Reviews tagging 'Death'

How to Sell a Haunted House by Grady Hendrix

233 reviews

livnmoore's review against another edition

dark funny reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

At its best, it’s a solid 4 star “thriller-lite” story for passing time, with really compelling characters that evoke a lot of emotion. My only problem is the pacing felt inconsistent. It would feel quite slow at times and then jolt along, and then slow up and then jolt ahead, before settling on a good steady pace. Maybe that works toward the thriller feel!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Violence, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Self harm, Torture, Blood, Medical content, and Car accident

Minor: Cursing and Alcohol

maryellen's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Gore, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Child death

aeonnoxx's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Grief, Car accident, and Death of parent

heckinchimken's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Gore, Self harm, Torture, Violence, Blood, Grief, Car accident, Death of parent, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Child abuse and Emotional abuse

jayla_hh's review

emotional funny mysterious

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes

3.75

Equally creepy and silly in a fun little back and forth until the very very sad end

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death

Moderate: Body horror, Gore, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Child death

the_vegan_bookworm's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional reflective sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

Gardy Hendrix is such a talented writer and he's a master of his craft. This book exemplifies that. This book was genuinely scary, tapped into some very real feelings around family dynamics and grief, and it was an interesting premise and execution.

With this said, this was kind of meh for me. I didn't care for any of the characters , especially Louise, and the plot felt like it really dragged on. I also found the ending to be fine, but nothing really emotional or grounding.

Also the M&M scene was so weird and I could have lived without "sensual" as a descriptor of rubbing candy on a child puppet's mouth...

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Gore, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Medical trauma, Death of parent, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Animal cruelty and Animal death

carbinara's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No

4.0

Such a fun halloween read! I was perhaps after a little more mystery and a little less on the nose, but to be honest that’s my own fault; I know Hendrix tends to write quite explicit on the page scares. Clearly not that much of an issue though, as I always finish his books having enjoyed reading them. 

Loved the relationship between Louise and her daughter,

especially how it effected how she treated Pupkin come the end of the story. I’m glad after all the horror we still have this little nugget of warmth to sign off on.

Also in general loved the extended family and Mark, although Mercy was a personal favourite. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Gore, Self harm, Violence, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Toxic friendship

allisonsmith120's review

dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Gore, Violence, Blood, Grief, Car accident, Death of parent, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Self harm, Medical content, Fire/Fire injury, and Gaslighting

Minor: Animal death, Vomit, Pregnancy, and Alcohol

yunaquack's review

dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

Marks info dump about Pupkin reads like a fever dream (not the good kind) which turned a five star read into a four star read for me. The last 150 pages or so is where it turned into a 3 star read. Far too long in my opinion, couldn't help but be bored with the supernatural stuff of the story at that point since we had a really thrilling climax in the middle and it became repetitive after.

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Content Warnings

Minor: Body horror, Child death, Death, Car accident, and Death of parent

ineedrhythm's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense slow-paced

• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Gore, Violence, Blood, Medical content, and Grief

Moderate: Death and Death of parent