The house dripping blood on the cover first grabbed my attention, but the creepy description made me request this book. A serial killer and possibly a ghost?

Vera’s mother is dying and asks her to come home. They’re estranged and for good reason – Daphne is a horrible person and doesn’t deserve to be a mother. Through two timelines, one in the present and one in the past, the reader discovers just how terrible she was to Vera when she was a child. Her father was a serial killer and without going into too much detail, let’s just say it’s had an adverse effect on Vera’s life in more ways than one. Talk about being cursed with bad parents.

From the description I assumed this would be a dark read. And it is. Some parts are brutal and disturbing, but the story is about a serial killer so that’s to be expected. What surprised me was the slow pace – almost a snail’s pace at times. I listened to the audiobook ARC, but if I’d had an ebook ARC instead I probably would have skimmed several pages.

The notes Vera finds in her father’s handwriting and whatever it is that keeps moving her bed are delightfully macabre, but the story takes a turn I never suspected. And it’s a good one. Just Like Home is a twisted tale of toxic family dynamics with a few surprises along the way. Just be prepared for the darkness.

I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher through NetGalley. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

Let me start by saying I'm definitely in the minority of reviewers with this one. I've also learned after listening to this audiobook that I am not a horror fan and I need to stop trying to convince myself that I could be. I really liked the Echo Wife by Sarah Gailey so I decided to give this a try and see if I could get into horror. Nope. I can't. If you are a horror fan, however, you may really like this. I just found the ending to be so unrealistic and just downright ridiculous. A talking house? Seriously? That's how we're going to end this? She's going to kill people to protect the house? I just can't understand how this got so many good reviews because the ending just doesn't make any sense to me and it made me like the book even less.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this advanced copy and exchange for an honest review. I wish I'd enjoyed it more, but I'm sure that others will enjoy it more than I did.

Was very excited after reading the description of this book as seeing another favorite book and favorite show of mine referenced as similar. Unfortunately I don't agree. I found this book slow without the "slow burn" payoff. I even felt there were points where the narrator sounded bored, I wouldn't recommend.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an opportunity to read this in exchange for my review.

I really enjoyed this book! It had great narration, and was such an eerie, atmospheric, and captivating story. I honestly couldn't stop listening to it. I liked that it had a lot of underlying elements to the story beyond pure horror--the relationship Vera has with her mother, her feelings toward her father, and treating the house itself as a character in the story. I also really liked the writing, I saw someone else describe this as "lyrical" which I think is a great description.

This was a wonderfully creepy slow burn mystery. It is the kind of mystery where you're not really sure there is an actual mystery. But you have questions.

It is best to go in not knowing anything. Skip reading too many reviews! I saw spoilers. The basic set up is that Vera is returning home to take care of things at the request of her dying mother with whom she has a fraught relationship. Literally all other info is very slowly spun out and we don't fully understand everything until the end.

The story is atmospheric and non-linear. We see the present with adult Vera and then other chapters skip back to key moments in her childhood. It is really fun slowly discovering how all the relationships work. There is some truly horrifying stuff here on multiple levels...from blood and guts to things that go bump in the night to craving a parent's love.

I listened to this on audio and the reader was fantastic. She absolutely conveyed the right vibe and believably captured the characters.

I definitely recommend this! I think in another mood I'd have given this five stars, but I did find it a bit dark for my taste at times.

Thank you to NeGalley and Macmillan Audio for the audio arc!

Sexual violence? Eh, not really...except for some unwanted kissing. Other content warnings? Torture, grossness, danger, assault, murder, graphic depiction of fishing, dysfunctional family, prison, child abuse.

This book was soooo creepy!! It gave me really bad anxiety at times and there were a couple scenes that made me almost stop listening (but I’m glad I didn’t!) This was marketed as a thriller, but I think it leans more heavily towards paranormal horror.

The characters were great. They were all a bit unreliable which really let to the added suspense of the storyline, which was very original IMO. There were a few twists that I didn’t predict and I really enjoyed all the layers to the chaos.

I do wish the ending wasn’t so vague, though. I wanted to know more of what happened once Vera figured out the truth, but I do enjoy that it didn’t have a typical happy ending!!

3.5/5 (rounded up to 4)

Thank you Macmillan audio for the gifted listening copy!

I am a big believer in going into books blind, so I knew almost nothing about this going into it, including that it was horror. I saw "mystery/thriller" and rolled with it, so this book was a bit of a surprise. I, like many others, recommend going into it blind so you can make your own assumptions, but if you want to know a bit more, here's a quick synopsis:

When Vera's estranged mother calls her to come home to her side in her last days, Vera goes, returning to the Crowder house for the first time in years. This is the house her father built, in which he also buried an indeterminate amount of bodies as a notorious serial killer. For the first time since his arrest, Vera must face her mother, her father's love, and the secrets of the Crowder House.

Like I said, this book was a big surprise for me. On audio, it was kind of confusing to determine what was a dream or a horror element, especially given the fact that I didn't realize this was horror. I wouldn't say I particularly enjoyed this book, but I was captivated by it and desperate to find out how things would play out. Vera's character was full of development and growth. This was a pretty interesting story, despite being outside of my normal style! Maybe I'll give horror another try...

