What did I just read?! The daughter of Dexter mixed with supernatural scares? The plot was pretty out there, but that made it quite an unpredictable read. I found myself unsure of whether I was scared for Vera because the other characters could possibly want to hurt her or due to some type of haunting/paranormal activity. Whatever the reasoning, the creepy, spooky, and, at times suspenseful, elements were there.
On the other hand, there were some plot points that weren’t very well developed (Vera’s relationship with her mother as a young child, for one) yet the pace at the beginning of the book was a bit on the slow burn side.

I have read many of Sarah Gailey's book. They can be hit or miss for me. This one fell right down the middle. It was creepy, atmospheric, and very strange. Though I enjoyed the first half of the book, the 2nd half went much slower. I also found the twists and turns to be more outrageous than thrilling. I will say I know why this author is a talent and I will pick up whatever they write in the future. I like that this author is surprising and doesn't stay in one lane when creating their work! Thank you for this ARC.

After 12 years, Vera has returned to her hometown and family home to take care of her dying mother. The pair had been estranged for years, since her mother had capitalized on Vera’s fathers notoriety as serial killer, while Vera tried to keep quiet about it.

While Vera has moved back into her home, Crowder House, she finds her mother rented out the guest house to an “artist” who is taking apart pieces of the home for a special project.

What follows next is told from alternate timelines of Vera’s youth and the present. As the memories unfold, this novel will give you just the slightest chill down your spine.

I like to call this genre Horror-Lite. Not full or gore or lots of deaths. But horror that will creep into your brain and subconscious and that will remain there, where you’ll still think of certain passages long after you’ve finished.

Thanks to Netgalley and the editors for the ARC!

Crowder House is haunted. That is at least what everybody says, because it is the only explanation to what happened in the basement so many years ago.
Vera hasn’t been in Crowder House for a long time, but now her mother is dying and the past has finally caught up with her. And the grease is still there, somewhere, hiding in plain sight.
I will try to be brief, because I truly think Just Like Home by Sarah Gailey is one of those books that are better enjoyed if the reader just goes head first and gets entangled in its spider-web. It is a gothic story about a house haunted by both the living and the dead; a slow-burn that jumps from one unsettling scene to another; a narration frozen in two moments of time, Vera as a child trying to know her father and Vera as an adult trying to pick up the pieces of what is left of her mother. It is a story of grief, and as such it can become heavy sometimes. I myself had to put the book down and continue the next day, as I needed to get out of Crowder House and breath some air.
It might also become too slow for those readers eager to gut the mystery and pull at it until it shows in its perfect, greasy, figure.
The author once said that this novel was for anyone who has ever loved a monster. I will add that it is for those who are looking for a creepy place to stay, at least for a while, even if the world keeps demanding our grief and the monsters could not be the ones we should be afraid of.

I received this book from NetGalley as an eARC in exchange for a review.

The best way I can describe this book is unsettling as hell. Just Like Home is the perfect haunted house read for the quickly approaching spooky months.

We follow our main character Vera Crowder as both a child and as an adult. As a child she explores the mysteries for her house and what her father is doing. As an adult she is helping her mother pass on and preparing the house for sale and in the process uncovering it’s further mysteries.

This book has some great twists that I didn’t entirely see coming. The way Gailey sets the scenes are so good and spooky I almost wanted to put the book down and just be done because they were so unsettling and uncomfortable but I had to know what was going on so I kept going.

I will definitely be recommending this read for the spooky months ahead.

This was a good, creepy, gothic story. But, I did have to put it down halfway through because it was just a slow go for me. I was able to pick it back up after several reads in between and finish it. The ending fell flat for me, I wasn't really gripped from it. I must say the thing that kept me intrigued the entire time was the atmosphere and writing style though. That was fantastic! But the characters and ending had no real pull for me. There were a few parts that left me surprised and kept me anxious. I just felt there was something missing, but I can definitely see others loving this one.

