eliya's review
- 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
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.
Spoiler
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.”
Spoiler
(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.Graphic: Death, Toxic friendship, Cursing, Death of parent, Toxic relationship, Body horror, Murder, Torture, Emotional abuse, Injury/Injury detail, and Panic attacks/disorders
Moderate: Physical abuse, Terminal illness, Violence, and Child abuse
Minor: Vomit
alarrabee's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.25
Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Blood, Death, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Gore, Grief, and Terminal illness
Moderate: Abandonment, Mental illness, Child abuse, Murder, Torture, and Violence
Minor: Body horror, Bullying, Domestic abuse, and Physical abuse
jessiejonesbentley's review against another edition
- 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
Graphic: Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Abandonment, Blood, Death, Stalking, Torture, Kidnapping, Murder, Bullying, Death of parent, Physical abuse, Violence, and Toxic relationship
erica_reads_things's review
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
Graphic: Blood, Injury/Injury detail, Emotional abuse, Grief, Gore, and Body horror
Moderate: Child abuse, Murder, Physical abuse, and Death
freadman666's review
- 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
4.25
Graphic: Body horror, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Physical abuse, Death, Gore, Murder, Abandonment, Terminal illness, Violence, Blood, Death of parent, Kidnapping, and Confinement
weeta's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Emotional abuse, Toxic relationship, Blood, Body horror, Physical abuse, Death, and Torture
Moderate: Self harm
Minor: Abandonment and Death of parent
al_owl's review
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
3.0
Graphic: Death of parent, Blood, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Grief, Mental illness, Murder, Physical abuse, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, and Vomit
readrienne's review
- 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
Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Blood, Emotional abuse, and Murder
Moderate: Physical abuse, Death of parent, and Confinement
cateyeschloe's review
- 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
5.0
The writing is outstanding, and the author does a fantastic job of communicating what visceral dread, fear, and terror feel like in an all-too-real way.
I also have to applaud Gailey (they/them) for the absolutely WRECKING descriptions of body horror they include in this book - both in general and especially in the nightmares.
Just Like Home is absolutely the best book I’ve read when seeking tension and edge-of-your-seat mystery.
Before reading, I was wary of the somewhat tropey “woman who had troubled childhood returns to her childhood home and drama unfolds” plot device, but this book took that idea and bolted with it in directions I never saw coming.
Gailey’s writing style is fluid, deep, and beautiful. Over and over again, they call back to passing comments, ideas, or thoughts from the first hundred pages of the novel, and those touches explode with new meaning and metaphor in a stunning way.
At one point after our MC, Vera, injures herself, Vera’s mother is intentionally too harsh in the way that she cares for Vera’s wounds - causing unnecessary additional pain - and yet she is still simultaneously showing care for Vera - a rarity in and of itself and something that is treasured. This statement follows:
“Maybe, Vera thinks, this is just what love is like.”
The concepts of love and family and what it means to be “good” and what it truly means to love are a constant throughout the story.
Nearing the end, this novel feels truly unhinged and I started to wonder if I could depend on Vera to be a reliable narrator given what I was reading. Nothing is held back and Gailey does a phenomenal job of leaning into the disturbing, the unsettling, and the concepts of what reality can look like.
If I could give this book more than five stars, I would.
I absolutely will be adding this book to my personal collection and genuinely can’t wait to read it again.
This book absolutely comes with trigger warnings, so feel free to check those out if you’d like the heads up!
Spoiler
“She needed them to be two different creatures.
“The mother and the monster.”
Wow. Just wow.
I had to put the book down for a few moments when I got to this line.
If you’ve ever lived with someone, especially a parent, who you felt held a semblance of a monster, then you can relate to this quote.
Gailey did an immaculate job of summarizing the gut-wrenching need for your parent to not truly be the monster that terrifies you, that haunts you.
“It was wearing Daphne, and it was Daphne, and Vera couldn’t think how to delineate the two of them in her mind.”
“It had always been inside Daphne and this was why Daphne had never ever felt like a mother was supposed to feel.”
God, this part is heartbreaking. Vera has a desperate need to make real the idea that, if she cannot separate mother and monster, then it must be the monster’s fault for why her mother abused her, why her mother hated her, why she was always met with vitriol and disdain. It was the monster’s fault, right? Beyond her mother’s control. She would have chosen to act differently if she hadn’t been plagued by this secondary force.
Which makes it all the more heartbreaking to realize that The Creature wearing Daphne was never the monster at all.
To realize that The Creature was trying to soften and silence Daphne’s violence and hate.
To realize that Daphne was a monster all on her own.
I’ll end with what I feel is one of the most impactful quotes from the book, at least for me.
“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.”
This is such a brutally accurate look into what it’s like living with abuse. If being hurt by your loved ones is all you’ve ever known, then it’s very easy to believe that’s what love looks like and that’s how it’s expressed.
It takes a lot to realize that maybe there’s another way.
Graphic: Blood, Murder, Terminal illness, Torture, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, Emotional abuse, Grief, Domestic abuse, Body horror, Child abuse, Gore, Violence, and Death
Moderate: Death of parent and Panic attacks/disorders
Minor: Confinement, Kidnapping, and Vomit
greatexpectations77's review against another edition
- 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
4.5
Graphic: Body horror, Bullying, Grief, Murder, Gaslighting, Death, Death of parent, Mental illness, Terminal illness, Torture, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Violence, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Physical abuse, Abandonment, Blood, Chronic illness, and Emotional abuse
Moderate: Cancer, Confinement, Vomit, and Alcoholism
Minor: Pregnancy, Excrement, and Sexual harassment