I've only read one other book by Sarah Gailey, When We Were Magic, so I had no idea that they could do horror as well as they could do fantasy—better even. I don't think I've yet truly wrapped my head around what I've just read. This is without a doubt one of those ARCs that, even though I've read it once, I will be buying myself a physical copy so that I can read it a dozen more times.

This story is, above all, the perfect depiction of raw, complex parent-child relationships: the fleeting moments of happiness; the paralyzing moments of dread; the overhearing, listening and, adapting; the dependency and the loneliness; the desperate need for approval, for warmth, for companionship, and for love. I saw a bit of myself in Vera and it broke me. The relationship that she has with each of her parents is written in a way that reaches deep into your soul and crushes you. They're two completely different dynamics that feed one another, and I think the nature of those relationships is so realistic, so well-written, it had me sobbing. It's what I love about the horror genre: the way that it uses the fear, the dread, the unknown, to tell a much deeper story and send a profound message to its audience.

I like to think that I'm not afraid of the dark, but this book... this book made it hard for me to sleep at night. Gailey writes horror in a way that makes it so hard for you to stay rational and unbothered. I felt myself losing a tiny bit of my sanity while reading this. If I didn't close the door to my room, I kept eyeing the hall, convinced that there was something there. I swear I was seeing shadows. If I did close the door, I was staring it down, convinced it would open by itself and something would crawl in. I genuinely didn't know what to do to not be completely paranoid. At some point, I turned on all the lights in my house because I was freaking myself out too much, and even then, I was still convinced something was going to get me in my sleep. I haven't felt like that about a horror book in a very long time and I was so pleasantly (and terrifyingly) surprised.

The thing is, there aren't a ton of explicitly scary or gory things that happen in the story. A few eerie or icky details here and there, but it's all in the way that Gailey writes about the dark and the unknown. They manage to play with your mind, and I don't know if I'm just particularly sensitive about shadows in the dark, but this was truly, utterly terrifying.

I honestly cannot recommend this book enough. It'll make the experience that much more insane if you read it in the dark, late at night, alone, with some particularly fear-inducing music playing in the background (I recommend Total Depravity by The Veils). This has gone straight to the top of my horror recommendations, and I will be talking about it nonstop from here on out.

This just did not work for me - perhaps right book, wrong time. The plot is solid, the characters real enough, the tone creepy. I do think there is too much exposition, too much narrator ruminating, replying anxieties in her head. I found myself skipping paragraphs looking for action and plot development. I think other readers might like this, I just found it a little frustrating.

4- stars “There are secrets yet undiscovered in the foundations…” says the book blurb, but unfortunately some clarifying secrets are never revealed to the reader. A few poor choices with the storyline, and a somewhat cheesy ending, but an entertaining read overall.

I guess I wasn’t paying attention to the description of these because I didn’t expect the last 15% of this at all. At first I was like eh no but by the end of those chapters I LOVED it.

This is a book I know I will have to read again! It was twisted, creepy, disturbed, and had an overall sense of scariness to it.

Right fron the beginning, we know something is not right as Vera makes her way back to her childhood home to sort through the house as her mother dies. Them we gets bits and pieces of information about her father, a convicted serial killer.

Now there is an artist that is living on the property and digging into her family history, and something unsettling living within the house. Vera has no choice but to face what is there.

This book gave off haunted house vibes without the same story. I would have enjoyed reading more about her childhood, as those parts were fascinating.

Thank you to Netgalley, Macmillan-Tor/Forge, and the author for an ARC of this book.

Okay--this was a little hard for me to rate. The first 85% was a 5-star. The last 15% was about a 2 star. Because the majority of the book was so good for me, I settled on the 4-star rating. And I should make clear from the onset: this is a me-problem. I just didn't like the final direction of the book.

As for what worked for me, this book is creepy and just oozes dread. The story slowly unfolds as we follow Vera, who has returned to her home for the first time in over a decade because her mother--who threw her out years ago--is dying. It's emotionally charged as we see this character try to reconcile the past grievances she has with a really crappy mother and her current role as the only child of a dying parent. But that's not all. Not even close.

