Reviews tagging 'Grief'

How to Sell a Haunted House by Grady Hendrix

226 reviews

jessicake1's review against another edition

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 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.

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Content Warnings

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

hibiscusheaven's review against another edition

I knew I didn’t like Grady Hendrix but tried to anyway. Didn’t love the family melodrama, was hoping more for the trials and tribulations of selling a haunted house. Unpleasant characters dealing with family trauma isn’t what I was looking for/hoping for in this read. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Grief

vanessamariebooks's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-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

This story is about grief and loss and I liked that Hendrix broke up each section into one of the stages of grief. I also thought it was interesting (and well done) how Hendrix not only shows us how Louise and Mark move through the stages of grief, but also how Pumkin (a puppet) deals with his grief as well. 

In the 3rd act, towards the end, the story started going in a direction I didn't expect and I would've been disappointed if it continued this way (simply because I don't like this trope in supernatural stories), but luckily it didn't and changed directions again (back to what I originally thought was going to happen).

I will say, if you're used to ghost/haunted stories like this, you'll probably see the "twist" at the end coming from the beginning (I knew where this was headed the moment we're introduced to Louise's family), but I still enjoyed it anyway. Something about Hendrix's writing makes you not want to put the book down even when you know what's coming.

Also, while this story does have a gross scene with squirrels, it's definitely not as bad as the rat scene in The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires (though I probably still wouldn't recommend eating while reading this). 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic relationship and Grief

Moderate: Death of parent, Death, and Child death

Minor: 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

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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

go2hellstephanie's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious 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

4.0

I really loved this book, and it really caught me off guard.

I've read a couple of other of Hendrix's books and usually I see more comedy that balances out the horror. How to Sell a Haunted House had moments where I could feel my heart racing from terror. And I don't even really find puppets, dolls, or clowns scary.

Hendrix did an amazing job with this story. This story about grief and about family and about secrets. Highly recommend anyone looking for a good horror book!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief and Violence

Moderate: Death, Death of parent, and Child death

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

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

skyestorme's review against another edition

dark funny mysterious 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? No

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence

Moderate: Blood, Self harm, Car accident, Child death, Death of parent, Death, Gore, Grief, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Abandonment, Fire/Fire injury, and Murder

narbine's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious reflective 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Abandonment, Death of parent, Medical content, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Body horror, and Alcohol

Moderate: Gore, Death, Blood, Car accident, Fire/Fire injury, Child death, Grief, Alcohol, and Cursing

Minor: Self harm