Wow, I loved this book. First off all, that cover is stunning! And what's inside absolutely captivated me from the first page to the last.
This is definitely a slow burn, which some people may find off putting, but this kept me engaged throughout and by the end I found myself feeling a great attachment to what the story represents.
The dual timelines worked well and if anything I felt it really added to the story and helped propel the plot forward.
The writing is absolutely beautiful and I was fully invested in Vera and was on her side throughout.
The atmosphere, bad vibes, setting and general darkness pours out from the page, this book with stick with me for a long time.
Highly recommend!

2.5*

I've read two Sarah Gaileys before and enjoyed them. I'd seen a lot of people excited for 'Just Like Home' so was thrilled to receive an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

The writing in this book is excellent. It's genuinely creepy at times - I don't recommend reading it in the dark like I did! The story follows Vera returning to her family home to visit her dying mother. The two clearly have a difficult relationship and you spend the book trying to put together the pieces of what happened to cause the relationship to fall apart.

The backdrop to the drama is that Vera's father was a serial killer and committed the murders in the family home when Vera was a child. How much did Vera know? What did she think was happening down in the basement at night?

This was so close to a 4/5 star for me but unfortunately the ending left me feeling unsatisfied and baffled. I like a weird book but this was something else and I found myself rolling my eyes a lot!

I have read one Sarah Gailey book before (Upright Women Wanted, which I highly recommend!) and so I knew I got on well with her writing style, and when I saw this was horror I was so ready to jump right in!

This is without a doubt disturbing, and an unsettling read - precisely what I want from a horror novel, but something about it left me feeling detached. I quite enjoyed my time with it while I was reading it, but I felt the ending was a let down (if you know, you know).

Don't get me wrong, I enjoy a surreal plot, and speculative elements, but I want them through out the book, not just dumped at the end. I feel if it had leant more into that side of what was happening it could have pulled it off.

This will be ones for fans of the weird and bizarre for sure! I highly recommend it, even though it didn't land quite right for me.

Deeply Disturbing, Immediately Immersive…
Going home is unbelievably difficult for Vera. With her mother dying, she feels that she has no choice but when she gets there they are not alone - in more ways than one. What will this house of terrifying secrets throw up next? Well penned, entirely unpredictable, gothic suspense with a solidly crafted cast of characters and a slow burn tension. Deeply disturbing but immediately immersive.

An unsettling, dark story about a dysfunctional family, twisted childhood, loneliness and how parents shape their children.

Vera is going back home after years living away, isolated and lonely, responding to her mother's dying wish. When Vera was thirteen, something happened that shattered her childhood and took her beloved father away from her. Now, in the quiet Crowder House, Vera has to avoid her mother's hate, while sorting through her family's possessions and discouraging the parasitic artist living on their premises from asking uncomfortable questions about their past.

I know the opinions are divided on this book, but I personally enjoyed it a lot. The atmosphere was creepy throughout, mirrored by the mother's mysterious disease and the small, suspicious things happening in the house. It wasn't a jump-scare, but more of a story that was slowly getting under your skin. It's wasn't quite a five star because I felt like there were a few moments that could have been cut out, but the characters were great and the mystery of the Crowder House unraveled steadily and satisfyingly through the novel.
The last 25% took me completely by surprise, but I thought they were suspenseful, dark and surprising, exactly what you'd want from a horror - including the unexpected reveal at the end which I found to be a great allegory, working well with the story. Overall, a creeping, atmospheric and dark read, that will work for weird horror fans!

First of all, a content warning: if you've ever had recurring nightmares with sleep paralysis, this book will hit you hard. Please don't be like me and insist on reading it for too long, too late at night, because you will FOR SURE creep the living daylights out of yourself.

That said, this book will most likely creep the living daylights out of you anyway. That's the intent, after all, and it definitely succeeds. This is part haunted house story (with an opening line nod to The Haunting of Hill house), part exploration of what it would mean to be the child of an infamous serial killer, and part indictment of those who make their living (or their art) off the tragedies of others. There's more to it, but that should be enough to pique your interest.