Also slowly unspooled is that her father, who has died in jail, was a horrific serial killer. And if you like your fiction dark and twisty, oh, this one is for you. Little Vera, when young, becomes aware of exactly what her father is doing. And it is NOT pretty. So Vera has quite a bit of baggage. The whole town hates her and her family, she had a best friend (note about him below) who still lives in town and won't speak to her, and to top it all off, there's a guy living in the back shed who is trying to sap . . . something from the house to make his art more valuable and unique. Oh, and he's the son of the writer how wrote the tell-all book about Vera's dad after he was convicted all those years ago.

One more thing: her house seems to be haunted. Vera is terrified.

So this was really awesome. What went wrong? Well, without spoilers, the ending took a different direction than I had hoped it would. I mean, it was sort of "out there," which is something that rarely works for me in novels. And I felt there were a couple plot holes, the biggest being some clarity about what her ex-best friend knows and told about an event from the past.

All in all, I really loved most of this book. And frankly, I can still recommend it highly: there's much in here I'd love to further explore. I'd just note that the ending might cause consternation--but it's probably worth the risk. Give it a try.

Just Like Home was BIG WEIRD. I thought I was going to end up DNFing this book because the writing in the first few chapters–which was so damn descriptive–grated on me. There was so much information about the House and what it looked like and endless paragraphs going on and on about it and that was such a hard thing for me to push through. I’m so happy I did, though!

I was initially very interested in the serial killer premise part of this story because that’s just my jam, but that was not what ended up being my favorite thing about this story. Vera’s perspective and the dual timeline took a little bit to get used to, but I loved the way her past unraveled and we came to learn about her childhood and the House.

To say the plot took a turn for the creepy and gross would be an understatement? Some of the more body horror-y parts really hit my tolerance level when it came to gross things and I had to put the book down a few times because I was so disgusted by some of the descriptions. Some of them were so unsettling on top of being gross that they made me shudder.

The final third of the book was what really really hooked me, though. We came to understand some very important things about Vera and the House and I just loved how Sarah Gailey developed that. It was such a cool and intriguing take on the haunted house trope and it worked so well for me. The ending, in particular, was so delightfully wrong lol

Pulsating with creeping dread, I found this to be a mixture of beautifully written, atmospheric sections mingled with something... odd, for want of a better word. For the most part, I loved it, the dark, gothic interplay between Vera and the house, or the 'thing' in the house, the dreadful Daphne, the deceptively pleasant and mild-mannered Francis, the insipid and annoying James.

I particularly enjoyed the wordplay that created a sense of unease, of uncertainty. What on earth was under the bed? What was clumsily trying to copy Vera's snapping of her fingers? The ending was a bit too visceral for me, too absolute. After the deliciously ethereal, ghostly build-up I would have preferred the ending to continue in that vein, with an element of mystery. You know something is there, but what? But, otherwise, a jolly good show!

Thanks to MacMillan and Net Galley for my ARC. A 3.5 rounded up to 4 stars.

This book is like fucked up poetry. All of the words collide and move as if stuck in a symphony.

I was breathing hard, holding my breath, anticipation and fear waring inside of my body as the story progressed. It’s eerie without being haunting.

The ending had me in a chokehold, I literally could not do anything but finish this book. It’s wild, tantalizing, and not at all what I expected!

I. LOVED. EVERY. MINUTE. OF. THIS. BOOK.

Thank you NetGalley and Tor Books for approving this ARC. This review is being left voluntarily, all opinions are my own!

What a fun read. I haven't read the author before so I was not sure what I was in for, but I really enjoyed this one. Vera is home for the first time in many years to get the house in order as her mom is dying. The mother that she is estranged from, but when she calls she has to go help.

She has so many memories in the house, this is the house her father built, the father who she loved so much. The story jumps between what happened when Vera was young to the present time. There were a lot of good creepy moments, lots of moments that did not go as I expected them to, and it was just a really enjoyable read. Trying to figure out what exactly happened in the past and what exactly was happening now was so fun. If you like creepy gothic horror thrillers then this is one for you.

