Reviews with content warning for Confinement - Just Like Home

'Just Like Home' by Sarah Gailey is a slow, deeply unsettling look at one woman's childhood and her relationship with her serial killer father, distant mother, and childhood home.
Vera Crowder is coming home to the Crowder House. Her mother is dying and after quite an estrangement, has finally called her daughter home. But the Crowder House isn't a happy place for Vera. It reminds her of her father, a notorious serial killer, and the strained relationship with her mother. It also doesn't help that there is an artist living in the garden shed, seeking inspiration in her family home. As Vera returns home, she has to face her past and the present space her family home still takes up. But things are amiss in the Crowder House and they stalk Vera as she starts the journey to clean the house to eventually sell it.
This novel is extremely slow and I can understand why many people may not like it. It's marketed as a thriller but it is much more a slow and methodical unpacking of one woman's trauma and her broken relationships. Vera isn't a likable character but I still found it easy to care for her. She has gone through a lot and it's clear how this has warped her own sense of self. Gailey unpacks this through Vera's conversations with her mother, her moments in the house, and her conversations with the artist living in the garden shed. There were a few moments where scenes felt a little bit too slow. Descriptions dragged on particularly in moments where Vera was stuck in bed at night but ultimately, I think this story is successful in what it is trying to do. This is a slow look at one woman and her childhood, how it has shaped her and twisted her own recollections. There is a supernatural element that I did really like though I can understand how some could find it off-putting. I agree with comments saying that Gailey could have leaned further into the weirdness. I would have liked to see where that could have gone. Even so, this continues my great experiences with Gailey's work. They are one of my favorite authors for a reason.

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d0lly's review

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challenging dark emotional tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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starsnotshadows's review

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challenging dark 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

4.0

I think... this book was trying to say something that went over my head. But I liked it! There were some very chilling scenes that kept me on the edge of my seat. I did find myself a bit let down in the third acts, but I think that links back to my first comment and the author making some point that I missed

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blackcatkai's review against another edition

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dark 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? Yes

5.0

CW: blood, murder, death, violence, chronic illness, body horror, confinement, gore

this was a ridiculously atmospheric slow burn novel that went from sad to weird to a bit horrifying. i loved every moment of it.

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readrienne's review

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dark mysterious 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

Heavy read with an interesting premise and good pace but I wasn’t satisfied by the ending/ preternatural elements.

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box_wine_hero's review

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dark mysterious slow-paced

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

4.75

This book is a bit slow to get going, but ended up being very disturbing. Loved the character development of Vera and the ending was perfect.

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mbmayo's review

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dark emotional 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

4.25

Just Like Home centers around Vera Crowder's return to her childhood home. Her estranged, dying mother has called her back to sort through all the things left behind in the house.

I can see why some people may not have resonated with the book. We spent a lot of time inside of Vera's head, rather than on plot or action. Personally, I really enjoyed this close introspection and the slow unfolding of the events that caused Vera's father to leave and the rift between Vera and her mother to be set in stone.

I do wonder if the book would be scarier without the physical embodiment of the monster. If instead Vera stepped right into her father's legacy to take care of James Duvall.

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cateyeschloe's review

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dark emotional mysterious reflective 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

5.0

This book is like a chilling, horrific nightmare come to life. And I mean that in the best way possible.

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!

“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.

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