Reviews tagging 'Body horror'

How to Sell a Haunted House by Grady Hendrix

225 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

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

egmoo's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny reflective tense medium-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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror

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

naosprout's review

adventurous dark reflective 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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Body horror, Child death, Chronic illness, Death, Gore, Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, and Murder

ajsbookss's review

dark emotional funny hopeful sad tense medium-paced

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

4.5

Hendrix's masterful use of the uncanny, tempered by his wit, create a wonderfully balanced book that gives appropriate attention to the heavy topics the novel covers without suffocating you with them. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Death, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Violence, Medical content, Grief, Car accident, Death of parent, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail

hopecobbledpots's review against another edition

challenging funny mysterious tense fast-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

4.5

As much as people fear dolls and puppets, I found myself amused throughout this book. I'm getting jaded.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror and Blood

Moderate: Gun violence, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Self harm, Toxic relationship, Violence, Vomit, Medical content, and Death of parent

lampbee's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad fast-paced

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

5.0

Very good book :) Really enjoyed it , a lot of books like these can tend to have a very information / backstory heavy first half which this did not. The siblings , Louise and Mark , are both very complex and unlikeable in their own ways and between them and the extended family there’s a lot of wanting to hate one side or the other and being unable to which I enjoyed. I don’t normally reach for haunted stories but this one was fantastic and made sense all the way through , nothing felt like an aside or written in without intention so everything was a clue which was very satisfying. A very satisfying ending too, one that didn’t feel overly dramatic or out of line with the rest of the haunting. Probably my favourite haunted book :)

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Death, Gore, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Car accident, Death of parent, and Fire/Fire injury

pastlifetragedy's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Death, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Self harm, Violence, Blood, Grief, Car accident, Death of parent, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail