
This book is disturbing, dark,compelling, ominous
Vera Crowder returns to her family home after a 12 year sabbatical as she was estranged from her mother Daphne who lies dying& Vera is invited by her mother to watch her die,she is made out of paper & wax is rotting alive.
Vera decides to return to the home she vacated but she stands outside patiently whether to go inside the house has an eerie existence it was built by her Francis to keep the wind out & the sound in.
Then you have a parasitic guest living outside playing with Vera’s head, noises were heard under the bed when she was 8 years old, this was a very compelling , ominous book to get through it’s unlike anything I have read before, it’s the first book I have read by miss Gailey & wont be the last.
Vera Crowder returns to her family home after a 12 year sabbatical as she was estranged from her mother Daphne who lies dying& Vera is invited by her mother to watch her die,she is made out of paper & wax is rotting alive.
Vera decides to return to the home she vacated but she stands outside patiently whether to go inside the house has an eerie existence it was built by her Francis to keep the wind out & the sound in.
Then you have a parasitic guest living outside playing with Vera’s head, noises were heard under the bed when she was 8 years old, this was a very compelling , ominous book to get through it’s unlike anything I have read before, it’s the first book I have read by miss Gailey & wont be the last.
October 18, 2022
“She was a Crowder. She’d finally gotten a taste of the thing that lived under the bed, and she wouldn’t rest until she’d gotten her full.”
This was pretty out there! But sometimes that is just what you want in a horror.
Vera Crowder hasn’t been back to her family home in 12 years. When she receives a call from her dying mother to return and put the house in order she feels like she can’t refuse.
But the house she grew up in is full of secrets, and it remembers Vera well.
Full of suspense and strange happenings. A good undercurrent of uncertainty and fear, this was a solid scary story of both the human and supernatural kind.
*************************
Library copy available for pick up
Looking forward to this one
This was pretty out there! But sometimes that is just what you want in a horror.
Vera Crowder hasn’t been back to her family home in 12 years. When she receives a call from her dying mother to return and put the house in order she feels like she can’t refuse.
But the house she grew up in is full of secrets, and it remembers Vera well.
Full of suspense and strange happenings. A good undercurrent of uncertainty and fear, this was a solid scary story of both the human and supernatural kind.
*************************
Library copy available for pick up
Looking forward to this one
June 10, 2022
Man this book was creepy. It wasn't overly gory by any means but there were other substances let's just say that, that made it kind of gross.
This is a book about strained family relationships, coming home, and reopening past wounds. The ending was superb and I still don't know what to think of it.
I will say this would make a fabulous horror movie. I don't watch scary movies but I can guarantee if they made this into a movie I would check it out...and probably be scared pants less.
This is a book about strained family relationships, coming home, and reopening past wounds. The ending was superb and I still don't know what to think of it.
I will say this would make a fabulous horror movie. I don't watch scary movies but I can guarantee if they made this into a movie I would check it out...and probably be scared pants less.
August 1, 2022
This was weird reading experience. Based on the synopsis and a genre I thought it will be fast-paced horror/thriller novel, but it actually for me it more reminded slow pace literary fiction with some horror and mystery elements in it. The dual time line was enjoyable to read and fit the story really well. The book was more about Vera (the main character), then the plot itself. I did ultimately enjoyed the story, I have read other work by this author and it definitely feels like her previous work. I did ultimately enjoyed the story, I have read other work by this author and it definitely feels like her previous work.
Want to read
December 26, 2021new sarah gailey new sarah gailey new sarah gailey new sarah gailey new sarah gailey new sarah gailey new sarah gailey
AND IT’S PINK
AND IT’S PINK
July 5, 2022
Eerie and bleak...but so good.
AND THAT COVER.
AND THAT COVER.
July 27, 2022
“Being in this house is fucking with you.”
I wanted this one as soon as I saw the cover (#duh) and after being denied an early copy waited very impatiently for publication day. I mean once you tell me poppa was arolling stone serial killer, it’s pretty much just like . . . .
Vera returns to her childhood home at the request of her dying mother. She’s there to clean it out and prepare for it sale (or to burn it down, if the townsfolk get their way). Vera doesn’t hold out much hope for a reconciliation with her momma, especially since she’s the reason dear old dad’s little hobby was discovered by the police in the first place. What she doesn’t anticipate is the trip down memory lane she’ll go on while staying in her old digs.
