Reviews tagging 'Sexual harassment'

Just Like Home by Sarah Gailey

5 reviews

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

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

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

pkprouvs's review against another edition

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Emotional abuse, Sexual harassment, and Torture

hotscarysummer's review against another edition

dark mysterious reflective 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? Yes

4.75

 This book was absolutely fantastic, a complete mindfuck. It was slow paced at first, I was worried it was going to be entirely too slow; but around half way through it really picked up. This is my favorite new book I’ve read this year so far, it has me enraptured in it, I couldn’t put it down. All the characters were insufferable, but by the end I found myself twisted rooting for what I had thought I never would when I started the book. Impeccable work, amazing read, I really really recommend it. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Abandonment, Blood, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Body horror, Death, Death of parent, and Violence

Moderate: Gore, Vomit, and Murder

Minor: Sexual assault and Sexual harassment

greatexpectations77's review against another edition

challenging dark 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

4.5

This was maybe the most scary and horrifying book that I've ever read?? Gailey does body horror and body descriptions like no one I've ever read. Will definitely read them again, but whew, this was terrifying. My only little things were that the reveal felt a little bit muddy to me, and I kind of felt like I was bonked in the head with the idea of stains/residue over the course of the book until I was sure that it was meaningful in some way.

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Content Warnings

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

The gore and torture totally made me lose my appetite until I finished the book, so beware, my sensitive-to-words friends!

coddiwomple's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-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

4.0

As a person that has lived in a house filled with a strange kind of love and abusive parents, this book was both thrilling and difficult to read. I've read many reviews by folks saying they don't understand this book or understand what Sarah Gailey was trying to do. Perhaps this book wasn't written for those people. This book contains a representation of trauma and domestic violence that isn't easily rendered in fiction. Yes it is slow paced, but each line has a purpose if you read carefully.

This book is about love, is about homes and what they hold after the people that built them are no longer the same or are gone, is about tension, is about things left unsaid, is about parents and how they shape us, about fear of ourselves and everyone else, and about embracing the ugly, greasy, and the foul. This is not a pretty book, but I do think it's one worth reading. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, Emotional abuse, Domestic abuse, Toxic relationship, Terminal illness, and Death

Moderate: Body horror, Child abuse, Blood, Toxic friendship, Excrement, and Torture

Minor: Violence and Sexual harassment