Reviews tagging 'Vomit'

How to Sell a Haunted House by Grady Hendrix

55 reviews

kristasorocks's review against another edition

dark emotional tense fast-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

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

Minor: Child death and Death of parent

lisette_eponine's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad 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

3.25

Not my favorite Hendrix, but a very interesting story. There were several jump scares, and quite a bit of body horror. While the overall theme was good, the pacing was a bit off. It felt like the momentum stalled a few times. I did love that the chapters were centered around the five stages of grief. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Body horror, Violence, Medical content, Death of parent, Gore, Vomit, Injury/Injury detail, Grief, and Car accident

lilyreadsthings's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny medium-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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Vomit, Torture, Injury/Injury detail, Body horror, Death, Gore, Blood, and Death of parent

Moderate: Blood, Cursing, and Bullying

gopackandstats's review against another edition

dark funny sad tense 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Medical trauma, Body horror, Gore, Car accident, Death, Physical abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Toxic relationship, and Animal death

Moderate: Murder, Gaslighting, Child death, Vomit, and Death of parent

Minor: Alcohol, Drug use, and Animal death

timelord10's review against another edition

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? Yes

3.5

This is my first Grady Hendrix book, and I loved the writing style. I'm not a big horror fan in general, but I'll definitely be checking out all of his other books. The only reason I'm rating it 3.5 stars is because there was a big part in the middle where I got bored, and I put the book down for a while. It just wasn't doing it for me for part of the book. However, I feel like I can't fully judge how good of a horror book this is because I don't have much to compare it to, but it definitely creeped me out at times. I think my favorite aspect of the book was the relationship between Louise and Mark. I loved how their bond grew over the course of the book.

It was also amazing how Grady Hendrix made you hate Pupkin the entire book, but at the end when you found out he was the ghost of Freddie, you still felt bad for him despite how terrible he had been. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Car accident, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, Blood, Gore, Child death, Death, Violence, Cursing, Grief, Vomit, and Body horror

Moderate: Mental illness and Self harm

Minor: Medical content

thetinyhealer's review against another edition

mysterious 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? Yes

3.0

This book was pretty interesting and strange. I never thought I'd listen to an audiobook about haunted puppets, but here we are. 

This was a story about loss and generational trauma told as two dysfunctional siblings try to uncover the mysteries surrounding their familial past and strange happenings in their deceased parent's house.

There are some things about this story that just don't make sense, and there are some pretty unforgivable things the characters do that seem to just get glossed over and are never mentioned again. I also don't believe the redemption arc in certain characters that I think we're supposed to feel. The story kept my attention but it also had me frequently thinking, really? I'm supposed to be scared of puppets? It could make a good PG-13 movie for spooky season, but I wouldn't go super out of my way to recommend this book to a friend.

On the positive side? I think this author did a great job of writing a strong, sensible and independent FMC. And I appreciated that she was a meaningful character on her own, without needing any kind of romantic relationship in her story. This book also kept me interested pretty consistently. It normally takes me a while to get through audoobooks but I ripped through this one within a couple of days. A very strange concept, but a ride of a book for sure. 



Trigger warning! There are a few gory scenes. May include: eyes, limbs, blood. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Gore, and Violence

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Child death, Death of parent, Medical trauma, Murder, and Gaslighting

Minor: Vomit and Gun violence

more detail on trigger warnings: eye gets stabbed with a needle, dismembered limb, multiple hospital scenes, scenes where people are scratched or cut bloody by a knife or claws, building burned down with people inside, multiple attempted / successful murders of children by other children, generational trauma that relatives refuse to acknowledge, parental death, child death, and the brother constantly being a complete and utter jerk to his grieving sister.

dbooknerd's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

4.25

This book was creepy, this book was crazy, this book delivered. I actually lean more towards 4.25 or 4.5 stars. It has family secrets, family conflict, family forgiveness, and family love all wrapped around spookiness. It started a little slow at first but it continually builded with excitement and terror. I don’t want to give anything away, but it will have you looking different at old family homes and all that comes with them. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Gore, Death, Grief, and Vomit

Moderate: Blood

honeybeewitched87's review against another edition

adventurous funny mysterious tense medium-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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror

Moderate: Vomit, Injury/Injury detail, Child death, Pregnancy, Grief, Medical content, Blood, Cursing, Death, Gaslighting, Gore, Alcohol, Death of parent, Violence, and Car accident

sarah984's review

dark emotional slow-paced

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

2.5

I enjoyed parts of this, but I always want to like Grady Hendrix's books more than I end up doing. This was way too long and felt like it spent a lot of time spinning its wheels, the characters felt like they were mostly acting however it was needed to keep the plot moving, and a few plot points strained credulity even keeping in mind it's a horror novel.

The anarchist puppet collective putting on a show critical of the Bush admin in the immediate post 9/11 era to third graders and then a group of people dressed as clowns with a puppet trash one of the teachers’ houses and no one ever reacts to this or talks about it?? This would have been bigger than the killer clown craze in 2016.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Child death, and Death of parent

Moderate: Ableism, Car accident, Gore, Violence, Fatphobia, and Medical content

Minor: Vomit, Sexual harassment, Animal death, Gun violence, Suicidal thoughts, Alcohol, Confinement, Fire/Fire injury, Religious bigotry, and Self harm

amhud1030's review against another edition

dark emotional 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? It's complicated

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Vomit, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, and Murder