Review | Just Like Home by Sarah Gailey

Source: library borrow. This is a review of my reading experience.

 

Just Like Home is a horror novel by Sarah Gailey.

 

“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.

Coming home is hard enough for Vera, and to make things worse, she and her mother aren’t alone. A parasitic artist has moved into the guest house out back, and is slowly stripping Vera’s childhood for spare parts. He insists that he isn’t the one leaving notes around the house in her father’s handwriting… but who else could it possibly be?

There are secrets yet undiscovered in the foundations of the notorious Crowder House. Vera must face them, and find out for herself just how deep the rot goes.

I think I've placed every one of Sarah Gailey's books on my wish list as they were released, but Just Like Home is the first book of Sarah Gailey's that I've actually read. Their books always seem to get mixed reviews so I've never taken the plunge until now. Just Like Home was voted as the November read along selection for the Horror Spotlight discord group. I'm so glad that it was, and I'm so glad that I finally got to read a book by Sarah Gailey.

I loved this book! The writing was so wonderful, and the story was so unexpected. It was creepy, it was imaginative, it was super weird, and it never went in the direction that I was expecting. Just Like Home was so fun to read.

In Just Like Home, Vera's awful mother is dying and has called Vera back home. Throughout Just Like Home, we see both the present time with Vera and her mother as well as Vera's childhood and what happened with her father and her mother and why she left the Crowder House to begin with. It's dark and it's creepy, and I couldn't look away.

Just Like Home really worked for me. I think I can see why Sarah Gailey's books would have mixed reviews, but I also think I may be the right reader for their stories. I'm excited to go back and pick up their back catalog because I really loved Just Like Home. It had such a great mix of being scary and being weird and keeping me hanging on to find out what was going to happen next. This book was oddly horrific, and I want more of it. I think most of their books have been more fantasy than horror, but I'm looking forward to finding out what each one is all about.

It's best to go into Just Like Home as blind as possible so I'm not going to give any more details on why I loved it so much. If you like domestic thrillers or horror or Sarah Gailey - don't miss out on this one. I highly recommend it.

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