This book hit me like a punch to the gut. Sarah Gailey has crafted an incredibly effective slow burn horror tale in which the family tensions hit just as hard as the unexplained paranormal phenomena. I think this book is best experienced cold, as I did, so I don't want to go into too much detaiI

claustrophobic, atmospheric, fundamentally about the horrors of coming back home after you are an adult. repetition used to absolute maximum effect. some parts of this book made me feel physically sick, but it's not necessarily gory, just kind of, nausea-inducing. in a positive way? I was very lucky to get this eARC as both an ebook and an audiobook, and I kept having to put the audiobook down to read the chapters in the ebook because I could not stand the tension. Still thinking about the ending. Not sure if I like it. But in a horror book, are you supposed to? Four and a half stars, rounded down for NetGalley/Goodreads.

I have such mixed feelings about Just Like a Home by Sarah Gailay. It kept me reading and entertained but I was not pleased with how it ended. I don’t want to give spoilers so I’ll just say one part was so perfect, if it wasn’t clouded by another part that I felt was too contrived. Vera is an interesting character and I think we could have benefitted from seeing more from her life during her Crowder House exile.

Just Like Home is a book that crawls under your skin and lives there. I liked the Echo Wife, but I really, really enjoyed Just Like Home. Gailey excels at atmospheric writing and building tension, and this book was a fantastic example of that. I felt the longer I didn't know what I was afraid of, the more terrified I was.

I loved the familial tension and conflict, the flashbacks to the main character's unusual childhood, and the uncertainty as to whether the threat was real or imagined. This was a slow burn of a horror novel, and it was unsettling and enjoyable from start to finish.

Vera has long been estranged from her home after her mother told her to leave and never return. Now, Vera's mother is sick and dying and when she calls Vera to finally come home once again, Vera goes. When she arrives at the house her father built, she's met with a deluge of family secrets and history that still, all these years later, haven't fully been put to rest.

Vera is ready to move on after her mother's passing, but some things are not staying buried in the past, and as Vera begins to look upon things that happened with new eyes, an unwelcome stranger threatens to bring the house crumbling down around her.

Just Like Home, like much of Sarah Gailey's other work, relies a lot upon our initial perceptions and then loves to slowly dismantle those perceptions page by page as all expectations are completely shattered. I went into this book thinking of Vera a certain way. Ready to find her a sympathetic character coming home in the midst of her mother dying, having to reconcile with a tragic familial past. But there is so much more nuance to her character and Sarah Gailey deftly builds upon Vera and her backstory as things go along. By the end, I was looking at Vera with completely new eyes and it makes me want to go back a re-read the whole story again with this new perspective.

I really loved the intrinsic connection between a house (the place you live) and the home (the family and life you build - often within that house). They cross each other and overlap and much like in this story, often it's difficult to tell where one ends and another begins. It's also a perfect setting for a horror story because it challenges the places in which you're supposed to feel comfortable, supposed to feel safe. It takes that comfort away and gives us this chilling "otherness". What happens when you're home is not the place you can go to get away anymore? What happens when you're so enmeshed within the home that you cannot tell where the horror is coming from?

Sarah Gailey does a fantastic job of tackling these big ideas but making them palatable.

The story is slow to unfold its secrets. This almost ups the anticipation factor as it barrels towards the conclusion and final confrontation you know is coming.

Overall, another good and thought-provoking read from Sarah Gailey.

Vera goes back home to meet her mother, the very same house where her father, a serial killer lived. But there is a new tenant as well and things start getting eerie once there are notes in her father's handwriting. The plot is so unique and intriguing that readers will be hooked right away. So obviously I had to know how it ends and there is a big twist at the end that will blow your mind away. Oh yeah, it was creepy without a doubt! I liked the dual timeline but there was a lot of info that we did not really need. It was more about a dysfunctional relationship between parents and the daughter who go through such a crazy, horrifying and disturbing experience.

Like everything Gailey writes, this book took the story I was expecting to read, tossed it out the window, and handed me something infinitely stranger, darker, and better.

This book kept me awake - not only because I didn't have the ability to put it down when it was bedtime, but also because when I finished it in the middle of the night, heart pounding, I lay awake thinking, "What? What. Sarah. WHAT?"

I wasn't anticipating the supernatural elements, which I think was my own fault. There are plenty of hints, but for some reason my brain was looking for Realistic Explanations. I guess just a note to readers: shit gets weird, get on board.

This book is weird, it's dark, it's....gooey? IYKYK.

Atmospheric, strange, and full of uncomfortable emotions. I loved it.

