Reviews tagging 'Mental illness'

Just Like Home by Sarah Gailey

33 reviews

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

gellyreads's review

dark 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

3.5

The concept is really captivating. It's hard to describe the pacing with this novel as it starts off paint-drying slow then speeds up so quick you're on a rollercoaster.

I enjoyed Vera's descent into madness and violence, and I love the concept of the monster, but I feel like I would LOVE this book instead of like it if the existence of the monster wasn't clear. IDK, felt too clear to me.

 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic friendship, Emotional abuse, Blood, Body horror, Torture, Kidnapping, Child abuse, Murder, Death of parent, Death, Chronic illness, Cancer, Gore, Violence, Vomit, and Mental illness

mbmayo's review

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Blood, Body horror, Chronic illness, Emotional abuse, and Gore

Moderate: Confinement, Vomit, Mental illness, Kidnapping, Toxic relationship, and Torture

cateyeschloe's review

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Murder, Terminal illness, Torture, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, Emotional abuse, Grief, Domestic abuse, Body horror, Child abuse, Gore, Violence, and Death

Moderate: Death of parent and Panic attacks/disorders

Minor: Confinement, Kidnapping, and Vomit

greatexpectations77's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious sad 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? Yes

4.5

This was maybe the most scary and horrifying book that I've ever read?? Gailey does body horror and body descriptions like no one I've ever read. Will definitely read them again, but whew, this was terrifying. My only little things were that the reveal felt a little bit muddy to me, and I kind of felt like I was bonked in the head with the idea of stains/residue over the course of the book until I was sure that it was meaningful in some way.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Bullying, Grief, Murder, Gaslighting, Death, Death of parent, Mental illness, Terminal illness, Torture, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Violence, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Physical abuse, Abandonment, Blood, Chronic illness, and Emotional abuse

Moderate: Cancer, Confinement, Vomit, and Alcoholism

Minor: Pregnancy, Excrement, and Sexual harassment

The gore and torture totally made me lose my appetite until I finished the book, so beware, my sensitive-to-words friends!

terrik_409's review

challenging dark emotional mysterious 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

3.5

Not a lovable character in sight but the monsters are captivating. This book had me jumping at every noise.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Torture, Mental illness, Toxic relationship, and Violence

shirtypantser's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore

Moderate: Terminal illness, Torture, Murder, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, and Mental illness

bookishcookiemonster's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective 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? It's complicated

3.75

Really enjoyed the twist at the end. Not at all what I was expecting!
I really enjoyed that I was constantly guessing who the book deemed "good" or "bad" and I really enjoyed that, even at the end, I don't actually know who the true villian is, or if there even was a villian.
Great pacing, scary, but not terrifying. Very entertaining read.

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Content Warnings

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

mymercurialnature's review against another edition

dark mysterious 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

4.0

This is a very dark and disturbing book but it is also well-written, interesting, and immersive.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Murder, Death of parent, Blood, Death, Body horror, and Mental illness

bambooboy's review

dark emotional mysterious reflective sad 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? Yes

5.0

A meditation on monsters and the nature of evil. What makes a monster? And how do we truly know when we are confronted with one? This is a book about (un)conditional love, dysfunctional relationships, and the evil we all try to push down within us. It’s about the things we do to try to be loved, especially when we don’t really know what love is supposed to look like. 

This is a book about monsters. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Domestic abuse, Grief, Torture, Blood, Death, Murder, Emotional abuse, Violence, Death of parent, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Toxic relationship, Kidnapping, Self harm, Vomit, Child abuse, Confinement, Toxic friendship, Cursing, Mental illness, and Gore

Minor: Bullying