Title: How to Sell a Haunted House
Author: Grady Hendrix
Publisher: Berkley
Publishing Date: January 17th, 2023
Read: January 18th, 2023
Pages: 419
Audio Length: 13 Hours
Genre: Adult paranormal horror
TW: Clowns and dolls
Series: Standalone
Source: Audio
What it's about:
Grady Hendrix takes on the haunted house in a thrilling new novel that explores the way your past—and your family—can haunt you like nothing else.
When Louise finds out her parents have died, she dreads going home. She doesn’t want to leave her daughter with her ex and fly to Charleston. She doesn’t want to deal with her family home, stuffed to the rafters with the remnants of her father’s academic career and her mother’s lifelong obsession with puppets and dolls. She doesn’t want to learn how to live without the two people who knew and loved her best in the world.
Most of all, she doesn’t want to deal with her brother, Mark, who never left their hometown, gets fired from one job after another, and resents her success. Unfortunately, she’ll need his help to get the house ready for sale because it’ll take more than some new paint on the walls and clearing out a lifetime of memories to get this place on the market.
But some houses don’t want to be sold, and their home has other plans for both of them…
What I thought:
I'm a huge fan of Grady Hendrix and his books are now on my auto buy list.
The one problem I have with his books is they can get a little confusing sometimes. This one wasn't. It had me hooked from the beginning to the end. It gave me the heeby jeebies and it left me wanting more more more.
Cover:
I love how it looks like a doll house. I love how his covers always seem to be.. unique? I guess. My Best Friend's Exorcism looks like a VHS tape. Horrorstor looks like an IKEA catalog, etc. And I'm a little disappointed this one isn't like that. I still love it though.
Story:
Okay so like I said, Grady's books are on auto buy. I didn't even really read what this one was about so I had zero idea what it was about going in. I just knew it was about someone trying to sell a haunted house. I was not prepared for the absolute horror fest I was about to enter into.
That being said, it was creepy, it had emotional stuff going on it, it was a really good story about family while also being horror.
Pace:
The first like 5 minutes of the book were slow. That's it. Then it was just like BAM HORROR BAM DOLLS BAM SCARY. And then the end kind of felt just a little forced.
Writing:
Like I said, Grady's books can be a little confusing sometimes, and I just have a hard time following along sometimes. But not with this one. He wrote it so perfectly creepy and it was so easy to just picture what was going on. I felt so much from annoyance, to anger, to fear, to wanting to laugh out loud.
Characters:
There was a lot of character growth I felt like between the main character and the brother. But that's about it that's going for them. The main character was so annoying, I kept wanting to slap her. All she did was complain and bitch and moan and expect the worst of everyone. She was incredibly self centered. The brother tried his best... sometimes. But he was also incredibly immature and selfish.
World building:
I think it was well done. Grady is very good at his descriptive words.
Ending:
The ending was a gut punch. That's all I'm going to say.
Narrator:
Oh boy the narrator did such a great job. Especially when singing for Pumpkin. I will never get that song out of my head.
Overall:
One of my favorite Hendrix books. Creepy and addicting.
A little Snippet:
“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.”
― Grady Hendrix, How to Sell a Haunted House
Possible books of likeness:
Author's info:
Grady Hendrix is the author of the novels Horrorstör, about a haunted IKEA, and My Best Friend's Exorcism, which is like Beaches meets The Exorcist, only it's set in the Eighties. He's also the author of We Sold Our Souls, The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires, and the upcoming (July 13!) Final Girl Support Group!
He's also the jerk behind the Stoker award-winning Paperbacks from Hell, a history of the 70's and 80's horror paperback boom, which contains more information about Nazi leprechauns, killer babies, and evil cats than you probably need.
And he's the screenwriter behind Mohawk, which is probably the only horror movie about the War of 1812 and Satanic Panic.
You can listen to free, amazing, and did I mention free podcasts of his fiction on Pseudopod. He also does a podcast called Super Scary Haunted Homeschool.
Other books I've read by this author:
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OOoh interesting! I was curious about this one just with that title alone! A little worried about the "can be hard to follow" part though. Glad this one was easy enough. I did look at his books once before but still haven't picked one up. This one sounds creepy though! Great review!
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