Thank you to NetGalley for my ARC copy.

I read this over the last weekend, and picked it up because I've enjoyed some of Sarah Gailey's books before and a spooky haunted house story sounded interesting. Well, I will tell you that I did not want to put this book down! I was gripped from the beginning, and had to keep reading as more and more was revealed. I have also read quite a bit of horror, and this was the first time I was actually scared. I would not read this in bed, and was glad to be at a friend's house while reading it so I was not alone.

I highly recommend this book to people who love a good haunted house story, stories about serial killers, strained families, and when you just need a book to keep you up all night reading. I recommend not reading this alone in your bed.

Hmm…how to explain this book and my feelings. I couldn’t put it down so there’s that and that is a big one for me. The overall strangeness of this book had me so curious about where the storyline was going but I think I wasn’t prepared. Equal parts creepy, gross, and confusing had me all over the place but I kind of dug it!

I don’t do a ton of horror/paranormal so it’s outside my wheelhouse but I enjoyed the book overall so I’d recommend it! Just don’t ask me what the hell happened…

Disturbing, haunting, and interesting. Sarah Gailey always manages to write stories that intrigue and unnerve, and Just Like Home fits right in. I've been on such a horror kick recently, so Just Like Home filled that need perfectly. I definitely enjoyed it in all its curious strangeness.

Thank you to NetGalley and Tor Books for providing an e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Just Like Home was on my list of most anticipated books of the year, but it was also the one I was most apprehensive about. I found the Pepto Bismol-pink cover suspicious. I am just not a pink person, and it felt like far too cheery of a color for a decent horror novel. I am thrilled to say that I was absolutely incorrect, and Just Like Home is one of my top reads of 2022 so far.

Sticking with gothic tradition, Gailey weaves a tale in which the house is a character unto itself. It is imbued with the blood, sweat, tears, and misdeeds of the Crowder family. Gailey’s take on the haunted house story is vibrant and quirky. Just Like Home blends supernatural haunting with the harrowing ghosts of Vera’s past in a way that will leave you guessing and wondering what exactly is happening with the Crowder house. You won’t be able to put it down.

The relationship between Vera and Daphne is incredibly cringe-worthy and reminds me Sharp Objects, but on steroids and without the Munchausen’s.
With Daphne’s treatment of her and the loss of her father, you will feel for Vera and be rooting for her the whole time.

“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.”

Vera left her childhood home after her father is arrested for multiple murders. To her dismay, she has to return to take care of her estranged, dying mother and clear out the house once she’s gone. There is also a random artist living in the guesthouse always asking questions and trying to spend time with her. He is stripping away parts of the house for attention and “art” to the public. There are many hidden secrets deep under the house and Vera needs to figure out how far and rotten it goes.

“That house would never let you leave.”

The story is told from two timelines - alternating between Vera’s childhood and the present which worked really well in piecing it all together. Vera’s father was her only friend growing up and always came to the rescue with her mother until he’s arrested for murders and deemed as an infamous serial killer. 

“I save the other men. I keep them from turning into monsters. When they start to go bad, I help them.” 

Aside from the horror and mystery, this book delves into complicated family dynamics and relationships. Loneliness and betrayal are a prominent subject as well. You can feel Vera’s loneliness constantly threatening to swallow her whole into the void. I thought this was a unique take on a haunted house story rather than only just utilizing the usual tricks and scares.  

“She was too alone to be afraid"

Just Like Home is definitely a slow burn with a modern gothic feel. I also love the pink cover that contrasts with the content. Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the advanced copy of this book.

HAPPY RELEASE DAY!

Sarah Gailey's The Echo Wife was one of my favorite Sci-fi/Thriller books of 2021 and I knew as soon as I saw Just Like Home, I needed it. Not just because it was a gothic horror thriller, but also look at that cover!

Vera's mother is dying, and Vera has no choice but to return home. But home is not just any house, but one built by her serial killer father and haunted with not just memories. Her strained relationship with her mother and the house itself is bad enough, she also has to deal with James Duvall, an artist staying in her infamous home to draw inspiration.

Just Like Home is a slow building, twisted and dark ride. While not normally a fan of slower building horror, it aided in the creepy atmosphere to the story. While I loved the book, I loathed every character entirely. I suppose it's supposed to be like that, but it made it hard to root for Vera.

Do not skim the slow moments, even things that are seemingly unimportant and trivial end up building to the end.

If you're looking for a nice haunting read to slide into spooky season, pick up Just Like Home.

