Reviews tagging 'Toxic friendship'

Just Like Home by Sarah Gailey

19 reviews

brindolyn's review

challenging dark emotional mysterious tense 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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Cancer, Confinement, Death, Violence, Terminal illness, Body horror, and Kidnapping

Moderate: Toxic friendship

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

killmoore_'s review

challenging dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• 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

I went into this as blind as possible, and I'm so glad I did. 

I loved everything about Just Like Home from the very first page - the imagery is rich and decadent, the characters mysterious and questionable. Mm. Chefs kiss. Gailey uses language that draws you in and holds you hostage as you follow Vera in two different time lines, working to unravel the mystery of the Crowder House and navigate the shattered remains of her relationship with her dying mother. It could have ended there - psychological and true crime adjacent, but no. Gailey gave us so much more.

The sharp turn into WTFville was sudden and absolutely amazing. I was not expecting this to take a hard dive into creature feature, and I could not have loved it more. I love a good "house as a character" storyline and this did not disappoint. This had me chanting "get his ass!" Alone in my room at 2am 😅

An atmospheric, spooky, wild ride. I would highly recommend. 

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Content Warnings

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

eliya's review

challenging dark mysterious 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? Yes

4.0

fuck me, man. this was tough. i read this book just in time for a book club to discuss it, and i didn’t cry until the acknowledgements. 
sarah gailey’s writing is so incredibly intimate, a lot of reading this felt like guilt dripping down my back mixed with the cold nakedness of being alone with the words. 

pg. 320:
“We didn’t ask to be born, did we? We did t ask to have to soak up their sings and their expectations. All we ever did was love them, and all they ever did was hurt us.”
…”He loved us, though,” … “more than anything.”
“Oh, he loved us both as best as he could,” … “He tried to build us strong and steady and whole. But he didn’t keep us safe. 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.”

(personal reflection)  When my dad died, and after, I kept thinking of all the guilty memories I have, all the times I’d let him down. I didn’t get to know my dad as a whole human being before, but I know he loved us. My childhood sucked and I was abused and he did his best to love us. My mom could never understand what she did wrong, when we talked about her abuse, she just gave the reasoning that that’s how she thought to love us, that’s how you raise kids. My whole family thinks that love is the shape of hurt. 

 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Toxic friendship, Cursing, Death of parent, Toxic relationship, Body horror, Murder, Torture, Emotional abuse, Injury/Injury detail, and Panic attacks/disorders

Moderate: Physical abuse, Terminal illness, Violence, and Child abuse

Minor: Vomit

madelinequinne's review

dark mysterious tense fast-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

I’ve been in a reading slump for the past two months, but this book pulled me out of it and i’m very grateful for that. 

This was so interesting, i’ve never read anything like it before. You go into the book expecting your usual true crime serial killer novel, but i was pleasantly surprised by how emotional and reflective this story was. The conversations about family, growing up, mummy issues and what drives someone to do bad things was so well written and explored, and i was absolutely gripped the entire time. 

I think this book would make an excellent horror movie, i could picture each scene in my head so vividly which is a great example of how descriptive the writing was.

Highly highly recommend 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Toxic relationship, Torture, Death, Toxic friendship, Vomit, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, Body horror, Death of parent, Gore, and Violence

iseefirede's review

dark mysterious tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated

4.5

It started off slow for me and took me a bit of time to actually get hooked on the story. I felt the ending was fitting and connected the pieces well

the way the house was protecting and keeping Vera safe just made me cry

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Murder, Gore, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, and Terminal illness

Moderate: Death of parent and Grief

Minor: Grief, Toxic friendship, Bullying, and Emotional abuse

solenekeleroux's review

dark mysterious tense slow-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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Torture, Blood, Gore, Child abuse, Murder, Body horror, Toxic relationship, and Violence

Moderate: Abandonment, Medical content, Toxic friendship, and Terminal illness

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

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!

alba_marie's review

dark tense slow-paced

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

5.0

She knew she should be frightened. She knew that she should be afraid of whatever had taken her quilt away, whatever had rattled that old bed bedframe on her first night and climbed into her dreams with cold fingers and a sweet whisper. She knew she should try to find out what it was, or run from it, or kill it. She knew it was probably there in the dark, waiting for her to fall asleep. But in that moment, as she hid in the safest part of the safest place she'd ever known, trying to understand how it'd all gone so wrong, she wasn't afraid. She was too alone to be afraid."

Having discovered a newfangled love of the horror genre last year, my fascination with the genre shows no sign of letting up. Just Like Home has been on my library hold list for awhile, and as soon as it arrived, I devoured it. I suppose that's a good verb for this book. Devouring.

Part haunted house, part ghost story, part monster tale, part serial killer thriller, part psychological mindf•ck, Just Like Home was such a haunting, dark, gory tale. Unputdownable, nail-biting, and bizarre. Trying to summarise it is difficult. Suffice it to say, Vera has a troubled relationship with both parents, though her mum, Daphne, in particular. It's the definition of a toxic relationship full of spitting words and angry thoughts. But her relationship with her dad, while seeming more healthy in her memories, is actually just as bad. That tends to happen when your dad's a

serial killer

who you've secretly been watching ply his trade. 

Then there's the lodger James Duvall. He just feels grimy. A spiritual artist in communion with the house (or whatever), he's a loony but clearly not harmless. He he's not going anywhere, no matter how unwanted he is. 

"Come home," Daphne says to Vera, the first words she's spoken to her daughter in decades. Why now? What's wrong with Daphne? Is she really dying?

It's clear pretty early on there's something wrong with the house, and it's infecting the people inside. The grime and grease that so fascinated Francis Crowder, Vera's dad, seems to seep from the walls, from under the bed, from the mouths of its inhabitants. The atmosphere of dark decay and black grease pervades everything seen and unseen. 

This is a thoroughly creepy tale with a few twists throughout. If you like horror, I would recommend it. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Emotional abuse, Death of parent, Violence, Body horror, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Death of parent and Toxic friendship

Minor: Terminal illness