Reviews tagging 'Animal death'

How to Sell a Haunted House by Grady Hendrix

78 reviews

atomicrogg's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

4.75

So creepy. Loved it.

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Alcoholism, Child death, and Car accident

Minor: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Medical content, and Fire/Fire injury

tennessaurus's review

dark emotional hopeful reflective tense 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

4.25

My primary rule of horror: you can’t tell a good haunted house story that isn’t about a family. And this one certainly packs that emotional punch. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Violence, Grief, Death of parent, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

Moderate: Animal death

tonijanereads's review against another edition

dark funny mysterious tense fast-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

3.5

Consumed exclusively as an audiobook. 

Two siblings have lost their parents in a terrible car accident. They need to go home to sort everything out, the funeral, the estate, the house, the will, each other, themselves…the puppets…

I felt like this became a different book at the start of part 3, almost as if an afterthought to try and tie it all together. 

It worked! But boy howdy this was weird! 

Trigger warning: animal death, parent death, fire, puppets, dolls, amputation, blood. 

Three and a half stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️ 1/2 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood and Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Animal death and Death of parent

I

nicolle_reads's review

adventurous emotional mysterious fast-paced

• Diverse cast of characters? No

5.0

Okay this book had me actually scared a few times!! The beginning was a little slow for me and did make me cry due to my own existential crisis about mortality BUT I think that’s a me-problem. I do hate Pupkin and I’m glad he’s not on the cover because I think he’d haunt my dreams. The plot twist was amazing though I had suspected it pretty early on. Still this was amazing, and had me on the edge of my seat. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal death, Gore, Violence, and Death of parent

shedevls's review

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

4.0

though mark pissed me off enough in the beginning that i almost decided to dnf this, i'm really glad i stuck it out it out. i ended up having a lot of fun with this one! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Death of parent, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Child death, Grief, and Car accident

Minor: Animal death, Self harm, Vomit, and Fire/Fire injury

elliebasta's review against another edition

dark mysterious medium-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Animal death, Child death, and Self harm

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

4.0

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

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

paronomaniac's review

dark emotional tense medium-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Violence, Blood, and Death of parent

Moderate: Child death

Minor: Animal death

justjessing's review against another edition

dark slow-paced

• Loveable characters? It's complicated

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Violence, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Car accident

Minor: Animal cruelty and Animal death