#JustLikeHome #NetGalley
Excellent, clever, and creepy! What a great book, I will be recommending! Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the opportunity read and review the novel.

I’ve been searching for months for a haunted house story that really hit the mark, and this one delivered on every single thing I was hoping for. There were so many moments I had to put the book down to process the heavy/chilling topics. Each chapter left me unsettled until the very end. The alternating timelines of this story were expertly done and the unraveling of Vera’s past was perfectly paced with dramatic cliffhangers. The story of Vera’s mother and father was so psychologically haunting, I only wish the story expanded more on Francis Crowder in its conclusion. I have mixed feelings about the end, but I was left with lingering chills for days after finishing, the way a haunted story should.

4.5/5

Super weird, I loved this freaky, horror psych thriller. The imagery was beautiful. The pacing was a little off for me but I really enjoyed the twist

This was fun and twisted. Full of gasp out loud moments.

I am always going to jump on creepy house horror. I also get pulled in to the fractured mother daughter relationships and the dynamics at play; cause and effect; getting to the why of that unhealthy dynamic between them. That is definitely what you get with this book.

Vera must come back to her childhood home, Crowder House, where her estranged mother Daphne cast her out so long ago. Now that her mother is sick and dying, Vera has to return to this place full of memories to make sure all the affairs are in order.

Filled with shadows, creaks and bumps in the night, it feels like the house is a character all it’s own. It’s a subtle presence always just there in the background.

I love how Sarah Gailey writes. They have such a connection to the words and it bleeds through the pages. I’ve read other books by them and they are all so different. In Just Like Home, we get this visceral journey through Vera’s childhood and her time back in the house her beloved father built. We get the to be there for all the memories to resurface. And we get to witness this house reveal all of its many many secrets.

I have some mixed feelings about this book but honestly? They're mostly positive because I finished this a few days ago and I'm still very much unsettled.

So I thought the first few chapters were extremely slow. I know the author needed to set up the foundation by introducing everyone and letting us get to know Vera (albeit very slowly) but it just felt stuck in certain parts. I also thought that, through the story, Duvall was an unnecessary character. Was he supposed to somehow be the villain of the story? I'm not sure. He was an asshole but it just felt so sudden.

That being said, I really think this would make an interesting series. Daphne is super creepy and gets even creepier, Vera's past is wild and I just need an entire book about her dad because what was going on there?? I need to know everything about Francis. Now the real star of the show is the house, just like with the majority of creepy novels/books and I love that. I kept thinking about Vera's relationship with the house/her father and it's disturbing because it felt Freudian in a sense. Was it love? Was it obsession? Was it something more? Who know! Not me, but I'm disturbed. This wasn't a perfect book by any means, but it worked. I was disturbed, I was disgusted and I would definitely watch this if it was a show.

I'm constantly in search for a perfect mix of psychologically creepy and bone-chilling in horror books, especially after finding my gold standard in This Thing Between Us by Gus Moreno last year, and I'm so pleased Just Like Home by Sarah Gailey fits the bill. I made the mistake of finishing this before bed one night and, oh boy, did I pay for it.

Vera Crowder returns to her childhood home after her dying estranged mother beckons her back. It's not an ordinary home, the Crowder House is notorious for being the slaying grounds of a merciless, unsuspecting serial killer - Vera's father. Coming back home isn't what she expected - the house aesthetically is the same as she remembers, but something is... off. It might be the strange artist renting their guest house who insists on inviting himself into the family, the memories of her loving father and tragic childhood memories coming to life, or it might be the house itself that's coming alive.

Just Like Home is as unsettling and disturbing as expected, but it's a layered type of horror, one that requires multiple readings to understand and appreciate. On the surface, it's easy to dismiss this book as boring and slow, which are valid complaints, I have issues with the pacing in the beginning and believe there's a lot of side stories and monologues that could be trimmed down. But after the midpoint, the story evolves into a jaw-dropping, heart-racing sprint to the end.

Not only is it genuinely scary, but it's a fascinating study on the lengths we go to protect ourselves from childhood trauma, how the monsters we loved influence us, and accepting that we will never outrun our past no matter how hard we try. It's a well-done mix of thought provoking and chilling, and is the perfect book for fellow psych thriller/horror lovers.

4.5 / 5

Thank you to Macmillan-Tor Books/Forge + NetGalley for providing an eARC in exchange for an honest review!

Pub date: July 19 2022

This book was a trip. It made me want to sleep with the lights on but I also finished it in maybe three days. I had to keep reading to figure out what was happening in the Crowder home- real or supernatural. What scared me the most was not the blood and guts, but the way our main character Vera was abused by her mother. If you’ve ever had laundry angrily folded at you, you’ll know what I mean. Give this novel a read and see how many monsters you can spot among the cast of characters. I would recommend this book for fans of Dean Koontz and Graeme Cameron (“Normal”).

"Just Like Home" is a strange story, and not quite what I expected. The story focuses on the psychological turmoil of Vera Crowder returning to her childhood home and facing the memories and repercussions of the actions of her serial killer father, including ostracism by the residents of the town, the strained relationship with her mother, and the actions of individuals, including the current "artist in residence" who want to exploit the Crowder house and the crimes of Vera's father for their own benefit. That was expected, well crafted, and interesting. What I did not expect was the paranormal/"possessed" house aspect of the story. I was also surprised at how dark and evil of a person was Vera's mother, Daphne.

I received a copy of the e-book via NetGalley in exchange for a review.

