Just Like Home - Sarah Gailey

Horror

Rating: 7.5/10

Readers should take the authors dedication very much to heart as they embark on this read…

“This book is dedicated to anyone who has ever loved a monster.”

If you embrace the love of a monster, does that make you one too?  This is the question the main character, Vera, spends much of this book struggling with. If that is the only love in your life that has ever been reciprocated, maybe not.

Years after he went to prison and her cold, harsh mother kicked her out, Vera is returning home to the house her serial killer father built. Mother is on deaths door and there are things that require settling.

In a fun complicated twist, turns out there is a houseguest, a very unwelcome one as far as Vera is concerned.  The son of the man who wrote the tell all about her father has taken up residence and is manifesting the traumas the house holds as art.  Okey dokey.

Just one more bone of contention between mother and daughter on an already heaping pile of them. You would think the painful parental baggage that Vera needed to navigate was with her father.  Not so, after a lifetime of living with a mother that looked at her like she was a rampant invasion of black mold, Vera is wildly ambivalent about her pending passing.

None the less, there is work to be done.  And as she packs up the house, Vera flashes back to her childhood.  To the things she saw.  And to the things she did.

Before you turn the final page, there will be an exhaustive excavation of all secrets. Those being kept by the inhabitants and those of the house itself. And trust me when I tell you, you won’t see them coming.

Sarah Gailey is one of my favourite author’s publishing today.  They have written books across the spectrum of genres, decimating accepted tropes, and inventing new ones. Consistently offering bold and creative narratives that always have something deeper going on.  If you haven’t picked them up yet, there is no time like the present.

When We Were Magic – Young Adult – explores the complexity of friendships formed in one’s youth.

Upright Women Wanted – Western – explores queer identity and power.

Magic For Liars – Fantasy – explores finding your place in a world that can’t make sense of you.

Echo Wife – Sci-Fi – explores sexism and stereotyping.

Just Like Home – Horror – explores abuse and its lasting impact.

Book Pairing(s): A Good & Happy Child by Justin Evans, A Head Full Of Ghosts by Paul Tremblay, Only A Monster by Vanessa Len