Reviews tagging 'Emotional abuse'

Just Like Home by Sarah Gailey

129 reviews

biobeetle's review

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

ellarah8's review

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

3.0

I really liked the start of this book. It was so creepy at the beginning and had me very engaged for the first 25%. However, I started to lose interest after this. It took a long time for things to get creepy and spooky which is what made the beginning so exciting. The emphasis on the house her father built was good until it was too much. It became too repetitive and there could have been other ways to emphasize this. The twist at the end was creative but I wished it had been creepier. I wish the middle and end gave me goosebumps like the beginning did. There were moments that her uncomfy and I liked that there were morally gray characters. Over all, I liked it but wished there was something more. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture, Murder, and Violence

Moderate: Grief and Emotional abuse

karly_ackley's review against another edition

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 against another edition

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

jitzie's review against another edition

dark reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

4.25

Love evil women. Love when women are evil. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Murder, and Body horror

bella613's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad tense slow-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse, Confinement, Murder, Body horror, Child abuse, Torture, Injury/Injury detail, Domestic abuse, Medical content, Grief, Blood, Kidnapping, Mental illness, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Violence, Death of parent, Gore, Emotional abuse, and Toxic relationship

goose's review

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

3.75

Some parts were really good, I think Gailey excels at writing the actual prose of a story. They find some of the funkiest ways of phrasing things like you've never heard before but it gets right to the core of it. Love that. The plot fell a tad flat for me, I kind of wish it committed to something different. It could've gone either all spooky or all grounded in reality, but it tried to awkwardly straddle both, in my opinion. I hope Gailey does more all spooky someday. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture, Injury/Injury detail, Gore, Emotional abuse, Murder, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Panic attacks/disorders, Death of parent, and Physical abuse

Minor: Vomit

sakeriver's review

dark 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? It's complicated

5.0

So, this book was creepy and disturbing as all get-out, which I mean as a compliment. In the dedication, Gailey says that the book is for "everyone who has ever loved a monster." And what I think they do so well—indeed, what they have done well in so many of their books—is to trouble what it means to be monstrous. Who is the real monster of this book? Is there just one? What does it mean to love a monster, or to be loved by one? Can one escape the monstrosity placed into one's life? Gailey never gives us easy answers to those questions, not in this book and not elsewhere. But, man, they always give us a compelling read.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Murder, Emotional abuse, Vomit, Gore, and Body horror

Moderate: Kidnapping and Torture

librarymouse's review

dark medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

This book starts off as normal as a book about the daughter of a serial killer returning to the home her dying and estranged mother has turned into a money-making shrine to the investigation of her husband's crimes. Then it gets weird with twists that are simultaneously expected and comprised of plot that I could have never expected in decades.
There are still so many questions I want answered, and I would have loved to know the contents of Vera's dad's letters.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Terminal illness, Murder, Body horror, Death, Gore, Medical trauma, Blood, and Vomit

Moderate: Confinement