Thank you to Netgalley and McMillan audio for thos Audio arc.

Just like home is a suspense thriller that has a gothic atmosphere to it. You're following Vera, a women returning home to aid her mother on her death bed, who hasn't been to her childhood home since she left as a young women after finding our her father was a serial killer.


Upfront, I dnf'ed this audiobook half way through as much as didn't want to. I really couldn't see this getting any better.

I was so excited for this thriller, the idea of Vera returning home and dealing with the relationship with her mother and father and their history. The cover and description hooked me but the actual story was a let down.
I'd hope the author would visit Vera's teens years more than they had. I'd listen to 30% of the audiobook and realized there was so much redundant phrase to describe the house, Vera, her mother and what Vera's mother was like- it felt like filler.

Perhaps I will pick this up again from my local library to finish it but I was disappointed with what I read.

Thanks to Netgalley and publisher for the audio book.

I had to get used to the narrator. Still not sure if I liked her voice or not.

3.5
I enjoyed this but didn’t love it.
Not the books fault, I’m still trying to decipher my taste when it comes to more horror type books.
I liked the dual timeline and that the setting was a haunted house.
It wasn’t fast paced but it wasn’t boringly slow either.
I enjoyed the supernatural aspect but also the human evil theme within the story.
Are we supposed to like any of these characters? Because I did not!

What is under her bed?!!

To let me be honest, there are 2 reasons as to why I wanted to read Just Like Home.
1. It was advertised as being similar to The Haunting of Hill House
2. It’s pink!!

The book starts off with Vera being called back home by her dying mother. As the dutiful daughter, Vera reluctantly returns back to her haunted childhood home, the home that her father had built, sorry the home that her serial killer father had built.

So, her mother, who has been a terrible mother to Vera is dying, in the home that her serial killer father built and oh yes, her mother is renting out the shed on the property to James Duvall, the son of Hammett’s Duvall (also terrible people). With the disarray of all of her father’s items, plus the fact that James is leaving notes all over the place, notes that were once written by her now dead father doesn’t make the transition home easy. In addition, she has gotten back into contact with her oldest and dearest “friend” who might be able to shed some light on what actually was going on inside the Crowder house all those years ago?

This book was creepy, disturbing, graphic, uncomfortable and I loved every second of it. I am now a huge fan of Sarah Gailey and cannot wait to read more of her work. I highly recommend anyone in the mood for a good scare to pick this up- you won’t be disappointed!

Thank you to NetGalley, Sarah Gailey and Macmillan-Tor/ Forge for sharing this amazing audio-digital reviewer copy with me in exchange my honest opinions.

⭐️⭐️⭐️💫🎧

I just finished “Just Like Home” and I’ve lost count of the what the actual heck moments.

Vera Crowder has returned home to care for her estranged, dying mother, in the house she grew up in that her father had built. And with her return, her fear of what lives under her bed returns, and she has to revisit all of the reminders of her family and it’s dark past in the house.

Without going in to too much detail, the story is dark, creepy, and twisty. Just as soon as you think it’s going one way, the story, just like the Crowder House, let’s out another secret.

Thank you @netgalley and @macmillan.audio for the chance to listen to this advanced copy. I’ll be looking under my bed tonight.

#readmorebooks
#readmorebooksbywomen
#mybookishlife
#netgalley
#macmillanaudio
#audiobook

I'm kinda confused on what I just read, but overall I felt like this is just a "paranormal" version of The Locked Door which I read recently so it rubbed me the wrong way with the likeness

Wow, this book was a trip! And the more I think about it, the more I like it. Very creepy and a fresh take on the daughter of a serial killer trope, but with a lot of added depth in terms of thematic exploration. I wasn't sure how much this was going to lean into horror, but I can tell you this is definitely a horror novel.

Just Like Home follows the adult daughter of a serial killer returning to her childhood home because her mother is dying. Her dad died in prison but weird things start happening in the house. We also get flashbacks from her childhood starting at age 11 and going forward in time.

I don't want to say too much because it's best to go into this not knowing a lot, but while I could see some twists coming, there were other things I didn't expect. I'm still processing the ending but I can tell you that this book is not for people who want characters who are clearly good or bad.

Thematically this book is exploring the complexity of abusive family dynamics. How we can both love and be hurt by the people closest to us, how people are not all good or all bad, and how love, hatred, and anger can be a tangled mess. How our family of origin impacts who we become in good and bad ways, sometimes creating cycles of trauma. Forgiveness isn't owed, but as children we have limited understanding of what is going on in the world of our grown-ups. In that sense, this book is haunting and offers no easy answers.

As I said though, this book is a HORROR novel. So expect lots of body horror, gore, violence, a possibly haunted house, visceral descriptions of the kind of fear you experience as a child, and more disturbing elements. Because of that this may not be for everyone, but I appreciate what the book is doing and it's something that will stick with me. The audio narration is excellent and really plays into the creepiness of what is happening. I received an audio copy of this book for review via NetGalley. All opinions are my own.