This is going to be super short because I want to blab about alllllll of the things and that is not acceptable on a story like this. I just took a peek at the blurb and Just Like Home has been labeled a “gothic” thriller. Maybe I’m just stupid and don’t know what gothic means, but I wouldn’t call it that. I went in blind and started this when thunderstorms were going to be in the area for the duration. The timing couldn’t have been better because this sucker ended up creeping me plum the eff out. It starts slowly (not in a terrible way, the page turnability was present throughout I just didn’t know where it was headed), but once she gets going it is off to the races.
Hide your husbands and hide your sons!
I wanted this one as soon as I saw the cover (#duh) and after being denied an early copy waited very impatiently for publication day. I mean once you tell me poppa was a
Vera returns to her childhood home at the request of her dying mother. She’s there to clean it out and prepare for it sale (or to burn it down, if the townsfolk get their way). Vera doesn’t hold out much hope for a reconciliation with her momma, especially since she’s the reason dear old dad’s little hobby was discovered by the police in the first place. What she doesn’t anticipate is the trip down memory lane she’ll go on while staying in her old digs.
This is going to be super short because I want to blab about alllllll of the things and that is not acceptable on a story like this. I just took a peek at the blurb and Just Like Home has been labeled a “gothic” thriller. Maybe I’m just stupid and don’t know what gothic means, but I wouldn’t call it that. I went in blind and started this when thunderstorms were going to be in the area for the duration. The timing couldn’t have been better because this sucker ended up creeping me plum the eff out. It starts slowly (not in a terrible way, the page turnability was present throughout I just didn’t know where it was headed), but once she gets going it is off to the races.
Hide your husbands and hide your sons!
July 19, 2022
Happy Publication Day!
I listened to the audiobook and the narrator annoyed me practically the whole time. She was very monotone and hard to listen to. That may be the reason it took 90% of the book for me to get into it. The last 10% was amazing. It was creepy and atmospheric. Maybe if I read the physical copy I would feel differently but it was just an ok read for me.
Vera Crowder hasn’t been home in twelve years, however, after receiving a call from her mother pleading her to return home, she goes. Vera goes home with a purpose; to clean out the house and watch her mother die.
Vera’s family is well known in their town thanks to Hammett Duvall’s true crime book. What’s so bad about that you ask? Her father was a serial killer.
Vera is shocked when she returns home to find that Duvall’s son James has rented the shed on her property. If that wasn’t creepy and weird itself, strange things begin happening at night in Vera’s bedroom. Monsters under the bed become all to real as Vera tries to decipher what happened in her home all those years ago.
Just Like Home is available now!
Thank you to Netgalley and Macmillan Audio for this arc in exchange for my honest review.
I listened to the audiobook and the narrator annoyed me practically the whole time. She was very monotone and hard to listen to. That may be the reason it took 90% of the book for me to get into it. The last 10% was amazing. It was creepy and atmospheric. Maybe if I read the physical copy I would feel differently but it was just an ok read for me.
Vera Crowder hasn’t been home in twelve years, however, after receiving a call from her mother pleading her to return home, she goes. Vera goes home with a purpose; to clean out the house and watch her mother die.
Vera’s family is well known in their town thanks to Hammett Duvall’s true crime book. What’s so bad about that you ask? Her father was a serial killer.
Vera is shocked when she returns home to find that Duvall’s son James has rented the shed on her property. If that wasn’t creepy and weird itself, strange things begin happening at night in Vera’s bedroom. Monsters under the bed become all to real as Vera tries to decipher what happened in her home all those years ago.
Just Like Home is available now!
Thank you to Netgalley and Macmillan Audio for this arc in exchange for my honest review.
Read
August 2, 2022Source of book: NetGalley (thank you)
Relevant disclaimers: none
Please note: This review may not be reproduced or quoted, in whole or in part, without explicit consent from the author.
And remember: I am not here to judge your drag, I mean your book. Books are art and art is subjective. These are just my personal thoughts. They are not meant to be taken as broader commentary on the general quality of the work. Believe me, I have not enjoyed many an excellent book, and my individual lack of enjoyment has not made any of those books less excellent or (more relevantly) less successful.
Further disclaimer: Readers, please stop accusing me of trying to take down “my competition” because I wrote a review you didn’t like. This is complete nonsense. Firstly, writing isn’t a competitive sport. Secondly, I only publish reviews of books in the subgenre where I’m best known (queer romcom) if they’re glowing. And finally: taking time out of my life to read an entire book, then write a detailed review about it that some people on GR will look at would be a profoundly inefficient and ineffective way to damage the careers of other authors. If you can’t credit me with simply being a person who loves books and likes talking about them, at least credit me with enough common sense to be a better villain.
*******************************************
Oof, this book is deliciously creepy. I think what I love most about Gailey as a writer—and I love MUCH about them—is their effortless genre flexibility: they have this unparalleled ability to not only dig into the heart of what makes a particular genre, or subgenre resonate but to draw something new and fresh (and in, in its own way, inescapably queer) from familiar bones.
Just Like Home, then, is a gothic flavoured, true crime inspired horror-thriller, which is also a very classic haunted house story. It had moments of reminding me of Sharp Objects and Mexican Gothic, while still being entirely its own thing. The basic premise here is that Vera Crowder after years of a somewhat rootless existence has been summoned back to the house where she grew up to attend her dying mother. The house in question was built for his family by Vera’s loving father, Francis Crowder. Who also happens to be a serial killer, whose crimes came to light when Vera was thirteen years old, and later died in prison.
And before you come at me for spoilers, that is literally in the blurb.
Although, given this is a Sarah Gailey book, it also barely scrapes the surface of what’s going on here, both literally and thematically. Which is hard to talk about in more detail without spoiling the story. I will, however, do my best.
At its heart, I guess, Just Like Home is a “who are the monsters really” type book and I am personally always here for a “who are the monsters really” type book, especially when it’s such a multi-layered exploration of the trope, encompassing familial relationships, romantic relationships, domestic abuse, serial killing, the entitled voyeurism engendered by the popularity of true crime, and—of course—a literal haunted house. The experience of reading the book itself is one of stifling and ever-increasing dread, coupled with an uncomfortable degree of curiosity about Vera, her father, and the past (which is woven into the narrative via present-tense flashbacks). That we are meant to interrogate our own curiosity is, I think, very much part of the point here (especially because, in the wake of Francis Crowder’s death his wife had turned the house into a kind of tourist attraction to his monstrosity) and I ultimately appreciated how willing the story is to deny that curiosity. It might sound like an odd thing to say about a book, one of whose central strands concerns a serial killer, but there’s a delicacy around what is revealed and how, the way the story retains a balance between intimacy and distance around its characters—particularly the prickly, damaged, desperately lonely Vera.
I was going to add that Just Like Home is not a book for the faint-hearted, before realising how pejorative faint-hearted sounds. As if preferring not to wade around in the tarry depths of human nature is somehow a moral failing. Basically, even compared to, say, The Echo Wife—which was also fairly horrifying, but in cool, cerebral kind of way—Just Like Home a dark and visceral read, both in the literal sense, and also in its emotional dynamic. It goes to some Places TM. I’m honestly still processing its heroine, wondering at my capacity for sympathy here, because holy God.
I also think—and this is complicated—there may be people for whom the concept of a serial killer who is also a loving and dutiful father might be inherently distasteful. I’m genuinely not sure if a nuanced approach to serial killers is what the world needs right now (or indeed ever), although I should also note that, while Francis Crowder is allowed to be more than his reputation (and it is important to the themes of the book that he is), he is never glamorised. This isn’t a Netflix Thinks Ted Bundy is hot situation. Also—for whatever fucked up cultural reasons—it makes a mild difference, for me, that Crowder’s victims are all men. Not that I’m claiming it’s okay to serial kill men, but I genuinely believe we are too interested in general in serial killers who solely target women. I mean, that shit goes back to Jack the Ripper. On top of which the serial killing is, of course, feeing into the book’s broader explorations of home, domesticity, gender, and violence.
