Reviews tagging 'Body horror'

How to Sell a Haunted House by Grady Hendrix

183 reviews

bowlsofpasta's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny fast-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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Gore, Body horror, and Violence

Moderate: Child death, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, and Death

witchofthemountains's review against another edition

dark emotional funny hopeful informative mysterious sad tense 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? It's complicated

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Vomit, Death, Body horror, Child death, Panic attacks/disorders, Violence, Gaslighting, Gore, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Death of parent, and Car accident

Moderate: Confinement, Medical trauma, Medical content, Fire/Fire injury, Blood, Alcohol, Mental illness, Abandonment, and Animal death

Minor: Cursing, War, Genocide, and Fatphobia

sighclopss's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense medium-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

3.75

Rounded up from 3.75 ⭐
I liked this a decent amount. 

I found the beginning very slow and I almost dnf'ed but I'm glad to have pushed through the initial chapters. I found the family dynamic very interesting and slightly triggering in how some parts mirrored my own dysfunctional family. Louise's complicated relationships with her mother and brother were very relatable. I think the book did great at portraying grief and the human experience. 

The horror elements were overly cliche, I did guess at plot twists before they happened and didn't feel like there was a tonne of creativity. But the author definitely nails suspense and overall creepy vibes.

To be honest I'd probably have enjoyed the book more if it downplayed the horror and focused more on the siblings, their pasts and how they are going through the motions of mending their relationship.

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Content Warnings

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

kaywhiteley's review against another edition

dark funny tense fast-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? Yes

5.0

Probably one of the most fun books I’ve ever read

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Death of parent, and Body horror

belady147's review against another edition

dark emotional 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

3.75

I know I only rated this book 3.75 stars, but I couldn’t put it down while I was reading it. I had to figure out what happened next. My one complaint that knocked this book down from 4 stars was the pacing. There’s a climax about halfway or a little more through the book that felt like a final climax so it was strange to have so much book left. The second climax - the actual final climax - kind of felt like a repeat of the first one but with a better resolution. I didn’t like that, but generally liked everything else or at least wasn’t bothered by anything else  enough to have it effect my reading experience. 

My last comment is that the title of the book is a bit misleading. This is not a typical haunted house book, it’s more like Chucky. That didn’t bother me much, but it might bother someone else. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Grief, Body horror, and Gaslighting

Minor: Death and Child death

jessicake1's review

dark emotional funny sad tense medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Child death and Grief

lucakocsis's review

adventurous dark funny tense medium-paced

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

4.0

This book is not at all what I expected when I started reading it but regardless I enjoyed it. The characters were well defined so you could predict their actions amongst the mostly unexpected plot twists. However, even thought the book has many horror elements that are bound to be a little nonsensical sometimes, the main theme is grief and messy family dynamics  which I do wish it went into a bit deeper at times.

As good as the Joyner family was in the book about avoiding topics they didn't want to discuss, the book itself was much the same.

My main issue was the title itself, I found it quite misleading. I expected to read about the trials of actively trying to sell the house while getting rid of the haunting spirit(s) but it skipped that part altogether. Having read the book the title itself just seems like an attempt to lure readers in, which worked to be fair. 
Overall it was an enjoyable read with a nice writing style but I wish it commited more to the topics it wanted to bring up.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Body horror, Grief, Blood, and Injury/Injury detail

skersnick's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional 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? No

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Body horror, Death, Blood, Gore, Gaslighting, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, and Vomit

Moderate: Fire/Fire injury, Mental illness, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Car accident, Child death, Gun violence, Medical content, Panic attacks/disorders, and Self harm

sydneylmeyer7's review against another edition

dark funny 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

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

whatthegayle's review against another edition

dark emotional tense medium-paced

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

4.5

“I’ll come right out and say it,” Mercy told them. “Strange noises, bad vibes, your mom and dad recently passed— Your house is haunted and I’m not selling it until you deal with that.”

Wow, I think this is my favorite out of all the books I’ve read by Grady Hendrix. 

The only reason I went with a four and a half is because the slow bit near the middle.

Puppets have always sorta creeped me out since sloppy from the goosebumps series and this book only solidifies it.

I wasn’t expecting to tear up as much as I did at the end.

And Mark! I absolutely hated him at the beginning but started to like him a lot as we neared the ending.

Grady is so amazing at writing characters that feel like real people and this book is no exception.

Loved how the detail of the moms brother dying came back in the end. I had a feeling it would end up being connected one way or another

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Death of parent, Body horror, and Child death

Moderate: Animal death, Fire/Fire injury, Pregnancy, and Grief