Do you like creepy stories? You'll enjoy Just Like Home, the new book from Sarah Gailey.

"Vera gets a call to come home. Her mother is dying and wants Vera to take care of the house. The house that was built by her father - who happened to be a serial killer. Vera doesn't want to go back but can't say no. Vera still has things unresolved with her mother. And Vera has secrets ... and so does the house..."

Lots of things happen to Vera that make you question what's really happening - doors are left open, covers pulled off and noises under the bed. Gailey uses a dual timeline to let the reader know what happened in the house. And just how jacked-up all of the family is. You'll figure out what's going on pretty quickly but then there's a hard turn into Freakytown and the book goes from Suspense to Horror.

If you liked messed-up characters and light horror, you should enjoy this one.

Vera Crowder’s dying estranged mother asks her to come home, and Vera complies – even though every inch of the house she grew up in reminds her of her serial killer father, Francis. Her mother rents out the guest house, and the people who take up residence always know exactly who used to live in the Crowder house – to them, that’s the appeal. The current renter, an artist named James Duvall, is especially unsettling to Vera, in part because his father literally wrote the book on Francis Crowder, but also because he is convinced that the Crowder house is haunted.

This book is dark, twisted, and disturbing, but really beautifully written and compelling. Vera has a complicated relationship with her memories of her childhood. She remembers her father as a loving parent – far more loving than her emotionally abusive mother ever was – but the rest of the world knows him as a monster. The dark secrets of Vera’s childhood are slowly revealed to the audience as memories of the past are interspersed with the actions of the present. And in the present, we slowly begin to realize that something paranormal may indeed be going on at the Crowder house. (For some reason I wasn’t expecting the supernatural stuff, but it’s Sarah Gailey so I really should have known there would be some kind of SF/F element involved.)

CW: disturbing imagery, child abuse, murder, gore, torture

Vera has been called home to attend to affairs while her mother is dying. She returns to a the Crowder House and her bedroom under the stairs to find very little has changed, preserved under plexiglass. Her father, Francis, was a serial killer obsessed with draining the evil out of men, and after years of running from it, Vera now has to confront what he was and who she is.

This book. THIS. BOOK. This book is exactly what I want in a thriller/horror from Sarah Gailey. It’s creepy and scary and gory and I loved it. Vera is flawed, but with how her mother treats her, you can’t blame her and you root for her. I’m also just a sucker for houses that seem to have a life of their own. This is a definite must read if you love gothic horror/thriller books like I do.

This book literally chilled me to my core. I may or may not have had to sleep with a light on after reading this one. It definitely makes you fear every single bump that you hear in the night. The darkness always seems to have something looming and just waiting and watching you. If you need a thrill that will literally bring goosebumps to your skin while you're reading it, this is the book for you! The horror was so magnificently done that I will be raving about this book and this author for a long time!

Vera hasn't been to her family home in years. Now with her mother dying, Vera must return home to pack up her childhood memories and her family's murderous legacy.

This is the third book I have read by Sarah Gailey. Gailey is a great writer. Their novels are always imaginative, descriptive, engaging and thought provoking. "Just Like Home" was no exception. The plot of having a daughter return to the house where her father committed heinous crimes and to a mother who never truly loved her was very unique and powerful. Our main character Vera was very well written. She was complex, flawed and her arc was fully realized within the confines of this story. "Just Like Home" is a quick read that kept me turning the pages to figure out what happened next.

With that said, I do think "Just Like Home" just wasn't for me. Like Gailey's other books, I feel like the book jacket promises a plot that the book just doesn't deliver on. Not in a bad way, but in a way that I feel like the more central theme to this book is bigger than a woman returning home to where her childhood was ruined. There is always some hidden subplot in Gailey's books that makes itself known within the last fifty or so pages that has me scratching my head trying to figure out what this book is really about. Again, "Just Like Home" was no exception. Gailey is a wonderful writer, but at times their books can feel extremely dense because of the overly descriptive exposition and repetition. If I had to read the sentence "in the house my father built" one more time, I truly was about to lose it. I also am not a fan of constantly alluding to events that happened in the past without explaining them. Like how Vera doesn't trust the Duvalls, yet it wasn't exactly clear what the Duvall patriarch did to Vera until about 2/3s into the book but her distrust of them is mentioned several times before that. Or constantly bringing up that her father did something terrible, but not really getting into what that was until about half way into the book. Just feels hard to connect when you don't have all the information.

Overall, I feel like even with it's strengths, I had to give this book a three star rating just because again it promises to be one thing and ended up being something entirely different. It won't deter me from reading Gailey's books in the future, as I said I think they are a great writer. But this one just wasn't for me. I want to thank Macmillan-Tor/Forge and Net Galley for giving me an advanced copy.

