Reviews tagging 'Animal cruelty'

How to Sell a Haunted House by Grady Hendrix

24 reviews

faduma's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Drug use, Gaslighting, Panic attacks/disorders, Violence, Body horror, Injury/Injury detail, Grief, Alcohol, Gore, Death, Death of parent, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Abandonment, Child abuse, Torture, Animal cruelty, Body shaming, Physical abuse, Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal death, Child death, and Forced institutionalization

crowsandcoffee's review against another edition

dark 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? It's complicated

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Death, War, and Death of parent

Moderate: Child death, Animal cruelty, Alcohol, Self harm, Animal death, Car accident, Gore, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Vomit

Minor: Gaslighting

possibly triggering scenes:

a little girl is forced by a ghost to cut herself

the mother and father get in a car accident and pass away

mark sets a house on fire, possibly killing the people inside

gross scenes:

louise cuts her brothers arm off

louise is stabbed in the eye with a needle

there’s also a lot of talk about religion, demons, and growing up in a religious family. along with that,

there’s mentions of mark and his friends, when possessed by their Pupkin masks, killing and possibly eating neighborhood pets

daringreader13's review against another edition

challenging 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? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

If you aren’t good with body horror, creepy dolls/puppets, or possession- this book won’t be for you.


However if you’re good with that, you’ll probably love it like I did but also be ready to sleep with a light on and burn any puppet you ever see… speaking for a friend obviously 😂

The only thing that left me wondering is the note in the acknowledgment. About the funeral in the fellowship hall and any tips for the police? What am I missing there?

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Gore, Grief, Gun violence, Medical content, Medical trauma, Violence, War, Xenophobia, Animal death, Blood, Car accident, Child death, Animal cruelty, Body horror, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail, Self harm, Torture, and Toxic relationship

czoltak's review against another edition

dark slow-paced

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

1.0

This felt like a punishment to read

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Injury/Injury detail, Death of parent, and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Animal cruelty, Animal death, and Car accident

julieyael's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.75

3.5 stars but rounded up

This is a book that I took time to really appreciate. 
The first half of it (that’s the first 200 pages!) were just ok. It’s a bit slow and I did not care too much for the characters. 
For a moment, I even thought about not finishing the book, because I felt that this was not what I expected from the story. 

But then it becomes more intriguing and you feel that there is more to it. 
When you enter the last third of the book, it becomes hard to leave it. 
I wished the slow part of the begining was not that long, because it’s all well written and you feel the creepy atmosphere building up. 

In the end, the book kept its promises, it’s a fun and creepy horror novel, with a good dose of paranormal, and a light touch of gory details (very light, but I guess it can be triggering for some people)

So I would recommend it, if you are ready to spend some time on the first part which is less exciting and a bit long to my taste. 
The second half of it really deserves a good 4 stars.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Violence, Death, Car accident, Physical abuse, Child death, Medical content, Panic attacks/disorders, Injury/Injury detail, Grief, and Death of parent

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, and Gore

Minor: Abandonment, Alcohol, Panic attacks/disorders, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Mental illness, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Toxic friendship, and Vomit

chasingpages1's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Death of parent, Car accident, Injury/Injury detail, Blood, Child death, Body horror, Gaslighting, and Grief

Moderate: Animal cruelty and Animal death

Minor: Alcohol and Pregnancy

booklovingcatmom's review against another edition

dark sad tense fast-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Minor: Animal death and Animal cruelty

kshertz's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.25

What a weird wild ride? I guess that’s Grady’s specialty. It gets really twisted with dolls, clowns, and puppets. I almost threw up once. I had to put the book down a few times. Im very happy my house had none of these things. Read it if you want to be grossed out and horrified by puppets and dolls and clowns. I liked it but also, probably something i’m going to need to bring up in therapy next week🙃

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Bullying, Fire/Fire injury, Car accident, Child death, Gaslighting, Body horror, Cannibalism, Animal death, Animal cruelty, Blood, Confinement, Death, Gun violence, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Gore, Grief, Medical content, Vomit, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, and Medical trauma

kmatera1's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.25

Parts of this book seriously scared the sh*t out of me but I couldn’t put it down! Loved how much the characters were developed throughout the story and their worldview was constantly challenged. The ending was satisfying and overall, I don’t think I’ve ever read a book quite like this. Would definitely recommend it to someone looking for a spooky, tense read. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Death of parent, and Animal cruelty

toofondofbooks_'s review against another edition

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

Moderate: Pregnancy