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A review by alyskarstark
How to Sell a Haunted House by Grady Hendrix
dark
funny
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? It's complicated
3.0
This is, arguably, my least favourite of Grady Hendrix's books. Normally what I love about about Hendrix's books is that the characters feel so fleshed out and real, but to me that wasn't the case here. I also have some thoughts on the way Hendrix chose to develop the story which I don't think I can go into spoiler-free, so I'll put that below. But to sum it up, if I finished this book like 70% of the way in my rating would likely be a bit higher, probably a 4 or just under. But it didn't and overall I think this just took too long to tell the story it wanted to tell.
<Spoiler>So about 60-70% of the way through we get to a big, climactic fight that as I was reading it I assumed was gearing up to an ending (woes of reading on a ereader). There ended up being a twist that the enemy wasn't defeated after all - a classic in the horror genre, and in itself I don't have an issue with devices like this. My main issue was that it took 300 pages, which had a lot of back and forths and flashbacks, to get to that point. And the false climax itself was long. I'm not sure if this book is suffering because I read it right after The Final Girl Support Group, which is now probably my favourite Hendrix and, even with twists and misdirects, felt like a tightly written story. Once I realise there was another 150 pages where things felt back a square one, I struggled to stay interested.
I will say, looking at other reviews, lots of people have dissimilar views. They agree that the initial part of the story is too slow paced, however they love the last act and found it hard to put down. So, different for different people.
For me it's tainted my experience with the rest of the book a bit, but not to the point where Hendrix is no long an auto-read author for me.
<Spoiler>So about 60-70% of the way through we get to a big, climactic fight that as I was reading it I assumed was gearing up to an ending (woes of reading on a ereader). There ended up being a twist that the enemy wasn't defeated after all - a classic in the horror genre, and in itself I don't have an issue with devices like this. My main issue was that it took 300 pages, which had a lot of back and forths and flashbacks, to get to that point. And the false climax itself was long. I'm not sure if this book is suffering because I read it right after The Final Girl Support Group, which is now probably my favourite Hendrix and, even with twists and misdirects, felt like a tightly written story. Once I realise there was another 150 pages where things felt back a square one, I struggled to stay interested.
I will say, looking at other reviews, lots of people have dissimilar views. They agree that the initial part of the story is too slow paced, however they love the last act and found it hard to put down. So, different for different people.
For me it's tainted my experience with the rest of the book a bit, but not to the point where Hendrix is no long an auto-read author for me.