I sort of felt cat-fished by this book. Which of course I loved! It totally surprised me and went in a direction I didn’t see coming. It was creepy, chilling, and super layered. I absolutely loved the ending!! Definitely would recommend for horror, mystery, and thriller fans.

Thank you to Netgalley and Macmillan-Tor/Forge for this eARC in exchange of my honest review!

JUST LIKE HOME by @gaileyfrey exceeded all expectations. It was weird. It was creepy. It pushed boundaries. It made me feel emotions that I didn’t want to feel. Gailey has such a knack for writing weird stories and I’m here for it.

Vera Crowder hasn’t been home in over a decade. She steps through the threshold of her childhood home only to care for her dying mother whom she has no relationship with. But she’s not dying like a normal person. It’s… odd. Off even. Things are going missing. Things are being moved around. Oh, and there’s a man renting out the shed as a home to do research on the house because Vera’s dad was a serial killer.

So. Freaking. Good.

This story was also important for those who had strenuous relationships with their parents. The conversations surrounding this were deep and highlight worthy.

Just Like Home
By Sarah Gailey
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

This was a bit of a mixed bag for me, as it had things I really appreciated and liked, and things that didn't work as well for me. In terms of the positives, I really liked how Gailey delves into Vera's background and emotional history when it comes to her parents, and how her deeper connection to her Dad has made her more emotionally fraught. I think that when we hear about someone who does horrific acts, sometimes we have a hard time wrapping our heads around why their loved ones may be reluctant to turn on them, and I thought that Gailey really captured that with Vera. I also thought that there were some genuinely creepy elements to it, both in terms of supernatural scares as well as unsettling real life aspects (in a lot of ways it reminded me of the deeply disturbing movie FRAILTY). But I think that there was a bit about it that was almost TOO weird for me, as the big reveal near the end felt like an overextension of a metaphor Gailey was trying to convey. This is probably going to be a situation where different readers will have different reactions, but for me it fell kind of flat and offset a lot of what came before.

I'm absolutely going to look into more books by Gailey, as I like her style and the dark areas she explores. This one just didn't click as well.

Special thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for a free, electronic ARC of this novel received in exchange for an honest review.
Expected publication date: July 19, 2022
When Vera Crowder’s mother, Daphne, beckons Vera home to be by Daphne’s side as she dies, Vera doesn’t think twice. Even though she has been estranged from her mother for years, and hasn’t returned to Crowder House since being evicted by her mother as a teenager. Now, by her mother’s side, Vera realizes that nothing much has changed, except Daphne now has an artist-in-residence, who is helping Daphne with the house in exchange for “using the Crowder House as inspiration”. But Vera soon starts receiving disturbing messages, in her dead father’s handwriting, and is hearing far too many things go “bump” in the night. The guest insists he is not responsible, but who else could it be?
Sarah Gailey’s newest gothic horror novel, “Just Like Home” is tense, creepy and terrifying, in every way. Not only does “Home” have a haunted house at its centre, but Gailey adds Vera’s serial killer deceased father to the plot and it sends this novel to a whole new level of horror.
Gailey has a way of writing which is beautiful and poetic, even for a horror novel. In fact, the writing was so profuse that it was difficult for me to get into this novel right at the beginning. It wasn’t until about halfway through, or even two-thirds, when the novel became a complete page-turner, and I was utterly immersed in the Crowder House and its terrifying history.
The story is told from the perspective of Vera, but it is told in two time periods; when Vera was a child living with her parents in the newly built Crowder House, and as an adult when Vera is called back to her mother’s bedside. The chapters that focus on Vera as a young girl begin with Vera stating her age, so the reader can easily fall right into the plot. I loved that the story was told this way, as I was able to grow up alongside Vera, and suffer all her dysfunctional, angst-ridden prepubescent struggles right along with her.
As mentioned, once this story gets going I was fully in its grips (kind of like Crowder House). Each plot line received a complete ending, and the final few pages left me with chills. I am a new reader of Gailey, but if “Just Like Home” is any indication of her writing prowess, then I will definitely be exploring her new (and old) works as soon as possible.

Vera Crowder returns home to help take care of her dying mother after years of being away. Her childhood home has a dark history that she has been running away from all of her adult life, until now.

Told in dual timelines (flashback chapters and current day chapters) Vera’s childhood is unraveled until we discover the truth behind The Crowder House.

This was so dry in the beginning that I almost DNF’ed. I can see the allure of this story and the similarities to The Haunting of Hill House, but there was just so many paragraphs about the house, the creaking bed, the fact that she thinks there’s something under the bed, the basement, her closet, the walls; my point is, so much time is spent analyzing the physical elements of the house than actually getting to the story. Perhaps that was the point, but the dialogue was also irritating. The way everyone spoke to each other was so odd!

