How To Write A Haunted House Story 🤌

Omg my feels! I'm more of a slasher girl so this was quite the unconventional read for me and I wasn't sure how I would feel about it. But man, Grady Hendrix pulls it off terrifically! And delivers a punch in my gut at the same time.

The author has skillfully woven an emotional story about family, secrets, grief, loss, trauma and memory into the heart of this horror novel. I found myself yo-yoing a lot between Louise and Mark at the start, feeling annoyed with one and then the other with each revelation. But the character development is so well done that I was firmly rooting for them in no time.

There's gore, there's dark humor, and I love how this book examines our attachment (and sometimes obsession) to our possessions. Then there's the simply perfect ending, from the final scene right down to the last few sentences.

Oh and I miss Pupkin already.

How to Sell a Haunted House is a horror novel by best-selling author, Grady Hendrix. It is my second book by this author, the first being Final Girls Support Group. I’ve been seeing this book everywhere so was excited to read this one.

Based on the blurb, I assumed this book would be about ghosts, but instead we get something even better - possessed creepy puppets! This book is filled with scares, creepy vibes, old school horror and well some scenes I’m still thinking about days later. At the heart its also a book about family, and relationships and this is portrayed well through the complex relationship between siblings Louise and Mark.

I really enjoyed this one and will look out for more by this author. Thank you to Grady Hendrix, the publisher and Netgalley for an opportunity to read and review this book.

How To Sell A Haunted House is a B movie of a horror novel, with a whole lot of heart.

My favourite aspect of the book was the character development; the story revolves around one family, splitting the narrative between estranged siblings Louise and Mark.
Thrown together by the sudden death of their parents, we watch as they battle eachother emotionally and physically over the sale of their childhood home.

Hendrix had me investing in Louise immediately, and through the course of the novel drew every possible reaction from me. I was outraged and a little sickened at Mark's behaviour leaving me desperate to understand how a brother and sister could hold such unending hatred for one another.
The journey through their childhood to unearth the guilt and secrets that had festered for decades was a fever dream of total insanity.

The horror aspect is camp and at times a little too silly, especially toward the end. I was eye-rolling hard by the third time I read the line 'blast these demons back to hell'.
I struggle to find evil puppet attacks scary although I'm sure it will freak out some readers, for me the real spine chills came from Louise and Mark's earlier experiences- no spoilers!

Hendrix writing is fast paced and easy to follow. I appreciated the use of a linear timeline and having the characters confessing their pasts through dialogue rather than using flashbacks gave more weight to their relationship and development.

At it's core How To Sell A Haunted House is a horror story about parenting, secrets and how choices made in one moment can impact the rest of our lives... with psycho puppets for added fun!

Louise has long moved away from her childhood home and town, however, following the news of the sudden death of both of her parents, she is forced to return to make arrangements with her estranged brother, Mark.

She doesn't want to linger and as she doesn't have any close connections with the family so she just wants to sell up and move on, knowing the money will help with her own daughters future.

However, when details of the will aren't what was expected Louise is forced to stay in town to arrange the sale of the house. Weird things have been going on since she got back... and just keep getting weirder.

Can Louise and Mark put aside their differences to deal with the spooky goings on without butting heads too much... Is there more lingering under the surface with the suspicious state of the house and the resident puppet collection... what secrets in the past will need to be uncovered to get to the bottom of the present situation.... only time will tell

Creepy puppet vibes, some rather squeamish moments and a little bit of silliness thrown in for good measure, this is a good book for current fans of Grady and would be a fun read if you aren't already too.

Thank you to NetGalley and Titan books for the chance to review an early copy of this book! I can't wait for this to be released in January!

**3.7 stars rounded up** Grady Hendrix does it again! The name is fast becoming synonymous with horror that takes some of our worst nightmares and makes them real. The author has a way of sliding some humourous and lighthearted moments into each creepy tale they write and I think it's very effective in almost relaxing the reader before running that chill straight back down our collective spines! I don't want to give too much away ahead of release but it's safe to say that if dolls and puppets don't currently freak you out, they certainly will after this! This is the story I was hoping for when I read Adam Nevills House of Small Shadows. I know he has a huge following but many of his books fall flat for me and that was one of the bigger disappointments. Thankfully Grady Hendrix has seen to it that I will not be allowing dolls into my house for the foreseeable future and will likely pass on a slight phobia to my children. Enjoy!

Huge thanks to Netgalley for my advance copy!

Wow! I did not expect to find How To Sell a Haunted House so compelling, so moving, and so f-ing creepy! Haunted puppets are a gift to a horror writer, but Hendrix really elevated this from simple jump-scares to full on terrifying (Pupkin’s song will stay with me for a long time…) by leaning in to the human element of the story. The tensions between adult siblings Louise and Mark are expertly handled, with my sympathies switching between them as the book went on. Meanwhile, the family trauma underlying the haunting is revealed slowly and satisfyingly.

Overall highly recommended: 4.5 stars.

My first Grady Hendrix novel and…well..I had a blast reading this overall.

I knew the author despite not having read any of his work so went into this blind and was all the better for it.

It’s kind of a dysfunctional family meets The Exorcist meets Childs Play with a little bit of Clive Barker thrown in towards the end.

This starts off as expected, a tragedy happens, woman returns home after many years and has to face her brother who she hasn’t spoken to in years. Creepy things start happening in the family home. All good and on script so far.

Then it goes off on a tangent I didn’t expect(in a good way) and we get into some real weird stuff.
The story is splattered with imaginative ideas and black humour throughout. There are actually some great one liners in here that had me laughing out loud.

