Reviews tagging 'Emotional abuse'

Just Like Home by Sarah Gailey

130 reviews

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

yalibrarianjen's review against another edition

dark emotional tense fast-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? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Emotional abuse, Abandonment, Adult/minor relationship, Bullying, Death, Gaslighting, Murder, Death of parent, Violence, Chronic illness, Blood, and Toxic relationship

acorn192k's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious 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

2.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror

Moderate: Blood, Emotional abuse, Domestic abuse, Kidnapping, Mental illness, Torture, and Gore

falchionm's review

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Torture, Injury/Injury detail, Child abuse, Murder, Medical content, Emotional abuse, and Domestic abuse

paykay's review

dark mysterious sad slow-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Body horror, Blood, Death of parent, and Emotional abuse

smalefowles's review

dark mysterious medium-paced

• 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

3.5

genuinely creepy. i didn't enjoy reading from about 50% to 90%, but that might just mean it was effective horror.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder and Emotional abuse

undersea's review against another edition

dark mysterious medium-paced

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

2.5

I loved The Echo Wife. I love gothic horror. I love a weird book. And everyone says that’s what this book is. I disagree. 

Ok so…Vera clearly spent her whole life looking for love that she wasn’t getting from her mother from her father. And the house as a sentient being is a metaphor for all the trauma that it literally held inside its walls. And it also becomes the love that she was constantly looking for. The metaphors make sense.  What I don’t understand was basically any of Vera’s motivations. Her mother was absolutely horrible to her, why come back at all? Why is she CONSTANTLY shocked at her mother’s behavior, past & present? Why doesn’t she understand why people don’t want her, the daughter of a serial killer, around? Why is she shocked at Brandon’s response to seeing her. She literally tried to kill him. Even if she very much believed in the lore her parents were spinning, it’s like she has no awareness of the outside world. She’s constantly befuddled. She has zero agency & honestly a very unhealthy obsession of her father even in the present when she supposedly knows that murder is bad. The CONSTANT descriptions of the “solid floors/doors/walls” that her father “carefully, lovingly built for her” even as a child was odd & completely uninterigated. I get that she was fighting being a killer herself but I still do not understand her bewilderment. In all her years away it’s apparent she never once looked back on her childhood and analyzed what happened or was even curious. I don’t understand why the artist was bad, simply b/c he was taking apart the house. His character was so flat. All of them were. None of their motivations made sense.

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Content Warnings

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

nightmarebees's review

dark emotional mysterious 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

4.25

gross! creepy! poignant! both the mommy and daddy issues are on full display here. gailey’s prose is lovely and unsettling; there is so much language i loved here and so many lines that make my skin crawl. though there were some points in the middle that i feel could’ve had more explanation, i did love the slow addition of past details and the reveal at the end. gonna be thinking about this one for a while 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Murder, and Blood

Moderate: Emotional abuse

stephanieluxton's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense slow-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

The pace of this story is a bit slow but I enjoyed how things played out. It didn't go exactly how I expected it to, which is good. I have some mixed feelings about the end. I don't feel like all my questions were answered fully, but I did enjoy the journey.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Violence, Death of parent, Kidnapping, Physical abuse, Torture, Confinement, Murder, Bullying, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Blood, and Gore

Minor: Child abuse and Vomit

wheeliechick's review against another edition

dark 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Body horror, Blood, and Domestic abuse