I really did like this book, there was a lot more potential for it to be a thriller than horror, There was just constant talk of the bed and the bed frame. I feel like 80% of the story was based around the main characters bed and bedroom when there was so much more going on elsewhere. The plot twist was definitely interesting and the turn of events was satisfying

A nasty, vicious read with teeth for days. A woman comes home to her dying mother; things aren't great, the folks in town don't seem pleased that she's back, and slowly we come to learn about just what when on at the Crowder House... except nothing is quite what it seems. The twists are obvious except they aren't; expected except they're stranger; there's a lot, really, going on and while not all of it works... the dark sticky force of this one is undeniable.

A beautifully dark and tension-filled read. Just like home tells the story of Vera who is called back to her childhood home by her dying mother. The home is filled with the history and memories of her serial killer father, her cold mother and the various characters who have visited the house over the years as a ghoulish pilgrimage.
The story is tense and intriguing, I loved it because it's not really fast-paced, instead, the tension rose slowly as the story develops. Ideal for any horror fans.

This was a fun book to read. I was hooked and since I have been in a sort of reading slump these days, this helped me get back. All the best to the author and thank you for the review copy.

Just Like Home is Sarah Gailey’s first foray into a horror novel, and they did a great job. Such a great job that I don’t know if I can give this book as a recommendation because it was so personally upsetting to me, in an unsettling way unlike any other book.

Great tension, characters you don't 100% love, and slow, spooky writing. This book has it all! Vera has to come home to face her past and her father- a serial killer's- past. It was a great example of a slow horror burn.

This is labeled as a thriller but it is more like soft horror?

I don't know how I feel about this read.
On one hand, I didn't like the story. I was not a fan of the twist ending, and some of the story left me feeling icky and unsettled. I wanted more of a thriller story than the horror elements but I also couldn't stop myself from reading on because I legit wanted to know what was going on and how it ended.

I cant say I liked any of the characters because they all sucked. Daphne especially was the worst kind of mother and I wanted to slap her sooo many times.

It's not too dark so I feel like newer horror fans will devour this one. My first read from this author and I might have to check out more.

Thank you to the publisher for the advanced copy!

“Come home.” Vera’s mother called and Vera obeyed. In spite of their long estrangement, in spite of the memories — she's come back to the home of a serial killer. Back to face the love she had for her father and the bodies he buried there, beneath the house he'd built for his family.

.
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JUST LIKE HOME is a messed up, addicting read!

I was sucked into the story from the first chapter and actually stayed up late to finish it (with the lights on, I must add!) Full of spooky, dark goodness and an ending you will not see coming, I highly recommend JUST LIKE HOME to any horror lover.

Thank you to Netgalley for my arc!

It pains me to write this review....and I'm sure it's just not for me, personally.

I received an arc for an honest review, and honestly I only made it through the first few chapters before I realized I just couldn't. Skipping to the end, which was some what interesting, words like what, why, huh comes to mind.

I was really excited to read it based on the cover and description! Sadly I didn't find it scary, horrific or suspenseful.

Just Like Home tells the story of Vera Crowder as she comes back to her childhood home for the first time in over a decade after her dying mother reached out for her to do so. Coming home for Vera means finally being confronted yet again by the ghosts of their past in the home that was her comfort—the house her father built—and the memories of her father who was a serial killer. Throughout the years, her mother made a spectacle of the house and invited artists and visitors of all sorts. Now, as she comes home, Vera is faced with a parasitic artist whose father is someone she blames for her own father's downfall. Not only this, the house is seemingly being torn apart by the artist for his art's purposes just as Vera finds pieces of notes in her father's handwriting about him all over the house itself. As she tries to deal with past and present, Vera is confronted with how much she hadn't seen before, and how much is being revealed to her now.

The narrative concentrates on the present day, but it goes back to some points of Vera's life as we explore the relationships she had with her father, mother, the house itself, and her childhood best friend. Questions were raised early but the pacing made it seem like the climax of this book didn't come until about 85% in. There is a plot twist that initially made me gasp, but now only makes me find holes with how it actually filled the narrative. The characters, it seemed to me, were two-dimensional and had no clear intent, but in the end, I found myself rooting for the main character. What this book gave me is so different from what I expected, and I do think that the resolution separated this book from other "daughter of a serial killer" stereotypes.

This is one of those novels that one can't review without revealing too much. Gailey's writing here is eerie and borderline chilling which made the atmosphere slow and tense the entire time. I don't generally pick up Thriller and/or Horror novels, so my verdict about how gruesome this is may be a little off for avid horror readers. I must say, though, that the tension built gripped me by the throat and I was intrigued the entire time I was reading this. I'd recommend this book to new/old horror fans who love atmospheric slow writing and pacing, as well as morally corrupt and morally gray characters.

My huge thanks to Macmillan-Tor/Forge for the ARC in exchange for an honest review!

(A longer review will be posted on Goodreads and on my blog this April 27.)

This book was one wild ride.

Vera comes back home to be with her ill mother who is dying, back home to the home where terrible things happened when she was a child.

For a good chunk of the book, we don’t know what happened other than Vera and her family appears shunned from everyone in town and outside it and her father is no longer around.

The story moves back and forth from the present to Vera’s childhood, sharing a little more of what happened in the past, leading to the present.

I won’t say more than that, without giving the story away. For the first 2/3 of the book I could empathize with Vera, as these assumed egregious things happened to her.

But oh, the twists and turns. Really different, but enjoyable.

You can bet any time I see a new Sarah Gailey book, I'm going to get my hands on it as quickly as humanly possible. They just never disappoint.

When a woman returns to the house she grew up in to assist her estranged, dying mother, she's confronted with the childhood--and the scandal--she ran from so long ago. Nothing is quite as it seems in this house, and being back is forcing to remember the dark reality of everything that happened here when she was a girl. This novel is full on horror with some gore and supernatural elements to go along with it. A really excellent, haunting read.