Sarah Gailey never comes at their stories from an angle you might anticipate, and their tales seldom end as you'd expect either. This is a haunted house story in the same way that The Echo Wife was a techno thriller. Gailey is trying their hand at all sorts of different genres, and is wholly unafraid to subvert them.

While reading I was trying to remember the last time a book actually managed to put the frighteners on me, and it has been a long time (probably Come Closer, by Sara Gran, if you're curious). This isn't horror lite, it's the kind that slithers under your skin and gets its tendrils busily poking at the nightmare factory in your brain. It's scary on multiple levels, for multiple reasons. If that sounds like your kind of thrill read, you'll enjoy this book. Take a tip from me though, and read it in daylight.

(Thanks to Hodder & Stoughton and NetGalley for an early chance to read this.)

Just Like Home by Sarah Gailey is a disturbing and dark haunted house story with a twisted thread of body horror running through it. As a fan of the author's previous work I was eager to get my hands on a copy of this book and even more so once I saw that beautiful and striking cover. I am pleased to say it did not disappoint, in fact for me it is their best book to date. As always the writing is polished and precise while being descriptive in a way that really drew me into the book and the story the author was telling.
The setting of the book is the atmospheric Crowther House, the home that protagonist Vera is returning to for the first time in years, summoned back by her dying mother, Daphne. The house has a notorious history as the site where Vera's father murdered dozens of men in the basement and Vera could not wait to escape it, unlike Daphne who has turned it into a ghoulish museum where people can see the home of a serial killer. In fact even now she has rented out part of the property to an artist who has an unhealthy obsession with Vera's father and the house. Though she is reluctant to face the past, she cannot leave Daphne to die alone, but once she returns to the house her father built, strange things start to happen causing Vera to question just how much she can trust her memories and whether there is more to the house than meets the eye.
This is a slower paced book that gradually builds to a strange but strong climax, and there are plenty of surprises along the way to help keep the reader engaged. For me one of the strongest things about the book was the characters. Vera was very sympathetic from the beginning, and even as we learned more of her story, including the less than flattering parts, I still found myself rooting for her. Even though the other characters were unlikeable they were also very interesting.
Overall I really enjoyed this darkly disturbing book and I would definitely recommend it to horror readers. I read an ARC courtesy of NetGalley and the publishers, all opinions are my own.

A daughter’s inheritance ★★☆☆☆

Twelve years ago, Vera left Crowder House never to return. Now her manipulative, cold mother is terminally ill and has summoned her home. Vera must face the memories of the house and her serial killer father whose ghost lurks behind every door.

Vera’s memories of her father are touching and complex, especially compared to her relationship with her mother. As Vera finds notes and scraps from the past, the narrative around her father’s crimes and captures starts to unfurl, including the secrets Vera herself kept.

There continues to be something very strange about the house and its cast, including the artist lodging out back, the latest in a string of murder groupies Vera’s mother lets on the property. Haunted by childhood fears – the monster under the bed – and by her own conflicting urges, Vera is in danger at (from?) Crowder House.

A disturbing read which captures a killer’s state of mind and is peopled with characters which are unloving and hard to like. The creepy overtone gives way to a surreal or fantastical ending which may or may not have been metaphorical but was too weird for me.

You’re returning to your childhood home for the first time in twelve years. Your job is to watch your mother die and then clean out the house. There’s a stranger living in the shed because your mother’s been cashing in on the fact that your father, who built the house, was a serial killer. Everyone in town hates you because of who your father was.

Welcome to Vera’s world.

“The house was the same, but everything everything everything was different.”

This is my first Sarah Gailey book and it was amazing! It was unsettling in the best way possible.

I know what it is to love a ‘monster’. Some of Vera’s responses to hers were scarily familiar. Others were (thankfully) more foreign. The ritual she completed to ensure her safety as a child made complete sense to me, as did its reappearance when she returned to Crowder House.

“They remembered what they were supposed to do to keep her safe, remembered from when she was young enough to develop a superstition without reasoning herself out of it.”