After struggling to find the extraordinary something in The Echo Wife everyone seemed to love last year, I was a little hesitant going into Sarah Gailey's next thriller. And perhaps rightfully so, because what this third attempt with her writing has taught me is that I think she’s an incredibly competent writer… but not an author I can connect with.

I think what doesn’t work for me with her thrillers is that they’re just too literary to create any kind of suspense. And while that could completely be a selling point for other people that go into a thriller or horror novel purely for the aesthetic, this book just felt like it went nowhere. I can tolerate “vibes” in these types of stories only to the point where the seemingly endless deluge of flashbacks are actually setting the stage for something to happen. Instead they just felt like pointless reiterations of what was practically spoonfed to the audience in the present timeline. Vera, the main character, is aware that her father did shady things in the basement as a child. It doesn’t takes genius to piece out where the story is going from there come Chapter 2.

Besides the plotting here, I never felt like Vera was an actual person. In the entirety of the novel, she is purely defined by the traumatic events of her childhood that removed her father from her life, and her uneasy return to her hometown years later to take care of her dying mother. But that’s it. Those middle years that comprise the majority of Vera’s life are an absolute wash, as if she just hit fast-forward on life to get to the starting point of the book. It makes the the story feel improbable, almost insular in a way that didn’t seem intentional at all of the other horror elements. And if an author is going to lean in hard for the literary thriller genre, I expect some standout character work. Vera was a sheetrock wall to me.

In the end, Just Like Home is a thriller that is probably going to work great for the same type of reader that loved Sarah Gailey’s previous takes on the genre. This book has the same very tight, predictable plot that chases its own tail but is more intent on atmosphere than action. I won’t say there’s not an audience, especially people drawn to the whole “my parent was a serial killer and I’m relieving the trauma” trope, that won’t fall headfirst into the story. But unfortunately this was another miss for me.

Thank you to the publisher Macmillan Audio for providing an audiobook ARC via NetGalley for an honest review.

I usually don’t like to give such a low rating but this really missed the mark for me. I don’t have a whole lot to say other than I liked the the beginning and middle ok but found the ending to be utterly absurd and finished feeling completely unsatisfied and disappointed. The narrator of the audiobook was did a good job, but the plot came across as ridiculous. Apparently I am in the minority, as this book has many high ratings, so I urge readers to try it for themselves.

Another DNF this week!

I love Sarah Gailey but this book was way too creepy and slow paced for me!! I tried to stick it out hoping it would get better or at least marginally more interesting but after about 60% I couldn't waste my time any more and even the narrator was lackluster. Gothic horror just isn't my thing. If you like stories full of creeptastic elements and toxic family relationships this might be for you. Recommended for fans of Catriona Ward's The last house on Needless Street. Much thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an early digital copy in exchange for my honest review!

3.5 stars

This book is downright eerie and weird. It's a slow-paced novel that succeeds in delivering a haunting atmosphere, made even better by Xe Sands' gravelly performance.

Pick this one up if you're looking for a book that will keep you guessing!

I’m sad to stay, this was a 1 star read.

⭐️

Slow to start is putting it lightly, this book would give slow-mo snail racing a run for its money (suffice it to say it’s VERY slow paced) and honestly rather uninteresting and certainly not thrilling. The characters also aren’t particularly likable.

The main character, Vera was kicked out of her home by her mother years ago and Vera is the daughter of a famous serial killer. In present day Vera has returned to the home at her dying mother’s request while an artist is living in the guest house out back. This book is told dual timeline style, which I usually quite enjoy but in this case it made the story more confusing and hard to follow.

Strange and eerie things begin happening in the house and still couldn’t grab my attention. I had to make a conscious effort to get through this audiobook (and I’m a huge fan of both the thriller and horror genres). I’m so glad so many people have loved this novel but I can’t say the same. I also really, really hated the ending on top of already not loving the story.

The audio narrator wasn’t my favorite for this story, she didn’t add anything to the written word to keep and engage my already diminished interest, though I think she’d be the perfect calming voice for a meditation app.

The cover art is beautiful and eye catching and I love that!

I am extremely grateful to have received an audio-ARC despite this one not working for me, thank you NetGalley, Tor and MacMillan audio for the chance to read this book!

Obsessed! Shaken! Holy shit. What a book. I have read and enjoyed books by Sarah Gailey in the past, but this is by far my favorite work of theirs. What sounded like a somewhat straightforward premise for a horror novel ballooned in size to become so much more than a haunted house story. I could see, feel, TASTE this house in a way I can't compare to anything other than The Overlook Hotel.

WOW I really loved this one and was completely enthralled in it from start to finish! I've always been a big fan of haunted house horror and after seeing endless high reviews for this one I was anxious it wouldn't live up to the hype for me, but it definitely did.

Aside from possibly reading the synopsis, I recommend going into this one as blind as possible and just enjoy the very creepy ride. Sarah Gailey's descriptions of not only the atmosphere of the house itself but also the sinister things that occurred within it was chilling and had my imagination going wild throughout. This was my first book of hers but after loving this one so much I definitely plan to pick up more.

Thank you so much NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for my review copy!