Thanks to NetGalley, the author and the publisher for an advanced copy of this book

I love a good creepy story, and this was certainly that! A bit paranormal, a bit gothic horror, a lot twisted. I honestly did not pick what was going to happen, and I was enthralled the whole way through as I tried to piece it all together.

Told in both past and present pov, Just Like Home tells the tale of Vera as she returns to her childhood home to care for her dying mother. While there, memories are dredged up and old hauntings return.

I loved the back and forth, giving just enough to keep you wanting more each time. There are small twists throughout, which I loved, and lots of super creepy moments that will have your skin crawling.

Great story!

This book really wasn’t for me. I thought the writing was well done but I think the story became lacking part way through the book.

The creepy factor was good. The character wasn’t one of my favorites though.

I haven’t read a Sarah Gailey book before, but I’ve seen their books recommended many times and I figured this was a good place to jump in to their writing.

This book is described as darkly gothic; I’d say that’s a pretty accurate way to view it. Vera Crowder is returning to her childhood home at the request of her mother, who is dying. Vera has a rocky relationship with her mother, who is cold and hateful towards her. Pretty early on, we learn that Vera’s father; Francis, who built the house, was also a serial killer. The book progresses with Vera’s pov in the present and flashbacks to when Vera was a child. This was a great choice to slowly reveal information to the reader. The book started off slowly, but at about the 50% mark, a lot more information was revealed and I couldn't put the book down!
I particularly enjoyed the last few chapters—it took a turn I didn’t predict and that really sold me on the book.
Creative and spooky!

3.5 stars

I'm still trying to find my footing in the world of gothic literature and picking up a copy of Just Like Home by Sarah Gailey felt like a great way to figure out more about what excites me in gothic stories and what doesn't quite work.

There is a lot to like, even love, with this book. The concept of having to return home after many years to take care of a dying relative is given new life when the house in question is one where many murders took place. Gailey does a fantastic job of evoking the feeling that something is not quite right in both her descriptions of Vera and of the house itself. There are certainly elements that turn your stomach, but you feel like you can't look away.

Probably the biggest hurdle that any gothic novel for me has to clear is the resolution that surrounds the thing that goes bump in the night. Most of the time, I find that the author goes so far afield that I cannot even suspend my disbelief. I was definitely getting nervous as the book was wrapping up since we had spent so much (honestly, a bit too much) time describing the house and barely any time with the human antagonist, but I think that Gailey did a fantastic job of making the supernatural and the gothic work in the world that they had created. It definitely made me want to continue exploring gothic horror!

Thank you to NetGalley and Tor Books for an ARC of this book in exchange for a fair and honest review!

Wow! This is one of those reads where I don't want to say too much for fear of spoiling the ending.
A lot of books create a creepy atmosphere where the setting is as a much a character as the people in the story. This book takes that idea to whole new level. Add to that a strained mother=daughter relationship (which is putting it lighly!) and you have a book that is hard to put down!

I really enjoyed this fresh take on the returning home to resolve unfinished business theme, and I would recommend this book to anyone who likes gothic yet modern mysteries!

*Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for my ARC in exchange for this honest review!*

This gothic horror brings a dysfunctional family back together and haunts us physically and psychologically with their unravelling. Add in a sinister and potentially dangerous artist, and you have a powder keg of a novel.

Thank you to the publisher and #NetGalley for the chance to review this ARC in exchange for an unbiased review.

I am shook! I went in expecting a spooky story of a woman returning to her childhood home after many years away care for her dying mother... except the last time she was home her father was being arrested for murder.

I was ready to read about a dramatic dysfunctional family and a dad hiding his serial killer tendencies from his family. I was wholly unprepared for just how sinister Just Like Home would be.

There are definitely similarities to The Haunting of Hill House and I would recommend this book for a truly creepy read!

Sarah Gailey has such a visceral way of writing I could almost feel the sludge on my hands. *shudders*

That's all I'm going to say about this one because I don't want to give anything away.