Ultimately, I recommend Just Like Home wholeheartedly but more carefully than The Echo Wife, simply because of the subject matter. Or perhaps I mean the presentation of the subject matter because one can definitely trace some connections between the two books: an unreliable, complicated protagonist, an intense domestic setting upon which something supernatural/SFnal acts as both reflection and disruption, the inescapability of power, gender and society. In a strange way, though, and this might say more about me and the means by which I’m willing to accept expressions of tenderness, Just Like Home felt a little less bleak than The Echo Wife. But the journey is darker, and bloodier, and its horror seems less detached (then again, Evelyn’s job in The Echo Wife is devastatingly unpleasant): so, you know, assess your own comfort before diving in.
As a kind of conclusion/sidebar, one of the on-going meta-jokes about haunted house stories is “why don’t they just leave?” There’s quite a famous Call of Cthulhu (the roleplaying game, I mean, not the story by racist Uncle Howie) scenario called The Haunting. I don’t remember the details super well, but my partner ran it for me and some friends once—and I think the basic deal is that you’re sent by someone (? An estate agent?) to investigate a house in Boston that is rumoured to be haunted, making it hard to rent/sell. There’s all kinds of shenanigans as you wander around including a bed that tries to throw you out of the window. I think, once you’ve been brutalised by the house, you can go and research it or something, and it turns out there’s a something-or-other in the basement that throws telepathic knives at you. Anyway, for maximum lulz I always roll my CoC characters randomly, and I’d ended up with someone incredibly rich and incredibly stupid, so I’d decided to play—in essence—Bertie Wooster, alongside which I’d put a lot of my points into hot air ballooning because I thought it would be funny. Needless to say, I spent the whole scenario watching my friends’ characters getting attacked by furniture and otherwise traumatised, going “why don’t we just leave? We could just leave? I’m very rich, we don’t need this job. I could have a hot air balloon here in thirty minutes. Say the word.”
Where I’m going with this daft anecdote is: above all else, Just Like Home is not only a fascinating take on the haunted house story, it presents a gloriously twisted and, to me, kind of appealing reason for its protagonist to stay.
PS - Omg, I can't believe I wrote this whole review and didn't mention who abso-fucking-lutely phenomenal the writing in this book is. So, err, the writing in this book is abso-fucking-lutely phenomenal. What a thing to take for granted but, embarrassing as it is, when it comes to Gailey I kinda do?
Relevant disclaimers: none
Please note: This review may not be reproduced or quoted, in whole or in part, without explicit consent from the author.
And remember: I am not here to judge your drag, I mean your book. Books are art and art is subjective. These are just my personal thoughts. They are not meant to be taken as broader commentary on the general quality of the work. Believe me, I have not enjoyed many an excellent book, and my individual lack of enjoyment has not made any of those books less excellent or (more relevantly) less successful.
Further disclaimer: Readers, please stop accusing me of trying to take down “my competition” because I wrote a review you didn’t like. This is complete nonsense. Firstly, writing isn’t a competitive sport. Secondly, I only publish reviews of books in the subgenre where I’m best known (queer romcom) if they’re glowing. And finally: taking time out of my life to read an entire book, then write a detailed review about it that some people on GR will look at would be a profoundly inefficient and ineffective way to damage the careers of other authors. If you can’t credit me with simply being a person who loves books and likes talking about them, at least credit me with enough common sense to be a better villain.
*******************************************
Oof, this book is deliciously creepy. I think what I love most about Gailey as a writer—and I love MUCH about them—is their effortless genre flexibility: they have this unparalleled ability to not only dig into the heart of what makes a particular genre, or subgenre resonate but to draw something new and fresh (and in, in its own way, inescapably queer) from familiar bones.
Just Like Home, then, is a gothic flavoured, true crime inspired horror-thriller, which is also a very classic haunted house story. It had moments of reminding me of Sharp Objects and Mexican Gothic, while still being entirely its own thing. The basic premise here is that Vera Crowder after years of a somewhat rootless existence has been summoned back to the house where she grew up to attend her dying mother. The house in question was built for his family by Vera’s loving father, Francis Crowder. Who also happens to be a serial killer, whose crimes came to light when Vera was thirteen years old, and later died in prison.
And before you come at me for spoilers, that is literally in the blurb.