This book introduced me to a mother-daughter relationship that has been twisted and contaminated by their shared history. This is a story that explores the power of secrets to change you and a past that no longer wants to remain in the shadows.

It’s about loneliness and belonging, what makes a house a home and the inexplicable loudness of the things have been left unsaid in our lives.

Lemonade will never be the same.

“I want to see.”

Content warnings include domestic abuse.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Hodder & Stoughton for the opportunity to read this book.

Vera Crowder hasn't been home in over a decade, not since her mother told her to go and never come back. But it appears that she's had a change of heart since she called her and asked her to come home to sort out the house because she's dying and cannot do it herself. And then, things happen.

This is a horror novel but it's definitely not fast paced, and I loved that. From beginning to end, it was deeply unsettling and even a bit confusing at times and that was truly perfect. The two timelines were also masterful, I thought that was so smartly done. Because not knowing for certain what happened before kept me guessing the entire time and kept me reading too. I could not stop reading and it's been a while since I've been this engrossed in a book I was reading with my eyes. (instead of with my ears)
I really stayed glued to the page from beginning to end, completely enthralled.
I don't even do horror usually cause I'm a bit of a wimp but this was Sarah Gailey so I had to and I'm so glad I did. I was deeply unsettled and yet loved every second of it. The characters felt as true in a very weird way.
But yes, I definitely recommend this weird book and will dive into more by Sarah Gailey for sure.

This gothic horror thriller will make you scream “what the hell?!?” approximately every 3 pages.

The writing is eerie and creepy and claustrophic. You really become enveloped in this house as much as the main character does. Its all encompassing, and that really is the mark of a great author.

I will say, that for my own personal taste, this is a little too out there for me. I can appreciate the writing and the premise, but it wasnt for me, and there were times throughout where I almost DNFd.

But fans of horror and the supernatural will absolutely LOVE this book. Also, the fact that stylistically, the cover is such a beautiful pink colour and is elegant in its simplicity… stunning. Round of applause.

Powerful, queasy, and intense, if you’re looking for a surreal, disturbing and shocking horror with a small amount of gore and grossness and going into extremely weird and bizarre places, then this is exactly for you. I agree with another reviewer saying that fir readers just dipping their toes into the horror genre could find some scenes here quite disturbing and dark, but for horror readers who are very friendly with the genre I felt personally it could’ve went even grittier and grosser. It felt like it should’ve sank it’s rotten teeth in for a bigger bite, but overall the gore and darkness presented is quite good and it is a bleak, dooming novel so don’t read it if you’re looking for a horror with happiness or a more lighthearted one like the recent rise I’ve seen.
I found the narrator of this novel extremely relatable and her suffocating, lost fear to face what she never has properly was done extremely well-I could feel her nausea and tension very well, and the descriptions of the home itself we’re done greatly and vividly.
I also feel that the slow burn of the plot worked very well, despite seeing some reviews wishing it sped up a little. However I think the slow, lulling pace this novel followed was a great addition because it slowly build up all the dread and confusion and weirdness, instead of rushing through scenes and character development far too quick to give them enough development or depth.
I am an artist myself and I really loved the parasitic artist character. I won’t spoil anything or add into more depth about him at all, but I felt so drawn to him and his obvious strangeness and wanted to see his artwork brought to life.
I also felt the flashbacks were done great, they didn’t feel tool stilted or taking us away from the main, present day plot.
However I wasn’t able to give it four stars because I did feel that near the end it did become too rushed and lost that wonderful and vivid depth of everything for the first section of the novel.
I will be rereading this one because I feel I’d probably rate it higher after a beneficial second read, and if I was to compare it to three novels to fit into a curious reader’s bundle those would be…
Sharp Objects-Gillian Flynn-because of a similarly suffocating house filled with dark unknown secrets and a fraught, raw mother daughter relationship.
Last House On Needless Street-Catriona Ward-because of the strange, vulnerable characters you can’t quite believe and discovering their weird, forgotten journey alongside them.
The Wasp Factory-Ian McEwan-because of the fleeting, looming father who could be extremely sinister and deranged if you looked the wrong way or just misunderstood and eccentric the other way. Also the descriptions of gore were similar to those of the escaped, maddened brother and our fragile, drowning baby brother from The Wasp Factory.