The flashbacks were my favorite part and I felt it was building up to some wild reveal. Which it has, and it was unexpected, but not in a good way. What I got in the end was lots of symbolism and uncertainties and a really out there story that I am not sure I fully understand.

I like straight forward stories, I don’t like having to guess at what it all meant, but that’s pretty much what this book ended up being. I’m not sure I fully understood this, and this was definitely pure horror and not really a thriller, but I definitely enjoyed some aspects of the book. This book was just a lot of creepy descriptions, but not a lot of actual action.

Unfortunately this book just wasn’t my style. Maybe I would have felt differently if I would have read this during spooky season, but this missed its mark for me. Around 53% I got very excited and I thought this was going to go one way, but then it just went off the rails.

2.5 ish stars. I’m having a hard time rating this one. I recommend this for any hardcore horror lovers, like people who really enjoyed The House on Needless Street would most likely devour this.

Thank you NetGalley and Macmillan-Tor/Forge for the ARC in exchange for my honest opinion! This publishes on 7/19/22!

My god, what a book. Just Like Home is an insidious book that crawls under your skin and rattles your bones. It poisons your dreams and clouds your senses, keeping you under its beguiling spell.

From the first sentence, I loved Gailey’s writing style. It was mysterious, earthy and so damn Gothic. The sentences felt decadent and elongated, creating that mesmerising atmosphere. There is a clear sense of beauty and power here, but also intimate moments and flashbacks of a traumatic upbringing. Gailey keeps the tension razor-sharp with that creeping sense of something watching at all times. I found myself jumping at shadows while reading, caught up in that foreboding sense of something deeply deeply wrong in this story.

This is a book built on deception. The slower pace masks an array of horrors, with seemingly boring or throwaway details forming a vital part of the overall pictures. Pay attention to everything because nothing is as it seems. Guiding us through this tangled maze is Vera, who I could not help but root for. Her repetitions betray a mind twisted by trauma and years of repression. The secrets surrounding her are suffocating. The characterisation here of every major player is amazing, with none of them being likeable. Instead, these are flawed and often despicable people with self-serving motives and veiled in deadly lies. The dynamics between characters are fascinating and provide stark, bleak and deeply perturbing moments. Their interactions feel fragile and able to descend into chaos at any moment. Gailey’s control of atmosphere is deployed wonderfully in these interactions, with the tension building into a choking fog.

The way this story is woven together is masterful. On one hand, it is a haunting exploration of trauma, illness and fractured families. It delves into the unintended consequences of actions and the perpetuated cycle of violence and abuse. On the other hand, it is a disturbing Gothic mystery, full of gore, blood and death. The revelations are earth-shattering, particularly in the third act. The way this book is plotted is astonishing with surprises around every corner. Every time you think you have this book nailed down, trust me when I say you do not. This is an incredibly tricksy and bewitching book. Gailey ensures you follow down every last rabbit hole before the awful truth is finally laid bare.

I sat until the early hours of the morning pouring over this unsettling, spine-chilling and gorgeously serpentine book. This is the Gothic genre at its best, with the setting taking on a life of its own, haunting exploration of societal issues and the drop in your stomach at its menacing nature. Crowder House truly becomes its own character here, with every detail feeling menacing and fully fleshed out. The setting often parallels the crumbling interior state of our characters and that is realised to full effect here. Gailey also weaves in these quieter moments of reflection and introspection, allowing flashbacks to interrupt the central narrative and instead offer us glimpses into exactly what happened all those years ago. We are soon thrust back into the claustrophobic trepidation of the present day narrative, full of Gothic flourishes. I loved how Gailey took every last trope of the genre and spins them on their heads to squeeze fresh life out of them.

Just Like Home leaves you with a lump in your throat and a chill on your skin. It perfectly balances classic horror with an exploration of family, trauma and the uprooted returning home.

If you're ready for spooky season or just love a good gothic read, pick this up!

Unfortunately, I am not a huge gothic fan and I think that was the problem here - It was me, not the book!

The story was well written and aside from being slow at times, held my interest, I just am not someone who loves being creeped out and this book gave me all the heebie jeebies! Which is phenomenal that an author can evoke those feelings - I just don't like them!

Absolutely effective, wildly unsettling horror. I've had a while to sit on the twists and turns of the narrative, and I honestly still don't know quite which way is up. Lots of body/gore horror and plenty of the quieter, psychological horror and mystery of terrible familial relationships and confused adolescence.

