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A review by bites_of_books
How to Sell a Haunted House by Grady Hendrix
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
informative
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-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
4.5
No one is more surprised than myself at the fact that I ended up giving this book 4.5 stars.
This book starts with Louise receiving a call from her brother, Mark, saying that their parents have both died in a car accident. Louise now has to leave her 5 year old daughter in San Francisco with her ex while she goes back to Charleston to help with the funeral arrangements for her parents. From the start we know that Louise and Mark do not get along, they only interact when they have to and this time there are a lot of emotions that make every interaction they have be tense and with 90% probability of pettiness and overreactions. That was very hard to read at first, until we start peeling back the layers that make these characters.
At around 50% I was not sure about this book, I could see what might happen and I was still unsure if I was on board. For a 13 hour audiobook, this could be a very difficult ask, but what made me continue listening was the way that Hendrix was telling this story. We keep getting small but impactful scenes that don't have a clear explanation but has hints to what might be happening. The length of the book was also what made me keep listening, what else could possibly happen at this point? We have had already some really scary and creepy scenes involving taxidermy squirrels and puppets, TVs being randomly turned on, sounds in an "empty" house, so how are the main characters going to find the truth and resolve the story?
The resolution to the story was what drastically pulled the rating up to 4.5 stars for me, there's a theme of multigenerational inheritance that goes beyond the physical, family secrets that will always come to light eventually, and also that fight between what we believe is reality, spirituality, and beyond. It reminded me of how a family home that has housed multiple generations always holds secrets, from the benign of "oh didn't know grandpa used to go out dancing" to more sinister secrets, and those are part of the legacy of that family.
I don't think this book is for everyone, it's a long book that requires one to push through very tense and difficult conversations between seemingly unlikeable characters. I can't say that I ended up loving these characters but I grew to understand where they were coming from, and that's huge!
I'd recommend this book if you like horror books that have deeper and nuanced conversations about grief, inheritance, sibling relationships, motherhood, and if you enjoy puppet horror, you'll love this. It gets campy and silly at times, but that's part of the charm of puppet horror so I felt like it was appropriate when it happened. Also, if you do listen to the audiobook, the narrator does a great job in giving certain characters unforgettable voices, which was key to keeping the tone of the book where it needed to be.
This book starts with Louise receiving a call from her brother, Mark, saying that their parents have both died in a car accident. Louise now has to leave her 5 year old daughter in San Francisco with her ex while she goes back to Charleston to help with the funeral arrangements for her parents. From the start we know that Louise and Mark do not get along, they only interact when they have to and this time there are a lot of emotions that make every interaction they have be tense and with 90% probability of pettiness and overreactions. That was very hard to read at first, until we start peeling back the layers that make these characters.
At around 50% I was not sure about this book, I could see what might happen and I was still unsure if I was on board. For a 13 hour audiobook, this could be a very difficult ask, but what made me continue listening was the way that Hendrix was telling this story. We keep getting small but impactful scenes that don't have a clear explanation but has hints to what might be happening. The length of the book was also what made me keep listening, what else could possibly happen at this point? We have had already some really scary and creepy scenes involving taxidermy squirrels and puppets, TVs being randomly turned on, sounds in an "empty" house, so how are the main characters going to find the truth and resolve the story?
The resolution to the story was what drastically pulled the rating up to 4.5 stars for me, there's a theme of multigenerational inheritance that goes beyond the physical, family secrets that will always come to light eventually, and also that fight between what we believe is reality, spirituality, and beyond. It reminded me of how a family home that has housed multiple generations always holds secrets, from the benign of "oh didn't know grandpa used to go out dancing" to more sinister secrets, and those are part of the legacy of that family.
I don't think this book is for everyone, it's a long book that requires one to push through very tense and difficult conversations between seemingly unlikeable characters. I can't say that I ended up loving these characters but I grew to understand where they were coming from, and that's huge!
I'd recommend this book if you like horror books that have deeper and nuanced conversations about grief, inheritance, sibling relationships, motherhood, and if you enjoy puppet horror, you'll love this. It gets campy and silly at times, but that's part of the charm of puppet horror so I felt like it was appropriate when it happened. Also, if you do listen to the audiobook, the narrator does a great job in giving certain characters unforgettable voices, which was key to keeping the tone of the book where it needed to be.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Gaslighting, Body horror, Blood, Death, Grief, Murder, Toxic relationship, Violence, and Death of parent