Reviews tagging 'Pregnancy'

How to Sell a Haunted House by Grady Hendrix

29 reviews

rebeccalaur's review

adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful 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

5.0

Oh my gosh, I didn't realise how much puppets freaked me out until I read this! 

The first section of the book is titled 'Anger' and I totally agree. There were a few scenes at the beginning that made me rage at one of the characters, as the main character does, although I think that is the goal.

I love how there is always an element of humour in Grady Hendrix's books. In How to Sell a Haunted House, I found the main characters' aunts and cousins, so funny, especially when

they all got together to try to defeat the evil menace

. I was picturing a room full of Jamie Lee Curtises ala Halloween haha!

Pupkin was super scary. Particularly that he could completely take over someone's mind even with just his likeness. The scenes where the college students put on Pupkin masks and wreaked havoc were a bit disturbing!

I really enjoyed reading this book and felt so many different emotions throughout. Another great instalment from Grady Hendrix.

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Self harm, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Pregnancy

Puppets are a big theme throughout the book.

Pupaphobia

maddireads13's review

dark emotional funny mysterious fast-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Self harm, Violence, Blood, Suicide attempt, and Death of parent

Minor: Schizophrenia/Psychosis and Pregnancy

blacksphinx's review

dark emotional funny 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

5.0

I was not expecting a book about an evil clown puppet to make me cry like that.

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Child abuse, Vomit, Car accident, Pregnancy, and War

Minor: Self harm

toofondofbooks_'s review

adventurous dark emotional sad tense slow-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

I think this was pretty good, probably my second favorite Grady Hendrix that I've read so far. I think what really took it over the edge was the sibling dynamic and the themes of grief of several types throughout. It became less about the horror of it all and more about the humanity of our main characters, even when the horror became just a little absurd. I think the only reason this isn't a 5 star for me is just that I think there are some aspects that could've been explained better in the narrative. I still have some questions that are annoying me. Overall though, a decent read.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Mental illness, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Grief, Car accident, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Pregnancy

doomcookie's review

dark emotional funny lighthearted fast-paced

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

4.0

stuffed animals being training wheels for your heart really got me 🥲

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child death, Gore, Medical trauma, Car accident, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Pregnancy and Fire/Fire injury

house_of_hannah's review

adventurous dark tense medium-paced

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

3.0

This book is 100 pages too long. We went through what 100% felt like the climax of the book, had a chapter tying up loose ends, a chapter that would have been a perfect

bad

ending, and instead there were 100 pages left. I put the book down for two days after that, because I just didn't feel like reading the same scenario all over again.

This is also a book where you have to get 100 pages in before anything happens. I was honestly thinking to myself, "Is this really a Grady Hendrix book ?" due to how serious and slow the entire beginning is. I was really struggling to care, especially with how unlikable the brother character was. I actually thought he was making the MCs unlikable so that

we'd be rooting for Pupkin in the end. I honestly thought we were going to get a "bad" ending here.

I'm one of the people who didn't know this was a doll/puppet book going into it. As a child I found porcelain dolls terrifying, and my mom had a clown painting I was afraid of. I should have been primed to be scared by this book, but I think it was too ridiculous to actually come off as scary. This author writes camp, so that's to be expected, but usually his books have some brutal scenes that catch you off guard and really lean into the horror. Unfortunately, there was only one scene that did that for me in this one. 

Honestly, the puppet is my favorite character in this book. He is so fucking ridiculous and I love him. I read a sentence here and there to my husband as I was reading, and now we're quoting a freakin' puppet at each other. 

Overall, I felt that this book was too long, repetitive, and I didn't care for the ~family~ aspect at all. The story is completely ridiculous, yet too serious at the same time. I think campy horror is a formula that's tough to get right, and for me this one was a bit of a miss. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Toxic relationship, Violence, Medical content, Grief, Car accident, Death of parent, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Alcoholism, Self harm, and Pregnancy

jayjm94's review

emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.25

I read this 415 page book in one sitting. It was everything I love about Grady Hendrix— there is plenty of reflection, but it is mainly scary messed up stuff happening and men being absolutely awful to women. This is as good as a scary puppet book gets; it’s full of camp, gore and family secrets. I don’t think it dragged a bit. So much fun!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Gore, Violence, Death of parent, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Addiction, Body horror, Blood, Excrement, Grief, Murder, Pregnancy, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Animal death and Excrement

jaedia's review against another edition

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

5.0

Wow, I could not put this book down. How to Sell a Haunted House follows Louise as she returns home following the sudden death of her parents, only to find herself feeling frustrated by her brother Mark who has already taken control of all of the funeral arrangements and she's not happy. The entire book is about grief and family, and just happens to include a haunted house as its backdrop, although this one is not exactly as you would expect. And I will say no more because the way this story unwinds is so good. As I said, could not put it down. All this did was remind me that I need to pick up his other books because this is the second time I have fallen in love with his writing! 

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Self harm, Vomit, Medical content, Fire/Fire injury, and Alcohol

Minor: Alcoholism, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Gun violence, Mental illness, Medical trauma, Pregnancy, Gaslighting, and Abandonment

imstephtacular's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Violence, Medical content, Grief, Car accident, Death of parent, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Child death, Cursing, Emotional abuse, Gore, Mental illness, Blood, Vomit, Medical trauma, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, and Alcohol

Minor: Sexual content, Pregnancy, and War