Sarah Gailey’s writing is excellent in this creepy and dark tale of how layered our home and past lives can be. Part of the reason this works is the way Gailey peels off the layers of Vera’s past, giving you glimpses but never all of the story at once. As you slowly realize what is haunting her and her mother, you realize how strange and compelling this story is and also just how disturbing as Vera faces her secrets so too does the audience learn just how terribly deep the horror of this tale goes.

Without giving anything away, what I can tell is that part of what makes this story so compelling is how it shows how belonging to a place or with a person can warp your perceptions, change what you think is right and wrong. This novel explores what happens when you grow up in a dark environment and how much that informs your future if you let it. It also allows you to see the events of Vera’s life in a different perception than you would expect. The other reason this is so engaging is how much you find yourself bonding to this character even though it’s sometimes difficult to trust her perception of events.

Truly this kept me awake at night and brought shivers to my spine, especially at the ending. If you like rich, creepy and dark horror, this novel is for you. You will find home and belonging will never feel quite the same again.

Dont be fooled by the cute pink cover of this book. This book will give you the creeps! I almost wished I read this one a little later in the year during spooky season! I read The Echo Wife by the same author last year and enjoyed it, which was why I wanted to pick this one up.

Thank you to Netgalley, Tor Books and Sarah Gailey for an e-ARC of this book which comes out 7/19/22!

Vera was called home by her terminal mother. The house she grew up in is full of secrets and has haunted her her entire life. Soon as she returns, frightening things happen and undiscovered secrets start to uncover the notorious Crowder House.

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️.💫/5. I liked the vivid descriptions and unique eeriness of the whole haunted house setting. In the beginning, the plot wasn’t holding too much of my attention except for the grossness of it all. It was however, compelling enough to keep me intrigued and find answers towards the end that left me satisfied. I can totally imagine this as a horror movie complete with floor creaking and violin screeching sound effects that will make you scream from suspense. Overall a spine-tingling read that’s great for spooky season!

Wow, pleasantly surprised at just how creepy and engaging this book was the whole time I read it! Why does it feel like such a rarity? This book was equal parts haunted house, murder tale, and monster story all in one book and it was a very fun read. I look forward to adding Sarah Gailey to my authors-to-look-out-for list and her other books.

This book took a long time to say nothing. I felt like my time was wasted in reading it. I received this book from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.

We all love a cover buy, don't we?
Vera goes back to her childhood home that she shared with her cold mother and serial killer father. Toss in a fun and interesting supernatural aspect and you're in for a fun ride. Sure, it could be slow and drag in some spots, but it was still a good time and I wanted to keep reading.

Tense, evocative, and riddled with surprises, Just Like Home [Tor, July 2022] by Sarah Gailey is delightfully claustrophobic gothic fiction mixed with important—even endearing—lessons on family, forgiveness, and the power of unconditional love.

There’s something innately haunting about going home to watch a loved one die, especially when “home” is as much a memory as it is a place and “loved one” is a matter of lineage more than emotion. But that’s exactly what Vera Crowder faces when her estranged, expiring mother calls Vera home to watch her die. Vera’s homecoming is more, though, than a daughterly duty—it’s a return to a crime scene. Decades before, Vera’s father—Francis Crowder, who built the notorious Crowder House—was discovered as a serial killer who tortured and killed men in the house’s basement, directly under Vera’s childhood bedroom. While Crowder House has been relegated to a gory landmark and dissected (even vandalized) by artists seeking “inspiration,” the town doesn’t want the house there anymore than it wants Vera, or her mother. Many, including Vera’s one-time best friend Brandon and his mother, are anxious to see everything Crowder permanently erased from their small town’s collective memory.

Unfortunately, Crowder House is not just a house, nor is it ready to be forgotten.

Gailey’s prose is lovely, atmospheric, and delightfully cloying, crowding the pages like Crowder House gathers around its inhabitants. Tension is achieved through an alternating timeline—Vera as an adult after, and her as a child before—as the story unravels as slowly and intentionally as a reptile shedding skin. The author misses a few opportunities to heighten the emotional stakes of the plot, however the ending ultimately satisfies. There’s more than one monster in Crowder House and enough surprises and carefully crafted realizations to keep readers burning the midnight oil.

As much a story about the unintended forms and consequences of love as it is about facing internal and external horrors, Just Like You offers a new perspective in gothic fiction—what if it’s not the house that’s evil, but the people inside it?—making Gailey’s newest a totally different kind of monster under the bed.

DO NOT look under your bed 😱🏚☠️!! This book gave me chills. Just Like Home is a dark gothic thriller with a dollop of horror. It’s a disturbing creepy story with haunted house vibes and I’m 100% here for it 🖤.

Vera’s mother is dying and beckoning her home after a long estrangement. Vera returns to the house her father built, the house built over the bodies of those he murdered in their basement. But now there’s a stranger living in her home, a man who is trying to exploit the fame of the Crowder House for his “art.” Is he the one leaving old letters from Vera’s father around the house? And who is pulling off her covers and shifting things in the night?

This story is perfect for horror lovers, but it’s not your typical haunted house story. And Vera is not your typical “likable” MC. Gailey’s writing is addicting, dark, and lyrical. The story has this sort of unsettling out-of-body feeling to it. I could not put it down🖤.

I read and listened to this book. Thank you to @macmillan.audio , @torbooks , and @netgalley for these digital ARCs in exchange for an honest review.

Just Like Home - Sarah Gailey
4/5⭐️
Pub Day: 7/19/2022

3.5 stars

It was a little slow for my taste, and there was some petition in the prose I didn't care for (I don't how many times soft palette was used but it was several too many). But it did keep my engaged and the ending was weird and spooky enough that it mostly made up for everything else that didn't hit 100% for me.

Wow…I don’t even know where to begin with this one. You truly cannot get into any detail, as it will completely ruin the story. Not being a big fantasy reader myself, I do not usually gravitate toward this type of story however I was entranced with Gailey’s writing in The Echo Wife last year so I knew I needed to read this one.

This is tense, chilling and downright scary! Truly, a testament to her writing once again because the atmosphere is there and it will leave you with goosebumps! The story is told from only Vera’s POV but with some past tense chapters of her childhood. I thought that made the creep factor even more terrifying because you are left to guess a lot until the end. Everything is wrapped up and completed which was helpful in this style of story.

I cannot be more helpful with a rating because I am personally still unsure about this. It’s brilliant but also so out of my comfort zone that I can’t actually say I loved it either if that makes sense.

**Thank you Netgalley for my advance copy in exchange for my review**

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!