I had never before read a book by Sarah Gailey but I'm now going to read anything I can find prior to this book! 4.5 stars. This was creeptastic in the very best way! Vera Crowder gets a call from her dying mother to come home, home to house her serial killer father built and all the memories it holds. But it also holds a lot more than just Vera's loving memories of her father. It seems the house may be actually haunted and maybe Vera's mother was even worse than her father... I mean, Stephen King would be proud of this story!

*Special thanks to NetGalley and Tor Books for a copy of this e-book.*

I have loved pretty much every Sarah Gailey book I have ever had set in front of me and one of the reasons I tend to recommend them as an author is quite how different all their works are - don't like westerns with hippos? Why not try magical school murder mystery? Just like home is yet another feather in Gailey's cap proving that they can write horror/thriller books with the same impeccable readability as their other works.
I am not a big horror or thriller reader so take all of this with the pinch of salt necessary - I can't make comparisons to other works and so such I'm just speaking on my own experience reading.
I felt that Gailey created a truly unsettling haunted house story that somehow also existed in the pages of a crime novel (true or otherwise). I loved the idea of a house that had become the obsession of people interested in serial killers - something the true crime boom is certainly leading us towards, and that added element of voyeurism just added that touch of extra creepiness to an already unsettling story.
I obviously can't go too far into the plot without spoiling things but this is definitely the kind of book that starts slow and steady and very much snowballs towards the end with things happening I definitely could not have anticipated.
As one might expect with this genre there are truly very difficult topics and scenes in this book and I would urge readers to seek out content warnings and to read with caution - I have a reasonably low tolerance for horror-like things and I found myself quite spooked.
Overall, this feels like another chance for Gailey to shine, building on the amazing character work of their previous books and bringing in the thriller aspects that worked so well in The Echo Wife. I have a hard time rating books like these because on the one hand that was HORRIFYING and I can't say I'm keen to do a reread any time soon and on the other hand that was one of the more atmospheric and compelling books I've picked up in a long time so I guess this was fantastic?
I look forward to hearing the thoughts of more seasoned Horror/Thriller readers but this will be on my spooky-season recommendations for sure!
My rating: 4/5 stars
I received a free digital copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley all opinions are my own.

Thanks to NetGalley and Macmillan-Tor/Forge for this advanced copy.

This week’s headline? “house her father built” or any variation.

Why this book? One of my anticipated reads for this year.

Which book format? ARC

Primary reading environment? Outside, inside

Any preconceived notions? I like anything to do with serial killers so I’ll probably like this.

Identify most with? No one

Three little words? “goosebumps ran up”

Goes well with? Journals

Recommend this to? Not many people tbh

Other cultural accompaniments: https://www.oxygen.com/living-with-a-serial-killer/crime-news/are-serial-killers-capable-of-loving-their-children

https://www.psychologytoday.com/intl/blog/shadow-boxing/201903/serial-killers-and-their-kids-it-s-complicated

Grade: 2/5 stars

I leave you with this: “It was the right thing to do, giving up that little bit of hope. It was the only thing to do. Some things, Vera knew, we’re made to die.”

📚📚📚📚📚

Damn, how many times does she have to mention that her father built that house?!

I admit that I searched for spoilers about 20% in. I could barely pay attention. As I stated above, too much of the writing was dedicated to describing the house. It got tiring after a while and I considered DNF’ing then, but I persevered although I truly struggled with this book.

Honestly, I’m disappointed. I really wanted to love this book. I hope this book is for other people out there because it’s not badly written and I’m sure certain aspects will appeal to them even if it didn’t do it for me.

tw: terminal illness, death, murder, body horror, gore

Just Like Home will be released on July 19, 2022.

For anyone who isn't familiar with Canadian author Gailey, their last book, the sci-fi domestic thriller The Echo Wife, BLEW ME AWAY. It was unlike anything I had ever read and made me want more more more from this author.

This book is definitely recommended for fans of things that go bump in the night. Again, Gailey is so unique in their storytelling it's hard to categorize the genre of this book. It has elements of gothic, horror, thriller, family dynamic and haunted house. Touted as 'perfect for fans of The Haunting of Hill House', I also felt that this was reminiscent of Crimson Peak, where the house itself is a prominent character.

This story starts off with Vera returning to the family home her now dying mother kicked her out of years ago. The Crowder House was built by her father for her mother and they lived happily there for some years. The first part of the book hints that something VERY VERY BAD happened in that house involving Vera's father but you don't find out until much later, giving the book an eerie, foreboding atmosphere.

And then it get DARK... like what the heck just I read dark. I was NOT prepared for what came next!

I love books that leaves you with a questions as you are reading it. Some of mine included: what causes a house to become haunted? Can it come from evil that seeps through the walls, that was built into the very fibers of it? Can you ever exercise demons if they are woven into you by the people who created you?

I do not want to give away any plot points as this book should be read blind with no spoilers. However, words I would use to describe the book are: emotional, surreal, dark, disturbing, layered, symbolic, toxic relationships, morally grey characters, family love and loyalty. It felt almost like a world that Guillermo Del Toro would create and each layer pulled back was even more terrifying. DO NOT read this one in the dark. Read it with the lights WAY ON or in daylight. Seriously, I got up to go to the washroom and my husband let out a big snore and I nearly jumped out of my skin!

Another exciting and imaginative read from the brilliant mind of Gailey... Now excuse me while I go sleep with all the lights on...

This was pretty creepy. It was a little slow at the beginning but I didn't find that I couldn't get through it. I love a good horror/thriller that keeps me on my toes and this did this all the way to the end!

Thank you #netgalley for an early read of #justlikehome

Can a house physically hold and contain secrets? Can those secrets call you back home and wrap themselves around you and your memories and your identity/self awareness? Do you own the house or does it own you?

Just Like Home is a big wow of a literary horror novel. I would like to thank Macmillan-Tor/Forge, Tor Books, and NetGalley, for the ebook review copy of Sarah Gailey's new novel. I can't think of the last time, any time, I have read a horror book like this, let alone one from a female writer, and I was all in for the strong, unexpected lyrical prose that contained intriguing and thoughtfully written characters with a truly creepy, atmospheric , and visceral narrative. The book is a slow burn, not outright horrors, but this is what works, instead of scares you get uneasiness and uncertainty (which I find more actually scarier!).

I applaud the steadiness of the writing and pace, there was a constant sense of unease from page one, a growing uncertainty about Vera's story (what was under the bed), Daphne, that artist hanging around/those notes she kept finding, her childhood relationship with her serial killer father (what!?!). Fascinating themes about motherhood/female identity, hunger, ownership, and fascination with serial killers are all present and worthy of discussion.

Recommended for fans of House of Accidents by Wendig, The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires (Hendrix), My Heart in a Chainsaw (Jones).

An interesting and creepy thriller. The pace was a tiny bit slow, and the last quarter was a bit off the rails, but overall I found it enjoyable.

Vera Crowder's father built their house with love, loved his wife and daughter, and was also a serial killer. After his arrest, Vera's mother began to use the infamy of the Crowder House by renting space to writers and artists obsessed with the macabre, having evicted Vera from the house long ago. Now dying, Vera's mother asked her to come home and Vera has complied, wary and unsure of why. The old horrors aren't buried very deep, however, and as the creeping fear increases and the tension twists higher, readers will shudder in delight. Both a horror story and a family one, with dynamics familiar to readers of The Echo Wife, fans of Gailey's work won't be disappointed.

Unfortunately the writing is not for me. I’m not sure the technical term for writing that continuously repeats the same cadence over and over, but here is an example from this book:

“It was the door Vera’s father hung when he built the house, the door Vera had closed behind her when she left home for good so many years before.“

Some people will love this type of writing. I personally found it melodramatic.