This book had so much symbolism that usually would mostly go over my head and I’d not appreciate the book fully, but here it was brilliantly done. I liked the dual narrative of past and present where I’d look forward to the suspense in one narrative but also intrigued to see what would happen in the other. There were some paranormal elements that added to the story which made it more interesting. Overall the suspense in the book was great and as the horror elements were in stark contrast to the ‘normal’ scenes, they hit harder. I’d recommend reading this especially if you’re into serial killer documentaries.

"The Crowder House clung to the soil the way damp air clings to hot skin."

This is a story about a haunting. A haunted house. A haunted family. A haunted life.

When Vera is called back unexpectedly to her childhood home, Crowder House, by her terminally ill mother, Daphne. She is very quickly eclipsed by memories of her serial killer father and the terrible things that happened in that house.

I know I've said this before but it's most definitely true for this book, don't read any reviews before going into it, actually don't even read this one! The less you know the better. I knew nothing and I'm so glad that I was able to let the whole story unfold without any preconceived ideas.

At the beginning the book wants you to think that the story is all about the house. The way it looks, the way it feels. It is an overbearing part of the tale. I felt like I was in that house, feeling it expand and contract around me. I could smell the damp in the basement. I was hearing the creaks of the floorboards. I knew exactly what it was like to turn the door knob on the front door and enter Crowder House. But slowly bit by bit you learn that there are monsters in that house, monsters that some of us encounter every day and some way more unusual.

This is a slow burn, but don't let that faze you. I consumed every word like it was ambrosia from the God's. Sarah Gailey's writing had me utterly transfixed. She very cleverly drip feeds you information until all the layers of the Crowder family are exposed. There was no let up and I could not get enough! There is blood, there are horrors, there are scares, but there are secrets and hidden desires in there too. And when I finished reading the last line I let out the biggest breath. That's right, I let out a breath I didn't know I was holding! 😂 This book was holding me so tight in its clutches and the tension had been raised so high that I was gripping my e-reader like my life depended on it.

I can't wait to see more of you read this once it's released tomorrow, its just so darn fantastic!!!

When Vera Crowder is called by her dying mother, she comes back home. After years of estrangement, she visits Daphne and explores the house, sorting out the contents of wardrobes and cupboards. It’s the house her bellowed father built with his own hands, according to his needs. The house many people believe to be haunted because of what happened inside…

Just Like Home is an easy and exciting read. The action is perfectly paced, with little bits of the Crowder House mystery revealed at the time. From the very beginning, we know that there is something wrong with Vera’s family. Some childhood trauma lurks in the shadows of her mind, together with a monster from under her bed and an imaginary friend. Something terrible happened in the Crowder House that antagonised the whole town against Vera, including her own mother. As readers, we receive chunks of the past intertwined with the present, so we can try to sort this puzzle. I have to say that I certainly did not expect the novel to go the way it did…

Sarah Gailey wrote a unique tale with unexpected plot twists and a surprising ending. I enjoyed reading it and would recommend it to fans of unusual and scary stories.

“This house, the house her father built, the house where her mother would die – this place was safe. This place knew her. This place was where she belonged.”

My first time reading Sarah Gailey and I can say with all conviction, it won’t be the last.

“Just like home” is a dark, disturbing, gothic thriller that grips your attention from the very first page. I would be lying if I said it didn’t absolutely terrify me at times! Reading it in the evening had me lying in bed and sweating with a light on later in the night.

After years of estrangement, Vera comes back to her childhood home. The home, where she used to live with her detached mother and her serial killer! father. Coming home is hard, it’s the last thing Vera wants, really, but in efforts of trying to be a better person she decides to obey her dying mother’s wishes and help out in her last moments. Now it’s up to her to sort out the house – the place her father built, place full of memories and stories and most of all horrifying secrets. As she returns she’s also faced with James Duvall – an artist living in the shed on the Crowder property. But what are his real motives? Can he be trusted?

