“Maybe, Vera thinks, this is just what love is like.”

Now, that’s a cover you can really sink your teeth into. I am no stranger to picking up a book simply because I like what it looks like and I’ve lucked out this far with enjoying what’s inside it. In saying that, “Just Like Home” definitely threw me for a loop and unraveled into something I was not expecting at all.

Let’s get this out of the way: this book is as slow as molasses. I’d say for the six days I read it, I was tied up in the first 2/3 and then completely housed the final third in one go. There’s a lot of over-writing: dense repetition had me putting the book down a lot, I got tangled up in the pace. Over-explaining details while simultaneously being frustratingly vague is an aggravating accessory to this plot, but in the end it did spur me on to finish.

The author had a good, strong grasp of an odd and eerie story arc. In those aforementioned very dense details, there was some truly bizarre and captivating imagery. They were able to finesse in some metaphors about love and family and personhood while also being tangibly creepy. Who doesn’t love that? I wouldn’t go so far as to say this is an immaculate, big-thinking blaster but I did go, “Ooo love that” a few times.


3.5-4/5 I have complicated feelings but I would read another horror from this author