I'm a big fan of Gailey's books, and this is their best one yet.

Intensely claustrophobic and gruesome, the way the dread and horror is built up is so remarkable. I was clutching my ereader at parts because I wanted to know so badly what happened next but I also didn't want to see. I am generally not a huge mystery fan, and even though I predicted early on how this was going to shake out, I still immensely enjoyed the process of getting there.

I think some readers will be unhappy with the horror elements in this, and with the lack of explanation for some parts of the story surrounding Vera's parents. Those aspects of the story didn't bother me at all, since I found this book so gripping and genuinely scary.

Very different - very weird!! Vera's dad built her mom a house. Vera's dad is a serial killer. What happens next will confuse and confound you!

Slow to start - but definitely picks up. No likeable characters in this one - but in this instance that's okay.

If you're looking for different - you've found it!

Different than what I was expecting. Slow burn from the beginning with the flashbacks to her childhood. Once it got into what her father was doing it was obvious of what would happen with Vera. Ending was different and darker than I thought

I am not sure that I have ever read three such entirely different books by the same author. Sarah Gailey has written Upright Women Wanted, The Echo Wife, and Just Like Home that I have read. Then there's the alternate history series about hippos. This writer is...eclectic. And a damn good writer.

I don't need to repeat what others andvthe blurb tell you. Dark. Gothic. Thriller. Vera isn't very likeable. Neither are the handful of other characters. Honestly the only likeable thing in the whole book is the house. The smells and feelings were palpable.

A tiny continuity issue at the end and a bit too abrupt of an ending, but still a very good novel. I feel like there were some plot details that weren't resolved enough, hope that this could mean a sequel.

"The house swallowed the sound immediately, because it was a house that knew how to stay quiet."
"...tired the way a person gets after they’ve lived too many lives."
"That room had the same gutted feeling as his side of the bedroom, the feeling of a half-rotted baby blanket by the side of the highway. It was something worse than abandoned."
"...tried to find things to look at that didn’t make her feel like a single yawning urge."
"One hard thing at a time. She’d done a packet once, on balancing a difficult workload, and that’s what it advised. She’d given herself a C-minus on that one. One hard thing at a time."
"...I watched you eat up his love like a crab eating a seafloor corpse, one pinch at a time.”

Delightfully creepy. I went into this pretty much knowing nothing, so I'm not sure what even to say about this without spoilers.

The story grows from weird to weirder to truly bizarre as the story progresses. But it was perfectly paced, with so many odd twists and turns, and I found it hard to put down.

Recommended if you like creepy thrillers.

What an interesting story. I will definitely say this took some time to get into but finally when I got about 20% in I started to get very intrigued and was sucked in. This is not my typical genre that I read so it was different for my taste. At some parts of this book I was very confused and I was disturbed and I was very creeped out, so I guess it did its job. Overall I would give this a three star because at times it was a little bit drawn out and confusing. The story is told in two different timelines and I believe that I enjoyed the story of young Vera more than the present story of what was actually happening. Without giving anything away I enjoyed how her story really played out and the when present story finally came together, I was a bit underwhelmed. Thank you netgalley for the opportunity to read and review this!

Vera Crowder is returning home after being away for years. Her mom is dying and she needs Vera to deal with the house. Complicating matters is that Vera's father was a notorious serial killer and the son of the author who wrote about him is staying on their property.

I wish this one had either fully committed to the supernatural or fully turned away from it. It couldn't seem to make up its mind until the end, which hurt the overall plot I think. I also was missing the suspense. It was more dealing with family trauma than a thriller for me.

I received my copy from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Vera’s dad was a serial killer. She hasn’t been home in years, but when her dying mom calls her back, she returns to the Crowder House to deal with the things that haunt her.

The premise was great, but I did not enjoy this book. It’s hard to explain why it wasn’t what I expected without spoilers, but I didn’t think it was creepy or very suspenseful and ended up skimming through a lot of it. This would be a better fit for readers who like a slow (really slow) burn leading to a bizarre ending.