Vera’s mother Daphne beckons her home as she is dying and she needs her to come and help with her affairs, including the house which was built by her father. Her serial killer father. Reluctantly, she returns home to Crowder House. She comes to find out the guest house on the property is being rented to a man named James Duvall, the son of Hammett Duvall, who wrote a book about her father and caused a rift in her life. She immediately is wary of him and is not sure she can trust him. Strange things start happening around the house, unexplained things, and Vera isn’t sure what’s going on, but she starts digging to uncover the secrets buried in the house.

This book gave off some creepy vibes. My attention was hooked from the start, but about halfway through my interest started to wane. I don’t want to give anything away, but the ending was super bizarre and did not work for me, at all. I had high hopes for this one, but in the end I was pretty disappointed. It had its moments, but not enough to win me over.

4 Stars

One Liner: Hard to slot into a genre; twisted

Vera Crowder has to go home, and she does. Her mother, Daphne, is dying. It’s now Vera’s business to sort the house. But the house was built by her father, Francis. Every part of the house has a memory and is alive with emotions and stories.
As if life with her mother is not bad enough, Vera has to deal with an artist, James Duvall. He is one of those artists who pay to stay in their ‘legendary’ home and get inspired. He continues to hound Vera for information about her past, especially the one that involves her father. Vera is determined to keep him at bay. But she also knows there are secrets that need to be unearthed and carefully wrapped up again.
As strange things happen in the house, Vera has to decide how much she can handle. After all, buried secrets rot faster than infested wood. Can Vera deal with the past and present? What will happen to Crowder House once Daphne dies?

My Observations:
The book is dark, twisty, and messed up, just like the main characters. However, slotting it into any single category will affect the outcome for the reader. I’m not sure why this was marked mystery/ thriller. Yeah, there’s some mystery (a slow burn), but it didn’t require figuring things out. The hints were more than enough to know the ‘mystery’ part.
This could work more as a dark psychological horror but will not fully appeal to hardcore horror readers. Newbies in horror will not like it either. It might be too much for them. It falls somewhere in the middle, and that is not a good sign for the book.
The gothic part is done very well. The house is super creepy and claustrophobic. Some of it is gross and yucky, too (if you don’t like such stuff). Luckily, I was in the right frame of mind for the book and didn’t remember the genre it was supposed to be.
The characterization of Vera, Daphne, Francis, and James was interesting. None of them are likable. Yep. Yet, I couldn’t help but root for Vera throughout. The family dynamics (between Francis, Daphne, and Vera) are crucial to the plot. In fact, the relationship between the characters felt like a tangible element throughout the book.
I’m not a fan of repetitions or slow-paced plots. However, this one worked for me. The repetitions showed Vera’s current state of mind. A lot of things that seem boring or irrelevant are a part of the bigger picture and make sense towards the end.
The book picks up pace after 80%. That was good because I was starting to feel a bit annoyed with the meanderings. The book could have been a bit shorter and just as effective.
The twist and the subsequent ending were good to read. They suit the story, title, and cover (should I even mention just how fab that cover is!). However, that is not the ending a mystery book would usually have. It leaves the reader wanting more or wondering what happened when a wrong genre is attached to the book.
Call this dark fiction and psychological drama instead. It’ll set the right tone and expectations. There are a few triggers, too, so sensitive readers beware. This isn’t a book you pick up lightly or for fun.

To sum up, Just Like Home is a twisted dark drama with messed-up characters. Go for it when you are in the mood for something slow and creepy. I'm definitely reading the author's other works.

Thank you, NetGalley, Macmillan-Tor/Forge, and Tor Books, for the eARC. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book.
#JustLikeHome #NetGalley

In their signature fashion, Gailey takes the haunted house narrative and bleeds new life into what we've come to expect. Perfect for fans of Gone Girl and Home Before Dark, Just Like Home oozes down your throat to choke any assumption you have on what the monster under the bed might be. As readers peel back layers of the past, Vera Crowder asks us to consider what makes someone belong, and if what happens to they who love the monster.