Reviews tagging 'Toxic relationship'

Just Like Home by Sarah Gailey

59 reviews

stephanieluxton's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

The pace of this story is a bit slow but I enjoyed how things played out. It didn't go exactly how I expected it to, which is good. I have some mixed feelings about the end. I don't feel like all my questions were answered fully, but I did enjoy the journey.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Bullying, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Physical abuse, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Death of parent, Murder, and Toxic friendship

Minor: Child abuse and Vomit

killmoore_'s review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

I went into this as blind as possible, and I'm so glad I did. 

I loved everything about Just Like Home from the very first page - the imagery is rich and decadent, the characters mysterious and questionable. Mm. Chefs kiss. Gailey uses language that draws you in and holds you hostage as you follow Vera in two different time lines, working to unravel the mystery of the Crowder House and navigate the shattered remains of her relationship with her dying mother. It could have ended there - psychological and true crime adjacent, but no. Gailey gave us so much more.

The sharp turn into WTFville was sudden and absolutely amazing. I was not expecting this to take a hard dive into creature feature, and I could not have loved it more. I love a good "house as a character" storyline and this did not disappoint. This had me chanting "get his ass!" Alone in my room at 2am 😅

An atmospheric, spooky, wild ride. I would highly recommend. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Mental illness, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Toxic friendship, and Injury/Injury detail

renyoi's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.75

Brilliant atmospheric, suspenseful storytelling that builds up to its truly horrifying moments in intensely effective ways. The protagonist,

an unreliable narrator in the subtlest sense

, turns out to be the most horrifying character in the book, which was entirely unexpected for me. My only wish is that the “true crime” aspect had been more present in the book; as it is, we are told it is a constant presence in the Crowder family’s life but never shown it apart from weirdo James Duvall, who comes across more as a basket case than as a representation of society. 

Aside from that, though, this work is a thrilling, grisly, appalling turn on the “haunted house” and “serial killer” genres of horror. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Terminal illness, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Gaslighting, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail

beaubaggins's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, and Murder

sepptb's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Violence and Murder

Minor: Domestic abuse

eliya's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

fuck me, man. this was tough. i read this book just in time for a book club to discuss it, and i didn’t cry until the acknowledgements. 
sarah gailey’s writing is so incredibly intimate, a lot of reading this felt like guilt dripping down my back mixed with the cold nakedness of being alone with the words. 

pg. 320:
“We didn’t ask to be born, did we? We did t ask to have to soak up their sings and their expectations. All we ever did was love them, and all they ever did was hurt us.”
…”He loved us, though,” … “more than anything.”
“Oh, he loved us both as best as he could,” … “He tried to build us strong and steady and whole. But he didn’t keep us safe. He didn’t know how to shelter us from all the hurt that was waiting, because he thought that hurt was the shape of love.”

(personal reflection)  When my dad died, and after, I kept thinking of all the guilty memories I have, all the times I’d let him down. I didn’t get to know my dad as a whole human being before, but I know he loved us. My childhood sucked and I was abused and he did his best to love us. My mom could never understand what she did wrong, when we talked about her abuse, she just gave the reasoning that that’s how she thought to love us, that’s how you raise kids. My whole family thinks that love is the shape of hurt. 

 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, Torture, Toxic relationship, Death of parent, Murder, Toxic friendship, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Child abuse, Physical abuse, Terminal illness, and Violence

Minor: Vomit

kingsteph's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Terminal illness, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Kidnapping, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Vomit, Grief, and Gaslighting

schnaucl's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

This was well written, but not my favorite of Sarah Gailey's novels.

It was strange to me that even as a child Vera never once thought that murder was wrong.  I get that she thought her dad was saving the men he killed, but she was old enough to understand what murder was and that it was wrong.   And dealing with the tension between love of her father and what it would mean to turn him in might have been an interesting thing to explore.

I did think having the house as an actual physical thing that protected her (and needed protection in return) was interesting.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Mental illness, Torture, Toxic relationship, and Violence

jessiejonesbentley's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Death, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Stalking, Death of parent, Murder, Gaslighting, and Abandonment

madelinequinne's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

I’ve been in a reading slump for the past two months, but this book pulled me out of it and i’m very grateful for that. 

This was so interesting, i’ve never read anything like it before. You go into the book expecting your usual true crime serial killer novel, but i was pleasantly surprised by how emotional and reflective this story was. The conversations about family, growing up, mummy issues and what drives someone to do bad things was so well written and explored, and i was absolutely gripped the entire time. 

I think this book would make an excellent horror movie, i could picture each scene in my head so vividly which is a great example of how descriptive the writing was.

Highly highly recommend 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Gore, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Death of parent, Murder, Toxic friendship, and Injury/Injury detail