This wasn't my first book by author, Sarah Gailey, as I read and reviewed "The Echo Wife" in January of last year. It was a genre bending book that I enjoyed so I was excited to read her latest. The premise sounded right up my ally- a gothic thriller is what it was marketed as and I was excited when I was approved via Netgalley.

This will be a short and sweet review because saying too much will give everything away. This story is told in two timelines, past and present. Vera returns home to her dying mother and to the house that her father built- The Crowder House. Her father was a serial killer. Bad things happened in her basement, just below her bedroom.

We learn that Vera had a closeness with her father and that her mother, Daphne, resented from her birth. Daphne never really liked her daughter and the two had an estranged relationship even during Vera's childhood. Now that Daphne is dying Vera is going though the contents of the house and the house is revealing secrets. Secrets even to Vera...

I was so intrigued with the serial killer past timeline. The story flowed easily and I felt the switches back and forth between past and present felt natural. Each timeline gave a glimpse into Vera's weird, messed up life. It was interesting seeing the relationship between Vera and her father knowing he would one day be arrested for serial murders.

Then the horror aspect comes in. Well, it was always there, but it wasn't a definite. At least not to me. At first I thought it was perhaps just a mindfu$k of Vera's memories. A way she coped with her horrific childhood. I was wrong. There was true horror that happened between the walls of The Crowder House. The horror sunk deep down into the cracks and filled every crevice...

I am not sure I liked the horror aspect. I think I would have like it more had that part just been left out completely. The ending was a surprise but it felt unfinished and unsatisfying.

Thanks to Netgalley and Macmillan-Tor/Forge for allowing me an advanced digital copy to read and give my honest review. It was a 3 star read for me.

"Just Like Home" is set to be released July 19, 2022 here in the U.S. so pre-order now!

Happy Reading!

Just Like Home is a delightfully weird horror novel that I adored. I love that I knew so little about this one going in -- I thought it was going to be a Southern Gothic haunted house story, or serial killer novel, or something in between. It was both, and also a lot more.

Vera's mother calls her and tells her that she's dying. Vera must return to her family home, a home built by her serial killer father, to pack up her childhood and tend to her mother, a woman who hates her. At night in her childhood bedroom, Vera hears sounds that make her think she's not alone.

I loved Gailey's writing in this book. It's quiet but immersive. At first, the hard look at mortality in the form of Vera's mother almost turned me off the book, but the dual timeline showing Vera's childhood completely hooked me. Vera's a fascinating character and as we learn more about her, the book keeps getting better.

Horror readers who love atmosphere and quiet dread but also enjoy a bit of body horror and a lot of weirdness will love Just Like Home. Moments made me think of works by T. Kingfisher, Kristi Demeester, and Silvia Moreno-Garcia, but nothing about this book is derivative.

This was my first Sarah Gailey novel and I'm looking forward to picking up more of her work.

Thank you to Tor Books and Netgalley for my review copy of this book.

I read in bed under the covers with my Kindle every night. It's my favorite part of the day when everything is quiet, the rest of the house is sleeping, and I can relax and read. Sarah Gailey's book Just Like Home is not a relaxing read under the covers. I'm not easily frightened by a book, but this haunted house story really got to me. The heroine feels really unreliable. Her sleeplessness, and the horrible family and home she has returned to as her mother is dying, dial up the atmosphere and scariness bit by bit. The addition of a super strange visitor, connected to her story as a voyeur-artist, and her former best friend and neighbor take the sense of strangeness even higher. The first night I was reading it I had to put it down because I was too scared to keep going! The second night I was so engrossed I stayed up well past bedtime because I had to know what was really going on- and the main plot twist took me completely by surprise. How could it not?

Four and half SUPER spooky stars. If you have nerves of steel this won't phase you, but the writing will draw you in anyways. Hurrah for Gailey, I'll keep reading everything they write! Only next time, maybe with the lights on in my bedroom.