Reviews tagging 'Cursing'

Just Like Home by Sarah Gailey

15 reviews

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

biobeetle's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful sad tense medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Mental illness, Violence, Grief, and Murder

Moderate: Cursing, Torture, and Blood

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

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

radtastical's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Terminal illness, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Cancer, Child abuse, Cursing, Torture, Violence, Blood, Medical content, and Death of parent

Minor: Body horror

bambooboy's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective 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

A meditation on monsters and the nature of evil. What makes a monster? And how do we truly know when we are confronted with one? This is a book about (un)conditional love, dysfunctional relationships, and the evil we all try to push down within us. It’s about the things we do to try to be loved, especially when we don’t really know what love is supposed to look like. 

This is a book about monsters. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Torture, Violence, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Child abuse, Confinement, Cursing, Gore, Mental illness, Self harm, Toxic relationship, Vomit, Kidnapping, and Toxic friendship

Minor: Bullying

ecn's review against another edition

adventurous 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? It's complicated

4.5

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Content Warnings

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

nrogers_1030's review against another edition

dark emotional medium-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

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

vaguely_pink's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Gore, Blood, and Murder

Moderate: Child abuse, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Terminal illness, Torture, Violence, Kidnapping, Grief, Death of parent, and Abandonment

Minor: Panic attacks/disorders, Vomit, Medical content, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Injury/Injury detail