Thank you @netgalley and @torbooks for this eARC in exchange for my honest review.

Vera returns home for the first time after the discovery of her father's murders by request of her dying mother. Just Like Home is a slow burn, gothic novel and Sarah Gailey took her time with setting the mood for us. Even the house itself had haunting characteristics of it's own. Disturbing at times, this book was slower than what I normally go for but if you enjoy detailed descriptions and building terror, this book may be just for you.

I have no idea what I just read. It was… weird, creepy, gory, disgusting… and did I mention weird?

I mean, I like weird, but this was really weird.

I am a huge fan of the creep factor in this one. If I were one of those people who scared easily, this book probably would have been in the freezer. It’s truly creepy!

Anyway, the writing is quite captivating and I truly loved the story until the end. Vera is a strange girl living with strange parents in an even stranger house. It’s definitely worth a read - especially if you’re looking for something supernatural!

However, the final 10-ish percent was just completely odd, and the whole story was lost after that. I understand it doesn’t have to be realistic in this type of story, and I didn’t want to rate it low because I wanted something else, but man, I really hated the conclusion for this.

At least it wasn’t a Scooby Doo ending, I guess.

2 stars

Honestly, I was looking forward to this book because I love a haunted house story, and I’ve heard good things about Gailey’s other (non-strictly-horror) work. Unfortunately, this book disappointed me.

Mainly, my issue was with the prose, which seemed overly self-conscious of the story and tried to cast several veils over it. The narration plays annoyingly coy about details that I didn’t think had any reason to be concealed from the audience (due to being common knowledge among all inhabitants of the house and the world at large).

The story also seems to be really trying to bait the reader into thinking Vera’s been unfairly ostracized for her father’s crimes, then surprise them with the revelation that our narrator may not be (shock, gasp) a normal innocent well-adjusted young woman—but her ambiguous role in events is patently obvious from the first chapter.

Vera as our PoV character is wildly inconsistent, and not in a “psychological damage from trauma” way but in a “bad writing” way. There was one particular scene that really annoyed me: she needs a new bedframe and goes to fetch it, reluctantly accepting the help and truck of a guy she wants to avoid giving any ammunition against her to. At the furniture store she rushes in so that she can lose him in the aisles, then plops down on a child’s bunkbed and stares into space for half an hour so the narration can give us an info-dump on her childhood, all while said guy leans against another kids’ bed and watches her have this random unprovoked flashback. It just felt lazy, if I’m honest.

The ending is rushed, kind of silly, not at all scary, and honestly just made me think about better-done horror novel creatures/ghosts/entities that I’ve read before.

Ultimately I was disappointed with this book. It won’t keep me from reading some of Gailey’s other books that I’ve been wanting to get to (namely the alternate history American Hippo stories) because I suspect that much of what didn’t work for me about this book had to do with the trickiness of writing in the horror genre. That said, I think that there are some people who may enjoy this book more than I did; I suspect it may work for fans of The Elementals by Michael McDowell or serial killer crime fiction fans trying to get into more supernatural horror.

Thank you, Tor Books and NetGalley for my advance review copy!

Vera’s mother calls and requests that she come home. Daphne is dying, and Vera must return to the house she was kicked out of to sort out her mother’s affairs. The house was built by her father, a serial killer, and has become something of a museum of oddities in her absence. Something more sinister seems to be lurking under Vera’s bed, though, and Vera is forced to come to grips with where she came from and who she is at her core.

JUST LIKE HOME is the perfect summer thriller. I wasn’t expecting the ending, and it left me with such an utter sense of disquiet and mild repulsion. Happy ending this was not, and I loved every page.

I do wish we’d found out a little more about Vera’s parents, but they definitely make a perfectly creepy and dysfunctional pair.

WOW I loved this book. I wasn’t sure what to expect based on the description but the writing here is tight - the story and the way the mystery of The Crowder House unfolds was outstanding. It was creepy, scary, uncomfortable and unexpected. I had a blast reading it and applaud Sarah Gailey. Wow!

I can't go into too much detail as it's too easy to give away spoilers!

This book was dark, haunting, thrilling. All the things that a creepy thriller needs! At times disturbing, it's one I needed to read during daylight hours.

Read this book if you love anything high in creep factor!

Creepy, dark story about a women called home to care for her mother who is near death. Vera has not returned home since she turned 18 and was kicked out by her mother, not that she wanted to be there with the dark history the house holds. Coming back is hard enough, but her mother has turned the house into a retreat for artists who want to explore the houses dark history. The man who is living in the shed this time is particularly disturbing, as he is the son of the author who wrote about Vera’s dads murder/ torture basement. Don’t read this one after dark unless you leave the lights on.