Whisper House Press

Book: Just Like Home

Author: Sarah Gailey

Publisher: Tor Books

ISBN: 9781250174727

Publication Date: July 19, 2022

Capone’s Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ of 5⭐

As always, no Spoilers.

I added Just Like Home to my reading list when I read about it in Sadie Hartmann’s 101 Horror Books to Read Before You’re Murdered (2023, recent Bram Stoker Award Winner and a book you should peruse weekly) earlier this year. Hartmann remarked there that it’s best to go into this one cold, and that’s my recommendation as well. From the first sentence—beautifully hewn from all the possible words Gailey might have chosen—to the last, this novel demands to be read and reflected on. Simple haunted house story it is not.

I found myself returning to that first sentence several times as I tiptoed through Gailey’s dread-inducing story of Vera Crowder’s return to the house her father built—he of nefarious repute—to sort through the house as her mother—she estranged from Vera these many years—dies a slow death.

So as not to disappoint potential admirers and steer away those looking for a different kind of book, let’s set this book where it belongs. It is a horror novel. It is a slow-burn, character-driven work of literary horror that will not use any tricks it does not earn, will not pay out any promises it has not made in its development, and will not pander to an audience seeking a thrill ride. It is a much better horror novel for all of that.

Thanks in part to the sub-genre being the first category in the aforementioned 101 Books…, I’ve been on a haunted house novel kick lately, and this instantiation most reminds me of Carissa Orlando’s The September House in tone, minus the humor. If you enjoyed that one, you’ll find a similar feel with familiar turns in Gailey’s earlier story.

No spoilers, other than to ward you off if you’re looking for a fast-paced thriller—and to drag you in if you’re looking for an intricately plotted, sentence-level honed, character-driven story with supernatural elements offering a new spin on the haunted house yarn.