The story is told in two timelines. Alternating between the present and the past, the time when Vera used to live here, following up to the moments of her father’s arrest. We follow Vera’s struggle to be back in her childhood home, filled with memories of her father – a man who to everyone else was a sensation, a serial killer who’s killed men in a secret basement for years. But to Vera, he was an incredible, loving father, the person she cared about the most in the world. So what really happened all those years ago?

How does family shape who we are? What does it mean to be a good person? What does it mean to be bad? Is every man bad, foul? Besides the mystery and horror, these are some of the main themes of the story.

I loved the writing, poetic yet smooth, and I loved the characterization. Gailey creates unlikable characters, who despite all, you find yourself rooting for. On top of your typical “haunted house” story they add their own supernatural stranger-things like twist that I absolutely didn’t see coming.

“Good, bad, foul, clean – none of that mattered. Not really. Because she was Vera Crowder, and she wasn’t good, and she wasn’t bad. She was hungry.”

Huge thanks to NetGalley for providing me with a digital ARC in exchange for an honest review!

First, let me get my unbridled enthusiasm out of the way. I loved this book. You will love this book. You should just go buy this book. Why waste time with my fancy words? Throw your money at Sarah Gailey as soon as you possibly can.

Right, now we've got that out the way ...

Just Like Home by Sarah Gailey is about Vera Crowder returning to her family home because her mother, Daphne, is dying. The house has a certain notoriety as the place where her father, now deceased, murdered dozens of men. Vera has complicated feelings towards her family, her house, and the monsters that live under her bed. The story centres in on complicated family relationships, and how things work when everyone has a little bit of foulness inside of them.

The thing that most struck me as I read Just Like Home were the many twisty reveals that come throughout the book, although they're all handled very casually. There are very few end-of-chapter cliff-hangers, but I almost always felt off-kilter and surprised as I learned about Vera's younger life and her adult self -- not to mention her mother's own secrets.

Vera, for all her sins, is an engaging protagonist who it's easy to love, even as her personality is shown to be more complicated than plain black-and-white. Gailey gets us maybe not rooting for her, but certainly sympathetic towards her situation early on, and it's later hard to let go of that initial affection. Gailey addresses feelings of unlovability, and the pains people might go through in order to feel loved, in her acknowledgements, and these feelings are perfectly and painfully displayed in Vera.

Vera's father might be the draw for many horror fans to this book. I certainly looked forward to maybe getting a voyeuristic intimacy with a murderer on a par with Zombie by Joyce Carol Oates. However, Francis Crowther is oddly silent in this book. All we see of him, we experience through Vera -- through her memories. Any words of his referenced in the text -- his letters, his journal, his written confessions -- are never shared with the reader, which I think is a really interesting choice. The reader might come for a peek at a monster, but what they get instead is Vera, and she doesn't disappoint.

Just Like Home is an absorbing read for anyone who enjoys the forbidden thrill of reading about people who do horrific things, with a side order of empathy, and space for some supernatural weirdness.

Just Like Home by Sarah Gailey is out on the 21st July, and follow the link to pre-order from your favourite retailer.

With thanks to Netgalley.co.uk and the publishers, Hodder and Stoughton, for providing and e-advanced reader copy.

Vera hasn’t been home in over a decade. Her mother threw her out as soon as she was old enough and Vera never returned. But now Vera’s mother is dying and she wants her daughter to come home. Vera is reluctant to do so. She and her mother have the most complicated relationship. Vera was always closest to her father but he’s not around anymore. Basically Vera is just coming home to clear out the house and watch her mother die, but things aren’t as straightforward as she’d like them to be.

Strange things are happening at the house Vera’s father built. An artist has move into the guest house out back. One of many who have come and gone, as Vera’s mother tries to earn money based on the history of the house. But this one is slowly stripping Vera’s childhood for spare parts, in more ways than one. Notes are being left around the house in Vera’s father’s handwriting and if it’s not the artist leaving them, who is it? What is with those strange noises underneath Vera’s bed? And just what went on in the basement all those years ago?

