Reviews tagging 'Death of parent'

How to Sell a Haunted House by Grady Hendrix

523 reviews

cozy_academic's review

dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Domestic abuse, Physical abuse, Self harm, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Car accident, Death of parent, and Injury/Injury detail

aerim's review

dark emotional 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

2.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Physical abuse, Violence, and Blood

Moderate: Child death, Toxic relationship, Grief, and Death of parent

book_adjacent's review

dark emotional mysterious 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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child death, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Violence, and Death of parent

lsmith725's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense fast-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

3.5

If creepy doll/puppet horror is what you're looking for, look no further.  It had intensity, especially in certain action scenes.  It had family drama.  It was maybe a touch too long.  There were a few scenes with Poppy attacks that just weren't necessary and didn't add much because Poppy's creepy factor was already established by that point.  But this was entertaining, a bit disgusting, and action packed.  Read this if you want a thrilling, dark horror story ride.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Violence, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Body horror and Death of parent

nickoliver's review against another edition

dark emotional tense slow-paced

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

3.75

This book was a bit of a challenge for me. First of all, I think the premise is a little bit misleading - it was less of a haunted house as it was a haunted puppet. Still creepy (or even creepier, if you're like me and hate dolls), but not the same thing.

Second of all, the characters often just made me so mad I could barely concentrate on the actual story. For the first 100 or so pages, I desperately wanted to punch Mark in the face. And while it got better later on when you got an explanation, I still thought it didn't completely justify his behaviour in the past (despite the fact that everyone acted like it did). The tense scenes were often impossible to read because it was often just Louise getting hurt and not being able to defend herself despite constantly talking about "If I just do XX, I'll be save". 
Plus, the denial was incredibly strong with her, and it drove me nuts. Especially later in the book when you found out that Louise already had a lot of supernatural experience with the puppet, because why on earth did she have several near-death experiences in the house and still tried to tell herself it was nothing.

The later half of the story was better in my opinion. Getting Pupkin's backstory, and the way the characters dealt with it, made it a lot deeper and intense, and I genuinely enjoyed that. But I do think the story could've benefited from being a tiny bit shorter.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Bullying, Child death, Death, Violence, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

atlasvitreous's review

dark emotional funny medium-paced

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

5.0

Realistically, if I was being objective, it’s probably a 4.5. But I cried like a little bitch over a fucking puppet. Take the 5 star, Grady.

A perfect blend of wacky, batshit horror and horror that scratches at something deep and anxious in us. Kakawewe! 😭

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Self harm, Death of parent, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail

meredithnudo's review

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? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Physical abuse, Self harm, Torture, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Car accident, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, and Abandonment

Minor: Gun violence

amputation

,

severed limbs

,

eye trauma

,

needles

jeynawill's review

dark funny hopeful reflective 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Death, Gore, Self harm, Violence, Medical trauma, Car accident, and Death of parent

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

extravagantly's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional tense 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

i picked up this book simply because it was set down the road of where i live (thanks to goodreads 1 book from each state list), and i did no further research into it. this rating is completely my fault because i failed to check the genre before reading. i’ve never read a book with any psychological or thrilling elements, so when murderous entities sprung up it took me much by surprise—the kind of surprise you don’t want when reading a book

i gave it 3 stars cus there isn’t anything particularly wrong with it, a good exercise in suspension of disbelief if anything. it’s just not for me. i can see why someone would like, though

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore and Violence

Moderate: Death and Death of parent