Reviews tagging 'Injury/Injury detail'

Just Like Home by Sarah Gailey

84 reviews

kitewithfish's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

5.0

Another storygraph user reviewed this with "Abigail Hobbs would have loved this" and she absolutely would have loved this. This felt like a bleak and bloody dream and so very very creepy. 

The book has is structured with flashback chapters that inform the book as a whole and give insight into both the structure of the house and the way Vera lived in it with her parents. 

I think I might re-read this later to see how it all fits! 

SPOILERS FOR ENDING

SPOILERS for the whole ending. 

The element where the horrible duality of Vera's mom sometimes being awful and sometimes being kind is because she's possessed and the Thing Possessing Her is the one being nice? Absolute top tier horror, brilliant, amazing work for the girlie's (gender neutral) with fucked up moms. Really enjoyed the book leaning into the dad's serial killing being the least upsetting thing in Vera's childhood. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Gore, Torture, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Murder, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail

whatkatyread87's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Bullying, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Violence, Blood, Death of parent, Murder, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail

haileyhardcover's review against another edition

dark tense medium-paced

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

2.0

After learning that her estranged mother is dying, Vera returns to her childhood home. The house where her serial killer father murdered his victims and buried the bodies. The house that still has more secrets buried inside.

Um, hello? Hell of a hook, right?! I really expected to be obsessed with this book. Sadly, no. It wasn’t BAD… but it wasn’t great either. 

I think something that some horror writers forget is that things need to make a certain degree of sense. You can write a story with supernatural elements and still employ logic. It’s that element of logic - that bit of sense gnawing at you, making you wonder if maybe, just maybe, this could really happen - that’s what makes a story really scary. Understanding your characters - their fears, their motivations - and making their choices align with those things is crucial to crafting a story that makes sense and has the power to really chill your reader. 

The writing isn’t anything spectacular (there were multiple inconsistencies with the characters and the plot), but Gailey does do a good job of getting your heart pumping here and there. In those moments, she uses short sentences, building the tension, driving your eyes forward - but it’s too often a build up to nothing, or something that just doesn’t make sense and then never does make sense. The reveal, if you can call it that, manages to tie up a few of the loose ends, but more so makes it abundantly clear that Gailey did not know her own characters well enough and she ends up relying too heavily on trying to make things creepy and gory. 

I think this book could’ve been really great if the supernatural elements were left out entirely; or, at the very least, more care was taken in the development of it and more effort put into the character development. As it is, it’s just meh.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Blood, and Murder

Moderate: Body horror, Death, Gore, Mental illness, Terminal illness, Torture, Violence, Vomit, Death of parent, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Cancer, Chronic illness, Cursing, Physical abuse, and Grief

robin_reads's review against another edition

dark mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No

1.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Toxic relationship, Blood, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Grief and Death of parent

hauntedantiqueshop's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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

2.0

I liked the epigraph more than the book itself.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Death of parent, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Terminal illness, and Blood

Minor: Animal death

ixris's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

Technically a Gothic, the splatter is not super intense. Gailey's writing is phenomenal. If you're in the mood for creeps and willies this is a great read! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Domestic abuse, Torture, Violence, Kidnapping, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Body horror, Child abuse, Confinement, Emotional abuse, and Blood

I love the house. Best monster. Must protect.

skye_era_books's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Confinement, Death, Gore, Physical abuse, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Kidnapping, Stalking, Death of parent, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

fionamclary's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad 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? Yes

4.75

HOUSE BOOK HOUSE BOOK HOUSE BOOK

Whew, I absolutely tore through this one. Two days!!

Although I struggled at times with Sarah Gailey's frequent use of repetition in their writing, the exploration of the gray area and overlap between love and monstrosity ultimately won me over. This book will have you asking yourself who the real monster is up until the very last page. However, as Gailey makes clear in their acknowledgements, in real life the delineation should always be clear: You deserve love, not monsters. But exploring the ways in which monsters can love us and love can be monstrous still matters when too many are living in that exact situation.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Violence, Blood, Death of parent, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Child abuse, Confinement, Domestic abuse, Terminal illness, Torture, Vomit, Toxic friendship, and Abandonment

Minor: Animal death, Kidnapping, Gaslighting, and Sexual harassment

alex_e_liddiard's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious slow-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Death of parent, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

arynapril's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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

5.0

I liked this book a lot! Very great prose and imagery, I liked it very much!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, Blood, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail