Just Like Home by Sarah Gailey was on my TBR list for a while. Childhood abuse and a haunted house? Count me in! (I'm s sicko like that.) This book has taken me a few days to process. It shows you that monsters come in many forms, but overall it's a love story. Yes, you heard that right. Let me explain...
It follows Vera, the daughter of a dead serial killer. She has a troubled relationship with her dying mother, but comes back to her childhood home to care for her. The story is a slow burn that's told by jumping back and forth between present day and when she discovers her dad was a killer. It's a bit coming of age story, combined with drama, and the supernatural.
Without giving too much away, it's well written, although a bit repetitive at points. The toxic mother daughter relationship is accurate. (Ask me how I know?) It sets an overall mood of being claustrophobic, stifling, and repressive. About the last 1/4 of the book it picks up and because it's so abstract, it's absurd....and this is the part I love. You come to find out that Vera and the house have always loved each other. That said, there are so many plot holes and loose ends...spoilers below...sort of...
What did happen to her father's journal? Did her mother always know about the monster in the house? Did Vera have the grease in her? Was Vera really naive at 13 to think there was grease in people and not blood because her father said so? Was there also sexual abuse? Did her father leave the peep hole for her to learn from? Did her father manifest the house monster when her built it? Is the monster her father? Why was the mother so emotionally abusive to Vera? Was it only caused by jealousy? Does Vera have a sexual attraction to the artist? So Vera tried to unlearn about the grease inside people, but never seeks help to understand what it meant? She loved her father so much, but never wanted to repair their relationship by visiting him in jail or reading his messages? Was the house leaving pieces of his journal around? Why does her mother want her father to kill, where does that come from? How did the blanket get into the shed?
It was an interesting story. Amazing? Nah, but interesting.
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