Reviews tagging 'Gore'

Just Like Home by Sarah Gailey

137 reviews

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

s4r41d'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? Yes

3.75

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Death of parent

princessraya's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.0

This book was not what I expected, and unfortunately not in a good way. There were things I liked, but the ending really fell flat and it was more paranormal than I thought it would be based on the description. Didn’t hate it but it felt like something was missing. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Death of parent, Torture, Blood, Confinement, Violence, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Death, Body horror, Gaslighting, and Terminal illness

alek_n's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.5

i just know vera would love monster by eminem ft. rihanna

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Death, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Gore, Domestic abuse, Blood, Murder, Physical abuse, Torture, and Body horror

jhbandcats's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

3.0

I know this was a labor of love by Sarah Gailey so I *really* wanted to like it. I did not like it at all. 

I see that a lot of people have said the book was character-driven. I felt Vera was such an unreliable narrator that I couldn’t trust any personality or character she presented. I therefore felt the plot was more important. 

I was so-so on the book till that wild ending. It was so over the top that it ruined what had come before. I felt the strongest parts were about the peephole, Vera’s relationship with her father, and the mystery of how much her father knew / approved of her using the peephole. I felt the supernatural parts were the weakest and I found James the artist to be more of an annoying diversion than anything really integral to the story. 

Minor quibbles re editing: there is a lot of emphasis on there being no locks on the bedroom and bathroom doors but there’s a comment, “The door was locked.” It’s also clear that it’s the middle of a hot and humid summer, but the A/C is on high making it cold inside. Vera says, “I would have turned the heat up….” The artist lives in the shed some distance from the house yet he tells Vera, “I hear you in the night sometimes.” Finally, I got really tired of the phrase, ”the house her father had built.”

I am really sorry I didn’t like this because I’ve read almost all Gailey’s books and have enjoyed them all. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Kidnapping, Mental illness, Abandonment, Gore, Violence, Blood, Murder, Torture, Gaslighting, Vomit, Chronic illness, Confinement, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

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

Moderate: Blood, Cursing, and Torture

karly_ackley's review

dark mysterious tense medium-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

4.0

Absolutely horrifying! But in a can’t look away type of way!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Violence, Murder, Death, Torture, Gore, and Blood

wyabook234's review

dark emotional tense

• 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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Murder, and Gore

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Torture, and Death of parent

Minor: Child abuse

kylieqrada's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad medium-paced

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

4.5

From the acknowledgements: “Many of us spend our lives searching for something too big to truly name, something that is often (inadequately) summarized as ‘unconditional love.’ If you have gone out seeking this enormous thing, and found yourself in danger; if you have spent any part of your life thinking that something monstrous was normal or inevitable; if you have lost some part of yourself in the process of looking for a place that feels like home - I hope you know that you have always deserved a better kind of love than that.” 

Docked half a star because I am too dumb to appreciate all of the nuance in this book. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Body horror, and Gore

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Death of parent, and Torture

emilyready's review against another edition

challenging dark tense medium-paced

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

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Terminal illness, Murder, Blood, Confinement, and Gore

Minor: Death of parent, Grief, and Mental illness