Reviews tagging 'Pregnancy'

How to Sell a Haunted House by Grady Hendrix

24 reviews

house_of_hannah's review against another edition

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

Minor: Pregnancy, Alcoholism, and Self harm

jayjm94's review against another edition

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

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

Minor: Excrement and Animal death

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, Death of parent, Car accident, Blood, Gore, Grief, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Injury/Injury detail

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

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

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

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

Minor: Sexual content, War, and Pregnancy