Well, this sure didn’t turn out the way I thought it would. In fact, I think if I’d had an inkling of the kind of story this would end up being, I probably wouldn’t have read it. As it is, I contemplated not finishing it many times but I felt bad doing that so I just kept going.

Let’s be clear here. None of that is the book’s fault. It’s definitely me. I wasn’t the right audience for this one. From the blurb, I was expecting a chilling gothic thriller. It’s not that it isn’t that but there were moments where I found it veered more towards the horror genre in all its disgusting goriness and … just eeww. That really put me off. Maybe the cover should have been a clue, I don’t know.

It’s definitely a slow-burner and I personally felt it dragged a bit too much at times. There were teasers as to things that had happened but what those things were exactly took quite a long time to be revealed. Even the fact that Vera’s father was a serial killer, which is right there in the book description, took ages to be mentioned. I found it impossible to connect to the characters but also never quite got a grip on the story, and I feel there are quite a few questions that remained unanswered.

‘Just Like Home‘ does offer a unique spin on the haunted house theme. It explores the thin line between love and hate, and between good and evil. It shows that monsters come in all shapes and sizes, and jealousy will always be one of them. It shows how events that happen in a house will seep into the walls and affect all those who live there.

I didn’t really know what to make of this story while reading and to be honest, I still don’t. It’s well written and it’s obviously immensely intriguing, dark and disturbing. It has some surprises in store but it’s very, very bleak with a dash of weirdness and a whole lot of gore. Did I mention that? *shudder*

So, all in all, not quite for me. However, I’d be up for trying one of this author’s books again some time. Just without the stomach-churning bits, please and thank you.

Thank you to Netgalley and Hodder & Stoughton for the ARC in exchange for the honest review.

When Vera's mother asks her to return to the home where she grew up under a serial killer father and a cold mother, she is forced to confront the secrets that are still unrevealed and confront the old horrors of her childhood and the new horrors of the Crowder House and its inhabitants.

This was hands-down one of the best books I've read all year.

Everything about this book gripped me. Vera's character was mesmerising, haunting, fierce, uncomfortable. The very definition of an unreliable narrator, I was determined not to take her with a grain of salt, but her narrative and thought process was just written in such a real way that I couldn't help myself. Her relationships with the supporting characters were intriguing as well. Her bitter, resentful, genuine relationship with her mother. The looming shadow of her father whom, for all of his faults as a serial killer, kind of seemed like the only decent parent in the family. The tensions lingering in the small town, the spectre of Brandon and what happened to him and how that related to Vera. Gailey has created such a crude, terrifying narrative, I was equal-parts squeamish and eager to keep reading. Also, I would be remiss in pointing out how much I loved Crowder House acting as a metaphor; the way that Gailey creates the house as this thing that keeps pieces of people, builds up around those people, holds secrets and love as well as horror, it was such an imaginative piece of work. I can't say enough about this book. Would hands-down recommend this to anyone.

I went into "Just like Home" completely blind, and honestly, I think this is the best way to go. It's one of those books that you really shouldn't know too much about beforehand, so in short: It's the story of Vera, a woman returning to her childhood home after years of no contact with her mother. The very home in which her father, a serial killer, was arrested when she was 13 years old. That's the premise of the book, and the rest you should experience for yourself.

The writing is atmospheric and the novel well-crafted. I quite liked the general gothic, chilling vibe and the childhood home being, as is often the case in gothic books, a character of its own. The story is told in two timelines, the present and the past telling us what happened with Vera and her father back in the days. I was drawn into the events very early on, though admittedly the book didn't manage to really keep me interested all through to the end. It's a horror novel, but I was never really that frightened and the horror aspects of it are rather sparse in the end. The ending took a turn that I'm not sure I enjoyed, but it definitely was unexpected so there's that.
My main gripe with the book is that I just never felt anything at all for the characters, including Vera. That lead to me just not being very involved in what was happening and reading much more passively. Still, horror fans will like this I'm sure, and it did make me want to finally read Gailey's Echo Wife that's waiting for me on my shelf. 3 stars.