Couldn’t finish this one it was so slow and all over the place. I really didn’t like the main character and hated all the mystery of why she was so angry. A cool idea but just really really all over the place. Very bummed I had high hopes for this

Review of Just Like Home by Sarah Gailey

⭐️⭐️💫

I really enjoyed the Echo Wife and was really looking forward to this one. The synopsis sounded great but unfortunately it didn’t work for me overall. I read a review a week or two ago where a smart bookstagramer compared it to Mexican Gothic and I totally agree. What I liked about this book (and why I finished snd it is a 2.5 stars rather than 1-2) was the excellent writing and absolutely skin crawling creepy vibe the entire book. But the story was disjointed and I didn’t like the characters and the overall ending was just odd and didn’t love it. There was one part of the ending I thought was cool! I will definitely read more from her in the future though.

Quick synopsis: Vera has been bouncing from place to place since her traumatic childhood. Her father was a serial killer who buried bodies at their home. He is now deceased and her mom is currently dying. Her mom had asked her to return home and she does. The memories flood back and she begins finding creepy notes left for her in her dad’s handwriting.

Gailey says this one is for anyone who has ever loved a monster. Vera returns home at the behest of her dying mother. Vera’s father was a serial killer, and she loved him. Vera returns home to face her troubled past, her estranged mother, and the artist who is living in their guest house, combing through Vera’s childhood in the name of “art.” When Vera starts finding strange notes around the house and her things, the artist insists he didn’t leave them, but who else could it be? Her mother is dying and Vera isn’t writing them herself. Is there something else lurking in the house, in their past? Something sinister?

I flew through this book. I’m not normally one for serial killers/true crime stuff, but in addition to digging a little into the murders of Vera’s father, it’s about the legacy something like that leaves on a child, how it affects the grown woman, particularly when the killer was beloved. There’s mystery with the house guest, a study in a troubled mother-daughter relationship, and perhaps even a little paranormal happenings lurking in the shadows. Everything I need for the perfect, creepy story. I thoroughly enjoyed it, and it made me look forward to fall even more. I love creepy all year, and it always makes me long for crisp cool evenings, falling leaves, and of course, Halloween.

The book is out now wherever you get your books and audiobooks.

You know when you’re watching a scary movie and there’s a moment where you have to hide your eyes to keep watching? That’s how I felt reading this book. It made me anxious and kept me guessing, and then with about a quarter of the book left, I literally read it peaking between my fingers. And then with about 10% left, all I could think was: what the fuck is going on?

This book really sucks you in from the start. Vera returns to her childhood home because her mother is dying and she has to begin preparing to sell the house. As it turns out, Vera’s sweet and loving father, who has already passed years before her return, had a dark secret. The reader is left trying to piece it all together with flashbacks from Vera’s childhood and the present. That aspect of this book is my favorite. It’s thrilling and scary and while at times a little predictable yet still somehow not.

A kind of major spoiler that after finishing it I cannot get out of my head is that this book reminds me a lot of a darker (and kind of sweet?) version of the movie Monster House. It’s a bizarre ending to an overall scary book that you would think is just another poltergeist/ghost story. Ultimately, I was left feeling even sadder for Vera because all she ever wanted was a friend. It wasn’t her fault that her father was a serial killer and that her mother was jealous and mean, and we’re left not knowing what happens to Vera in the end.

I loved this book, and will now be checking under my bed every time I go to sleep thank you very much.

Is it me or does Sarah Gailey reinvent themselves in all the best ways every! single! time! they write a new book?!?!

This time we're treated to a horror-house story with Just Like Home, when Vera Crowder is called back to her childhood home to watch over her estranged mother as she lay dying. We immediately sense that there is some horrible family secret we're not yet clued into, and that the itself house holds some exhilarating, and terrifying, secrets of its very own.

As Gailey slowly wraps us in their tantalizing web, peeling back the familial trauma and gory ongoings in the basement through flashback chapters, we begin to understand that Vera and her mother are not alone in the Crowder House...

Honestly, I'm surprised to see it shelved in the regular fiction section at the bookstores because of the suspense and horror components it contains. An absolute page turner if for nothing other than the SHEER NEED TO KNOW just wtf is going on! And holy crap does it get CRAAAAZY in the last 3/4s of the book!

I'm generally a fan of Gailey's work, but there were several aspects of this book that just weren't for me. I had an especially difficult time getting into it - the first 100 pages or so felt like a slog. Still, there were a couple of moments that fully knocked me on my ass, which I always appreciate. I can see fans of a certain type of dark fiction really digging into this.

