Just Like Home

I don't even know where to start with this book. I loved [b:The Echo Wife|52379735|The Echo Wife|Sarah Gailey|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1588791809l/52379735.SY75.jpg|73056559] and had such high hopes for Just Like Home. I wrangled my Cocktail Hour co-hosts into reading it and, while I'm sure our discussion on 4/1/23 will be lively, I wish I hadn't.

While the Cocktail Hour will be FILLED with spoilers, this review won't be. So let me try to sort of some of the good, the bad, and the downright ugly in a vague way that won't give anything away.

The Good
For the most part, the language and writing voice was enjoyable. There was a visceral feel to much of the descriptions that placed me right there and I appreciated that a lot.

Vera's childhood parts were the best bits of the book. Her love for her father, their interactions, her discovering things about herself, all great.

The concept of her Best Friend. I can't really say anything else about this but it was a great idea and parts of the execution worked well and I loved those.

The Bad
Also the language. Lots of repetitive descriptions (what exactly is clean sweat and why is it used SO MUCH) and so many metaphors and similes. SO MANY!

The Ugly
The entire set up and Vera's responses and actions surrounding James. This made no sense to me at all. None. Not even a little bit. She has no reason to speak to, let alone spend time with, this guy. But she does. Repeatedly. Why? I don't get it. It actually made me angry several times that I couldn't quit reading this book.

A lot of what was going on seemed ridiculous and unbelievable as far as what Vera was doing and why. I couldn't buy into it and that ruined the book for me.

I think that part of the reason even thinking about this book makes me mad is that there was SO MUCH potential here. The overall idea of the story is great. I was engaged with the relationship between Vera and Francis. Daphne was a bit over the top when Vera was a kid but that was okay. Vera's friend was unique and interesting and sort of awesome but wasn't strong enough to overpower my disappointment and frustration in the current-day events and actions.

I don't think I can recommend this one.

Oh, I listened to most of the book but read the last several chapters. The narrator was okay but eyeball reading made for a better experience for me.

I got the ebook from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Wow this one is hard. Prob a 4.5 rounded up to 5 stars. I reeeeaaaaaallllly struggled with the first maybe 3/4 of this. I say I like haunted house stories but maybe I don’t. Haha. At least not the thematic purposes of them. It is usually dealing with some sort of family dysfunction and that always bums me out too much for me to appreciate its value. It does have value. I just don’t want to go there. And this book was HEAVY on the dysfunction with just little sprinkles of possible supernatural forces. In the end, that’s what makes this book Good with a capital G - it has real substance to it, something more than entertainment value alone. I wouldn’t say there are any real twists but there’s certainly a lot of options for what is really happening (or did happen) throughout, making it almost a thriller at points. It’s worth noting that Gailey has become one of my favorite contemporary authors and it’s because their work is always on the literary end but mostly likes to play around with genre elements. Boy are they playing here. Anyway, I wasn’t sold on the book until about 40 pages from the end. Normally that would mean I would not be recommending it but…. I don’t know. There’s something about Gailey. They always manage to bend things around enough that I end up liking it. The ending here is really great, and all the weird little breadcrumbs come together nicely (except maybe one storyline) to stick the landing with a fun - if maybe a little macabre and morally questionable - conclusion. It leaves you uncertain about what you wanted, but in a way that just adds to the experience. So yeah. I guess I’ll be telling people to read it, even if I may feel like I need to give a few warnings first.