Although, given this is a Sarah Gailey book, it also barely scrapes the surface of what’s going on here, both literally and thematically. Which is hard to talk about in more detail without spoiling the story. I will, however, do my best.
At its heart, I guess, Just Like Home is a “who are the monsters really” type book and I am personally always here for a “who are the monsters really” type book, especially when it’s such a multi-layered exploration of the trope, encompassing familial relationships, romantic relationships, domestic abuse, serial killing, the entitled voyeurism engendered by the popularity of true crime, and—of course—a literal haunted house. The experience of reading the book itself is one of stifling and ever-increasing dread, coupled with an uncomfortable degree of curiosity about Vera, her father, and the past (which is woven into the narrative via present-tense flashbacks). That we are meant to interrogate our own curiosity is, I think, very much part of the point here (especially because, in the wake of Francis Crowder’s death his wife had turned the house into a kind of tourist attraction to his monstrosity) and I ultimately appreciated how willing the story is to deny that curiosity. It might sound like an odd thing to say about a book, one of whose central strands concerns a serial killer, but there’s a delicacy around what is revealed and how, the way the story retains a balance between intimacy and distance around its characters—particularly the prickly, damaged, desperately lonely Vera.
I was going to add that Just Like Home is not a book for the faint-hearted, before realising how pejorative faint-hearted sounds. As if preferring not to wade around in the tarry depths of human nature is somehow a moral failing. Basically, even compared to, say, The Echo Wife—which was also fairly horrifying, but in cool, cerebral kind of way—Just Like Home a dark and visceral read, both in the literal sense, and also in its emotional dynamic. It goes to some Places TM. I’m honestly still processing its heroine, wondering at my capacity for sympathy here, because holy God.
I also think—and this is complicated—there may be people for whom the concept of a serial killer who is also a loving and dutiful father might be inherently distasteful. I’m genuinely not sure if a nuanced approach to serial killers is what the world needs right now (or indeed ever), although I should also note that, while Francis Crowder is allowed to be more than his reputation (and it is important to the themes of the book that he is), he is never glamorised. This isn’t a Netflix Thinks Ted Bundy is hot situation. Also—for whatever fucked up cultural reasons—it makes a mild difference, for me, that Crowder’s victims are all men. Not that I’m claiming it’s okay to serial kill men, but I genuinely believe we are too interested in general in serial killers who solely target women. I mean, that shit goes back to Jack the Ripper. On top of which the serial killing is, of course, feeing into the book’s broader explorations of home, domesticity, gender, and violence.
Ultimately, I recommend Just Like Home wholeheartedly but more carefully than The Echo Wife, simply because of the subject matter. Or perhaps I mean the presentation of the subject matter because one can definitely trace some connections between the two books: an unreliable, complicated protagonist, an intense domestic setting upon which something supernatural/SFnal acts as both reflection and disruption, the inescapability of power, gender and society. In a strange way, though, and this might say more about me and the means by which I’m willing to accept expressions of tenderness, Just Like Home felt a little less bleak than The Echo Wife. But the journey is darker, and bloodier, and its horror seems less detached (then again, Evelyn’s job in The Echo Wife is devastatingly unpleasant): so, you know, assess your own comfort before diving in.
As a kind of conclusion/sidebar, one of the on-going meta-jokes about haunted house stories is “why don’t they just leave?” There’s quite a famous Call of Cthulhu (the roleplaying game, I mean, not the story by racist Uncle Howie) scenario called The Haunting. I don’t remember the details super well, but my partner ran it for me and some friends once—and I think the basic deal is that you’re sent by someone (? An estate agent?) to investigate a house in Boston that is rumoured to be haunted, making it hard to rent/sell. There’s all kinds of shenanigans as you wander around including a bed that tries to throw you out of the window. I think, once you’ve been brutalised by the house, you can go and research it or something, and it turns out there’s a something-or-other in the basement that throws telepathic knives at you. Anyway, for maximum lulz I always roll my CoC characters randomly, and I’d ended up with someone incredibly rich and incredibly stupid, so I’d decided to play—in essence—Bertie Wooster, alongside which I’d put a lot of my points into hot air ballooning because I thought it would be funny. Needless to say, I spent the whole scenario watching my friends’ characters getting attacked by furniture and otherwise traumatised, going “why don’t we just leave? We could just leave? I’m very rich, we don’t need this job. I could have a hot air balloon here in thirty minutes. Say the word.”