This book made me physically sick. I think that's a good thing? It's a testament to its strength, but I didn't expect it to be such a genuinely bleak, difficult reading experience. I wanted to adore this book. I liked a lot of it! But it felt like it took on too many things that it didn't all entirely tie together--I mostly wasn't sure what to make of the artist, who was pitched as a massive part of the narrative but felt frustratingly underused. I don't know what to make of the revelation that not only did Vera know about her father's actions all along, she believed and encouraged them, effectively captive torture victims. I guess it's a plausible response for a child raised in those sort of abusive, claustrophobic conditions, but yikes. The twist at the end particularly didn't work for me; I thought this was a gothic novel in the sense that there was no supernatural, only the insanity of trauma and memory, and was thrown when Gailey revealed a supernatural sentient house beneath it all (the clues lined up in retrospect, but I'd gotten so far thinking it wouldn't exist that I was thrown when it did). I don't know what to do with the end, with the revelation that the only parts of Daphne that ever seemed to love Vera were the house, that Francis may have had a point. I don't know that this book forgives an objectively monstrous serial killer, but it comes close to comfort.

As frustrated as I am by Just Like Home, the reading experience was excellent; I particularly liked the structural conceit of flashbacks in present tense and present scenes in past tense. Gailey's prose and atmosphere are visceral and engrossing. And grim. So, so grim.

This book is my first one by this author and I was excited to dive into this horror book!

Vera is asked to return to her old childhood home where her mother is dying. The home she hasn’t been to in years, where she had last seen her father before he was arrested for the things he had done in their basement.
Just a few days back and Vera starts to experience unusual things around her home - especially in her sleep.. as if the house comes to life at night.

This book is told in dual timelines of past and present. There were several gripping parts, but I mostly found this book to be very slow paced and too detailed. I wished the buildup would have happened a lot faster without the extra information. It does get action packed towards the end, but the rest of the book fell a bit flat for me.

Wow. This is definitely a dark gothic thriller. The story style and pacing have a great undercurrent of tension and I really couldn’t stop reading to see the reveals and how the details all fit together. I’m surprised that I liked the story so much, at the 60% mark I wasn’t so sure, but everything paid off for me and I think this one will stick with me for awhile.

An ARC copy was provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

The creepy factor is here! Vera has to return to her family home when her mother is dying. Vera has to face her past and what happened in the house. And her mother, who has been giving tours of the house and letting artists use it as their muse because everyone wants to see the house where Vera’s father killed so many.
The reader spends most of the first half playing catch up to what the characters already know. I got frustrated a couple times and felt like I had walked into the middle of a conversation. Once the reader finally catches up, the spooky stuff starts and the pace really picks up! There are tons of twists and turns and some gore! If this is your focus for this read, you’ve got it! If you’re hoping for some good character growth and relationship growth, this is not it.
Thank you to NetGalley and Macmillan-Tor/Forge for the advanced copy in exchange for an honest review!

Weird, wild, and creepy all the way through. I read it entirely in one sitting, and loved all its strange twists and turns.

Thank you NetGalley and MacMillan Tor-Forge for this e-ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Once I saw this cover and read the description of this book, I HAD to request it. I was beyond ecstatic to be approved to read this!!!

"This was the Crowder House. The house her father built. There was nothing to be afraid of here."

Vera Crowder returns to her childhood home because her mother, Daphne Crowder has asked her to. Her mother is dying and Vera is eager to get on with the process. This book is dark, filled with secrets, and had me on the edge of my seat. I loved Vera's character and her interactions with her mother. I was dying to know what secrets the house, Vera, and her mother were hiding. Who was Francis Crowder and what dark secrets was he hiding?

Absolutely loved this book and Sarah Gailey's writing. Now to add the Echo Wife to my TBR!

I had high hopes for this book…but it just wasn’t for me.

This book started super slow, with hints of a good story forming. I was very interested in the story and secrets of the family, and was totally surprised when they were revealed- I even found myself holding my breath at times when reading about the fathers past, but was really the only storyline I had any interest in.
The book has major haunted house vibes and you know right away something eerie is going on.

I didn’t feel any connection to the characters, and I didn’t understand the main character at all. The relationships were so bizarre and frustrating. I was also a little puzzled by the artist that lived on the property and was always confused by his intentions.

The story switches timelines, and I loved the snippets of the past because it was thrilling and creepy, but again, after the past was revealed I felt like I wasn’t getting anything out of the book.

The ending….it was a no for me and I literally said “wait, what?” out loud. I’m sure there is an audience out there who will love this, but it wasn’t my kind of book.