Reviews tagging 'Fire/Fire injury'

How to Sell a Haunted House by Grady Hendrix

86 reviews

rowancdewit's review against another edition

challenging dark funny sad tense fast-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’ll be real! I’m not a big horror novel girl, I haven’t read many other horror books, so I don’t really know what to judge it off of… but I read this in a DAY. I couldn’t put it down. I kept saying “okay, after this chapter, I’ll be done for the day.” And that didn’t happen until the end of the book.

Warning, there are a few bits of the book that were a liiittle too much for me. (Violence, weird descriptive spooky things) But everytime those scenes happened, I’d get a tight “oof” in my gut, thinking to myself “Okay, I gotta skim this.” And then the next scene would be something absolutely so dramatic that would just make me laugh and say, “is Hendrix even serious right now?”

It’s so dramatic, but it’s a story that feels like it KNOWS it’s dramatic and far fetched and presses into that. Truly, feels like an adult version (bcuz the characters are in their 40s) of a Goosebumps book.

I 100% could see this being made into a film. And the 4 stars is 100% for Hendrix’s writing, which is just fun and silly and comedic and truly good enough that I could FEEL every ounce of discomfort that Hendrix wanted me to feel in the tense moments. The pacing was amazing, the delivery of everything was so great, I thoroughly enjoyed reading this.

If anyone asked about reading this, I definitely would say “don’t take it seriously, just buckle in for the ride.”

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Self harm, Gun violence, Death of parent, Gore, and Child death

Moderate: Fire/Fire injury and Murder

Minor: Alcoholism, Car accident, Cursing, and Grief

horizonous's review against another edition

I was just so bored. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief and Death of parent

Moderate: Car accident, Child death, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Fire/Fire injury and Medical content

ninahuynh's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad medium-paced

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

4.75

 Been wanting to read Grady Hendrix book after hearing all the hype around his writing and around this particular book, and I gotta say, it delivered! The gore. The blood. The puppet. It has you on your   toes while also wanting to curse the curse’d. The only thing I have issue with is

why do the parents, especially the mom, blame Freddie’s death on Nancy when them parents were the one leaving a seven-year-old child to look after her five-year-old brother? They should have also seen how they were also at fault.

Generational trauma, man. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Animal death, Body horror, Blood, Child death, Child abuse, Cursing, Violence, Death of parent, Death, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Grief, Self harm, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Fire/Fire injury and Murder

creepycrawlybookworm's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious 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? It's complicated

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Gore, Fire/Fire injury, Blood, Car accident, Body horror, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, and Medical trauma

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts, Child abuse, Toxic relationship, Self harm, Alcohol, Child death, Pregnancy, Confinement, Death of parent, and Cursing

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

starklinqs's review against another edition

4.0

This book was a great time - you have to kind of roll with the haunting and what the book throws at you explanation wise, but I couldn’t put the book down. The haunting was filled with some action and a whole lot of emotion. 

The book centering around this sibling dynamic was great. I think the book was just a beat too long and Mark was kind of annoying LMAO, but even with that I found myself invested and wanting both siblings to be okay regardless. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death of parent, Car accident, and Death

Minor: Child death and Fire/Fire injury

pimaz's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful mysterious 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? It's complicated

4.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, Grief, Car accident, Child death, Death of parent, Death, Self harm, Violence, and Fire/Fire injury

bookishcookiemonster's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-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

3.0

As far as horror stories go, it qas predictable, but still unnerving and some moments were definitely downright terrifying. 
I enjoyed it! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Vomit, Self harm, Child death, Medical content, Panic attacks/disorders, Torture, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Death, Gore, Blood, Body horror, Car accident, Injury/Injury detail, Medical trauma, and Violence

Minor: Gun violence

polarbearisla's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious reflective tense fast-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

4.75

Stunning. Scary horror with a terrific emotional finish. 

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Content Warnings

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

Minor: Grief, Gun violence, Fire/Fire injury, Car accident, Death of parent, Self harm, Vomit, and Child death

d0505's review against another edition

dark emotional funny mysterious 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? Yes

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Child death, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, and Car accident

Moderate: Blood and Grief

Minor: Excrement