Reviews tagging 'Murder'

Just Like Home by Sarah Gailey

210 reviews

dogswithnogs's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death and Murder

Minor: Child abuse

brett311's review

dark tense 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

4.0

I’m honestly not sure what I just read!  This one is a mind f*ck.  Vera returns to the house her father built because her estranged mother is dying.  Vera has not been home since she turned 18 and her mother kicked her out.  Oh and to complicate things, her father was a serial killer and her mother has been capitalizing on his notoriety by having people tour the house and even has an artist living in their garden shed.  This was a roller coaster, at times it feels to drag on in repetition of description of the house but it hooks you.  I couldn’t put it down.  Gailey does a great job using horror to explore unconditional love.  In her acknowledgments she states: “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.”

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Blood, and Death

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

emilyready's review against another edition

challenging dark 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? Yes

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Terminal illness, Murder, Blood, Confinement, and Gore

Minor: Death of parent, Grief, and Mental illness

dreaminthepast's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Death of parent, Gore, Murder, Violence, Blood, Body horror, and Confinement

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

_delaney_'s review

dark tense 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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Blood, Gore, and Murder