Where I’m going with this daft anecdote is: above all else, Just Like Home is not only a fascinating take on the haunted house story, it presents a gloriously twisted and, to me, kind of appealing reason for its protagonist to stay.
PS - Omg, I can't believe I wrote this whole review and didn't mention who abso-fucking-lutely phenomenal the writing in this book is. So, err, the writing in this book is abso-fucking-lutely phenomenal. What a thing to take for granted but, embarrassing as it is, when it comes to Gailey I kinda do?
The smell of fresh lumber gave Vera what she needed: a reminder of how things really were. A reminder of how little she had been welcome here until this moment. She breathed in the redwood smell and she spread the last of her hope out on those brand-new steps and she watched it die writhing, watched it without pity, watched it until it was still and cold."
July 24, 2022
Wow, this book was a trip! And the more I think about it, the more I like it. Very creepy and a fresh take on the daughter of a serial killer trope, but with a lot of added depth in terms of thematic exploration. I wasn't sure how much this was going to lean into horror, but I can tell you this is definitely a horror novel.
Just Like Home follows the adult daughter of a serial killer returning to her childhood home because her mother is dying. Her dad died in prison but weird things start happening in the house. We also get flashbacks from her childhood starting at age 11 and going forward in time.
I don't want to say too much because it's best to go into this not knowing a lot, but while I could see some twists coming, there were other things I didn't expect. I'm still processing the ending but I can tell you that this book is not for people who want characters who are clearly good or bad.
Thematically this book is exploring the complexity of abusive family dynamics. How we can both love and be hurt by the people closest to us, how people are not all good or all bad, and how love, hatred, and anger can be a tangled mess. How our family of origin impacts who we become in good and bad ways, sometimes creating cycles of trauma. Forgiveness isn't owed, but as children we have limited understanding of what is going on in the world of our grown-ups. In that sense, this book is haunting and offers no easy answers.
As I said though, this book is a HORROR novel. So expect lots of body horror, gore, violence, a possibly haunted house, visceral descriptions of the kind of fear you experience as a child, and more disturbing elements. Because of that this may not be for everyone, but I appreciate what the book is doing and it's something that will stick with me. The audio narration is excellent and really plays into the creepiness of what is happening. I received an audio copy of this book for review via NetGalley. All opinions are my own.
Just Like Home follows the adult daughter of a serial killer returning to her childhood home because her mother is dying. Her dad died in prison but weird things start happening in the house. We also get flashbacks from her childhood starting at age 11 and going forward in time.
I don't want to say too much because it's best to go into this not knowing a lot, but while I could see some twists coming, there were other things I didn't expect. I'm still processing the ending but I can tell you that this book is not for people who want characters who are clearly good or bad.
Thematically this book is exploring the complexity of abusive family dynamics. How we can both love and be hurt by the people closest to us, how people are not all good or all bad, and how love, hatred, and anger can be a tangled mess. How our family of origin impacts who we become in good and bad ways, sometimes creating cycles of trauma. Forgiveness isn't owed, but as children we have limited understanding of what is going on in the world of our grown-ups. In that sense, this book is haunting and offers no easy answers.
As I said though, this book is a HORROR novel. So expect lots of body horror, gore, violence, a possibly haunted house, visceral descriptions of the kind of fear you experience as a child, and more disturbing elements. Because of that this may not be for everyone, but I appreciate what the book is doing and it's something that will stick with me. The audio narration is excellent and really plays into the creepiness of what is happening. I received an audio copy of this book for review via NetGalley. All opinions are my own.
August 28, 2022
I was in the mood for a horror novel and this book definitely delivered here in spades. Inventive and creepy. The narrator in the audio version made the mother's voice sound so creepy that it took a while to get out of my head. Still, not sure I could quite go where the author wanted me to go but despite that I thought it was a good story and until the ending was all in. Truthfully, does one read a novel such as this for the realistic factor? One should hope not. If an ending such as this could actually happen we would all need some strong medication.
October 21, 2022
SPOOKTOBER IS HALF-OVER. OR HALF BEGUN? I DUNNO, MATH'S A DRAG.
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