Thank you to netgalley for providing an e-galley for review. Just Like Home tells the tale of the family of the notorious serial killer Francis Crowder, after he is dead and when estranged daughter and dying wife have to deal with what is left of the house. The house that he built with his own two hands. What else could he have conjured in the house that protected so much evil? As much as the story had going for it, it was pretty slow, but great cover.

I freaking loved this book. It was so creepy, bizarre, gross, scary and absolutely my cup of tea. It brought out all the childhood fears in me of "don't look under the bed" and "is the closet door open after I swear I shut it"...ahhh it was PERFECT. This has made me want to read everything Sarah Gailey has written. Definitely will be picking up more from them so soon.

There’s no place like this *terrifying* home. Vera should not have taken a memo from Dorothy. Do not go back to your childhood home… do not follow the yellow brick road. Run yourself right into the tornado because that would be a safer space. I’m telling you. Have you ever had that moment as a child, where you don’t want to stand beside your bed because you’re afraid something will be there to grab you by the ankles and pull you under? That’s what reading this book is like. This may have been the most terrifying book I have ever read. The visuals, the sounds, the descriptions… the lemonade. Yeah I’m not even looking at lemonade the same way again. This is horror at its finest folks.

Thank you Netgalley for this audio edition of Just Like Home by Sarah Gailey.

I read almost 70% of this and then had to stop. Listen, if you're one of the ten people who read my reviews, you know that I'm down for just about anything. I love me some murder, bring it on, but I have LIMITS people. This cover is way too pink for such grotesquery. So, that's my review, plan to be creeped out to the very back of your throat. I'm done.

I love a good atmospheric ghost story. Just Like Home had a lot of the elements that I adore. It reads a lot like a gothic horror book in it's imagery and even pacing. There is a lot of symbolism involved in the book, which can be a bit frustrating for some readers. If you are looking for a fast paced creepy grab you by the gut and pull you along type of book, this title probably won't do it for you. I did like the atmosphere of the book and even to some degree the weird creepy nature of the ending. I think this would be a good spooky season read. For me, I'm a bit on the fence, but I know readers that would absolutely adore the book.

Such a dark and twisted horror novel! I loved every minute of it! I couldn’t stop reading. I read it in one sitting. Highly recommend!

I absolutely adored the writing style of Just Like Home. The author really sucked me into the complicated world of Vera, Daphne and Francis and the Crowder house. As Vera returns to take care of her dying mother, she becomes haunted by the past. Part family saga and part horror, I really enjoyed Just Like Home. The characters were interesting and the setting was carefully detailed. The book felt a bit slow at times, maybe even overly detailed about some things not related to the plot. The author only offers reveals a bit at a time. Yet, I still loved the gothic feel.

Real Rating: 3.5 / 5 Stars

Almost everyone I’ve encountered who’s read this book seems to have loved it, and I think this is a case of what you consider to be a horror novel, how you like your horror novels to move/present themselves, and if you find getting bored while reading a horror novel to be an untenable sin.

Here’s my issue: This book bored me to tears. Was it predictable? Nope. It wasn’t. It was mostly unpredictable, in fact. It was just too bloody long! It was repetitive!

Did I consider it horror? Yes, but the parts most people would consider horror weren’t the most horrific parts to me. There were only a few small and short parts that felt truly terrifying to me, and they were spaced far apart and there weren’t a lot of them. They had nothing to do with Vera (our protagonist’s) father, nor the “artist-in-residence”, or the “haunted house” aspect of the story, either.

The reason this book got rated 3.5 stars was because Gailey does have a truly remarkable talent at crafting truly creepy and evocative scenes that, when taken away from the story as a whole, are truly beautiful to examine under a microscope like a short horror story before set back into the misshapen and uneven whole book.

I hope to see more from Gailey in the future, and that somehow a content editor helps her tighten up her material. It’s a book worth reading just for some of the truly horrific scenes you can find inside, but as a cohesive book it doesn’t stand out.

Lastly, I’d like to give a shout-out to the cover designer, who decided to go with pink for the main color on the cover, but made it the pink of flesh and of pink bismuth. It was a ingenious idea.

Thanks to NetGalley and Tor Books for granting me access to read this title in exchange for fair and honest review.