Reviews tagging 'Emotional abuse'

How to Sell a Haunted House by Grady Hendrix

32 reviews

skersnick's review

adventurous dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Grief, Death of parent, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Child death, Gun violence, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Self harm, Medical content, Car accident, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Fire/Fire injury

justaddwater's review

emotional mysterious tense slow-paced

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

4.0

The first 100 or so pages felt extremely slow, a lot of annoyingness I find common in Grady Hendrix novels. However, after that it ramped up and just kept getting better. As an avid horror lover, it’s been a while since a book kept me up at night, but I couldn’t get the image of

Pupkins pointed hat sticking up over the end of the bed

out of my head. Also felt like the theme of accepting death and teaching children about death was handled very well, with obvious emphasis and mirrors without being heavy handed. 
 If you can make it through the beginning, it definitely worth the read. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Panic attacks/disorders, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Stalking, Car accident, Death of parent, Murder, Gaslighting, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail

haileyhardcover's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

How to Sell A Haunted House tells the story of Louise and her brother, Mark, who are grappling with the sudden, violent death of their parents… and all of the many secrets they left behind. This is more than a horror story. It’s about grief, complex family relationships, generational trauma, secrets, and puppets. 

So much about this book surprised me in the best way. I wouldn’t say it was scary, per se, but it definitely made my heart race! Multiple times, my jaw dropped, my eyes bulged, and I pterodactyl-screeched at what I was reading. There is another chilling surprise around every corner, and I thoroughly enjoyed the journey.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Gore, Torture, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Car accident, Death of parent, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Cursing, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Murder, and Gaslighting

Minor: Self harm, Pregnancy, and Fire/Fire injury

mitchreads's review

dark funny tense medium-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Minor: Alcoholism, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Violence, Medical trauma, Car accident, and Death of parent

andyandnormski's review

dark sad medium-paced

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

2.0

As much as I wanted to like this book, it fell flat for me. The dust jacket more or less promised a haunted house story. What I got instead was a possessed puppet, and while the reveal of its origins at the end was well written, the puppet itself came out of left field a little too fast for me. It felt jarring when, up until that point, over half the story revolved around the siblings and a haunting sense of foreboding. Once the puppet arrived on the scene, it went from feeling somber to slapstick horror. I think my problem was there was no sense of build-up towards the puppet being alive and to the extreme levels that it was.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Toxic relationship, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Car accident, Death of parent, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Child death, Emotional abuse, Blood, and Gaslighting

Minor: Violence

bg_oseman_fan's review against another edition

dark emotional tense medium-paced

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

3.5

this book was not what i was expecting based on the title. I initially put it down part way through, but ended up picking it back up and reading to the finish. The writing of the action scenes was not very engaging. I found the attempts to create tension really repetitive such that the twists never really grabbed. as horror, this book didn’t get me. as a story about trauma and intergenerational relationships, i was hooked. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Violence, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Child death, Gun violence, Toxic relationship, Medical content, Car accident, and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Self harm, and Alcohol

apoppyinthewind's review

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? It's complicated

4.0

The basic premise is that main character Louise gets the call no one wants to get and learns both of her parents have died in a car accident. She has to go back home to deal with the funeral, the estate, and the messed up family she's kept at a distance since moving away decades ago. Her younger and only sibling is the most difficult part as they continually bicker over the estate and past hurts/trauma but it gets a whole lot worse their mother's doll & puppet collection seem to be moving on their own.

So yeah, if horror series like Puppet Master and Chucky freaked you out you'll certainly find this story creepy. Be forewarned there is some eye stuff and body mutilation. And a fuck ton of grief and trauma over losing a parent/parents.

If you've ever had to go through an estate process you may relate hard to Louise's exhaustion and sorrow. At least I did and I think the author accurately captured the experience. My only complaints are: One, I felt like it dragged a bit near the end when Louise's daughter Poppy became a larger part of the story and two, while Mark's background reveal was interesting (and makes me want to know more about radical puppets) it felt disconnected from the story especially with the big reveal at the end. Like, what happened to Louise & Poppy makes sense with the reveal but Mark's made less sense once you know the real reason all these things happened.

Still, I'd recommend it especially if you already like Hendrix's other books.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Violence, Blood, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Alcoholism, Animal death, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Emotional abuse, Toxic relationship, Vomit, Medical content, Grief, Car accident, Death of parent, and Alcohol

Minor: Gun violence

snazzy10101's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Gore, Mental illness, Self harm, Medical content, Medical trauma, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail

ninahuynh's review

dark mysterious sad medium-paced

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

4.75

 Been wanting to read Grady Hendrix book after hearing all the hype around his writing and around this particular book, and I gotta say, it delivered! The gore. The blood. The puppet. It has you on your   toes while also wanting to curse the curse’d. The only thing I have issue with is

why do the parents, especially the mom, blame Freddie’s death on Nancy when them parents were the one leaving a seven-year-old child to look after her five-year-old brother? They should have also seen how they were also at fault.

Generational trauma, man. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Self harm, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Murder and Fire/Fire injury

faduma's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Body shaming, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gore, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Torture, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Gaslighting, Abandonment, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail