Reviews tagging 'Blood'

How to Sell a Haunted House by Grady Hendrix

210 reviews

bkwrm1317's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny 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

When two siblings parents die in a car crash, it turns out there’s some weird family secrets and puppets that were connected. 

Bit funny, fairly compelling, but a bit more disjointed than I’d have liked. Decent comedy horror. 

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Violence, Gore, and Blood

Minor: Death of parent and Car accident

blackeyedraptor's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

3.5

This book was... Weird, and not in a Tim Burton, Neil Gaiman kind of way. Tbh, I'm kind of disappointed. 
The writing style was fantastic, I would definitely read the authors other works, but I find myself being disappointed in it. 
It went from properly creepy to wannabe slasher fic in about a single chapter, and I hate slashers! They're needlessly gory and when a story has to depend on bloody shock factors, the writing is bad, which is sad because the author has style! I nearly dnf'd at least 3 times, but kept plugging on. 
*Spoilers* 
So turns out, it's not the house that's haunted, even though it initially comes off that way, it's her mom's creepy childhood puppet, who's haunted by her dead uncle who died young. Again, the whole thing felt like it was depending on the shock Factor too much, and was just weird. I love a good spooky ghost story, but I argue that this belongs in that category. If it were a movie, it'd be a slasher, but at least it would get marks for being unpredictable. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture, Child death, Death, Grief, Blood, Violence, Murder, Gore, and Death of parent

Moderate: Self harm, Ableism, and Emotional abuse

tabea1409's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious 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? Yes

3.5

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Animal death, Blood, Child death, Car accident, Gaslighting, Gore, Cursing, Death, Death of parent, Animal cruelty, Emotional abuse, Medical content, Child abuse, and Violence

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

---

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

adorabubbles's review against another edition

dark emotional funny 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

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Death of parent, Child death, and Car accident

lucakocsis's review against another edition

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.

---

Content Warnings

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

hkrobock's review against another edition

dark tense medium-paced

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

4.5

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Gore, and Blood

Minor: Death of parent and Car accident

nicoletiff's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective 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? Yes

4.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Grief, Fire/Fire injury, Car accident, Violence, Child death, Medical content, Death, Mental illness, Injury/Injury detail, Self harm, Blood, and Death of parent

kneezbooks's review against another edition

4.5

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Death of parent, Gore, and Blood

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

---

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