Reviews tagging 'Mental illness'

Just Like Home by Sarah Gailey

32 reviews

junowo's review

dark emotional mysterious 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

5.0

A rare 5 star read—Just Like Home was a book that actually left my heart racing. The writing is phenomenal, and the story takes a form I never expected from a book like this.
My one and only criticism is that the book isn’t particularly damning to the failures of the true crime community in a way that descriptions led me to believe. I struggle to tell if it would’ve fit into the book at all, though.
This was a great read around Halloween, playing well with both true crime style horror and supernatural horror.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Mental illness, Blood, Gore, Medical content, Self harm, Terminal illness, Death of parent, Murder, Domestic abuse, Child abuse, Confinement, Body horror, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Torture, Death, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Panic attacks/disorders, and Vomit

bookishchaos's review

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

Very far fetched but entertaining.
I enjoyed most of the book but the ending was pretty anticlimactic and confusing/weird. It felt like a Grady Hendrix type of story.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Kidnapping, Torture, and Mental illness

Moderate: Terminal illness, Injury/Injury detail, and Blood

Minor: Child abuse

ceruleanseas's review

dark emotional slow-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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Bullying, Death, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Terminal illness, Torture, Violence, Abandonment, Child abuse, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, and Murder

oliviaclaire's review

dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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

2.25

Just Like Home has one of the longest buildups I've read in a while. You could probably start at page 100-125 and not have missed anything particularly vital to the story.  It drags so long that by the time the reveal is finally made at the end of the story I'd already been uninvested for too long to be pulled back into the ending. 

I also think I personally prefer horror stories where I can root for a hero or antihero but in this case Vera is utterly delusional and not at all likeable. The first of these issues is understandable but it means that the second causes real problems because I don't feel for her as a a character or want to excuse any of her bad behaviour.  I can't decide whether it's that Vera isn't written well enough for her ignorance about her father's justifications to read as sincere or whether she's supposed to be fully aware that she's spinning stories for herself. It also doesn't feature a complex father-daughter relationship at all. Vera's barely conflicted, she just idolises a serial killer. Only her relationship with her mum has much depth

and then we find out that that relationship isn't with her mother at all...

It feels like this book tries to do an awful lot. Every single character is not what they seem and no question that's raised has a remotely simple or straightforward answer. With so many mysteries unraveling all over the place in the second half of this book it's almost impossible for any of them to come to a full or satisfying conclusion.

Obviously, this story wasn't for me however I do want to commend Sarah Gailey's writing style. It's very atmospheric and her descriptions are very evocative. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Gore, and Violence

Moderate: Mental illness and Murder

alarrabee's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Blood, Death, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Gore, Grief, and Terminal illness

Moderate: Abandonment, Mental illness, Child abuse, Murder, Torture, and Violence

Minor: Body horror, Bullying, Domestic abuse, and Physical abuse

schnaucl's review

challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

This was well written, but not my favorite of Sarah Gailey's novels.

It was strange to me that even as a child Vera never once thought that murder was wrong.  I get that she thought her dad was saving the men he killed, but she was old enough to understand what murder was and that it was wrong.   And dealing with the tension between love of her father and what it would mean to turn him in might have been an interesting thing to explore.

I did think having the house as an actual physical thing that protected her (and needed protection in return) was interesting.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child abuse, Gore, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Emotional abuse, and Mental illness

brookey8888's review

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

3.0

I just wanted more from this. 

It honestly was not even scary or really that creepy. The plot was fine, but I wanted a little more of the serial killer aspect and with a certain person( if you know you know). The ending of this was honestly so ridiculous and didn’t even make that much sense, but it was different. Overall this was fine and kept me entertained , but nothing special and nothing I’ll ever think about again to be honest. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Death of parent, Murder, Violence, Grief, Mental illness, Torture, Emotional abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Blood, Body horror, and Kidnapping

ohhthehorrors's review

dark mysterious tense slow-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

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Emotional abuse, Death of parent, Death, Domestic abuse, Gore, Gaslighting, Blood, Body horror, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Toxic relationship, Violence, and Murder

al_owl's review

dark emotional mysterious slow-paced

• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Blood, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Grief, Mental illness, Murder, Physical abuse, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, and Vomit

offtheraels's review against another edition

dark mysterious 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse

Moderate: Body horror, Mental illness, Murder, Terminal illness, Grief, Panic attacks/disorders, and Violence

Minor: Death of parent