The book kept me engaged throughout. My one criticism was the final quarter of the book which, without going into spoiler territory, felt a really awkward and forced storyline to get our main protagonists back to the house to resolve the story.

Still overall I thoroughly enjoyed this mad, unhinged romp. It was right up my street.
I’ll be checking Hendrixs back catalogue based on the strength of this one.

Many thanks to the publisher for the ARC through Netgalley.

How To Sell a Haunted House is the third book I have read by Grady Hendrix. It is categorised as horror, and it is the same vibe as Hendrix’s previous books; The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires and The Final Girl Support Group. The story follows Louise as she finds out her parents have died. The last thing Louise wants to do is go to her family home in Charleston. Louise also doesn’t want to deal with her useless brother Mark. They will have to work together to sell the house. However, this house doesn’t want to be sold. This was more a story of grief and how hard it is to accept rather than a horror. Even the headings in the book are denial and acceptance, stages of grief. The writing was good and if you are a fan of Hendrix, you will love this. It has the same vibe and feel as his other novels. This was my last chance with Hendrix, and I probably won’t read another book by him. This is a me thing because his work just doesn’t seem to work for me. Hendrix writes very specific types of books, and they are just not my thing. That said I do think this will be well received as it is deeply human at times. I am giving this a three-star rating because it was fine, and some parts were enjoyable but overall parts of this felt a little silly for me. Also, there is something about male authors writing women in books that just doesn’t work for me.

I tried, I tried.

Having been underwhelmed by Final Girls I wanted to roll the Hendrix dice once more.

I don’t think their writing style is for me - there’s just something that doesn’t gel. But this book specifically doesn’t do anything for me. Sentient evil toys has been done to death and recently enough there’s no nostalgia for the sub genre. Especially when a lot of the callbacks are incredibly heavy handed.

That said the title is super misleading as the house isn’t isn’t haunted. More just occupied by squatters - so not really any different to an abandoned Toys R Us.

Unfortunately this one wasn't for me. I was intrigued and liked the idea of a haunted house, but this wasn't what I was expecting. I think I would have preferred a haunted house story. I've struggled with some of this author's previous books and although I'm sure many people will enjoy this book, this author's books just aren't for me.

I previously read Horrorstör by the same author and loved it so I was super excited to be able to read this! It was entertaining but not as good as Horrorstör in my opinion. I would still recommend it though!

How to Sell a Haunted House is horror writer Grady Hendrix's newest novel, about a woman who returns home after her parents' death and is faced with a lot more than she bargained for. The sudden death of her parents throws Louise—she has to leave her young daughter Poppy with her ex and travel back to Charleston, where she has to deal with her estrange brother Mark, who she's always seen as getting anything from their parents that he wanted. She wants them to sell the house and then she can get away, but first they have to deal with the house and everything in it, including their mother's extensive puppet collection.

I love the high concept nature of Hendrix's books, but sometimes the concept overshadows the book a bit. In the case of this one, the concept is actually a much smaller part of the book than it might seem, and the heart of the story is a creepy story of puppets, grief, and family secrets. The start sets up a fraught family situation between Louise and Mark, driven not just by their parents' deaths but by the conflicting views of each other they hold. As the unnerving horror starts to trickle in to the plot, so do the revelations that their family has been hiding things and that not talking about things does not mean they did not happen that way.

The bizarre horror of some of the book (evil puppets mostly) sits strangely well with the deep sadness that also underpins it: the ways in which people deal with emotion, misunderstand each other, and resent things they cannot make sense of. The central puppet seems to find people when they need it, aka when they're emotionally vulnerable and looking for something else to take control of their life, and both Louise and Mark react to events in the book by doubling down on who they think they are, haunted maybe by what they do to cope. A point later in the book after Mark and Louise have been through something horrific, shows how horror sometimes misses out the part afterwards where what someone had to do in the heat of the terrifying moment still has terrible consequences.

How to Sell a Haunted House is not at its core a haunted house book (see The Haunting of Hill House, Tell Me I'm Worthless, and the YouTube video 'Control, Anatomy, and the Legacy of the Haunted House' for interesting ideas about what a haunted house might be), but it is a creepy puppet book and a family grief book. It has the ridiculousness of Hendrix's work combined with some tense emotion as two siblings work through their lives and why their family is the way it is. Some people may be disappointed that the title is seemingly purposefully misleading, but what you get instead is a look at family being more of the 'haunted house' than a house ever could.

His best book to date. Loved it and I am really really hoping there will be a follow up 🤞
Chris Carter fans will not be able to put this book down, pure genius worth every of the 5 star rating!

Unfortunately I was very disappointed by this book. Grady Hendrix’s books are always hit and miss for me, and after struggling with We Sold Our Souls, I was really hoping I’d enjoy this one. For the first half of this book, I liked it. It was a bit slow, but I was intrigued by the storyline and I liked the characters. And then it became really far-fetched and I started to dislike it. By the end, I couldn’t wait to finish reading it and I was really struggling. At several times I was very close to DNFing. I was hoping for a classic haunting book, but this really wasn’t it. I think it could have been a lot shorter as it felt really dragged out, and there were plenty of times towards the end when the storyline could have stopped. I’m sure people will enjoy this book, but it just wasn’t for me. My advice for people about to read this book is to have an open mind.

4-5 stars

The publishers synopsis is really good so I’ll just say .... Five years ago in San Francisco Louise becomes a single parent to Poppy. Her parents are surprisingly supportive and as we all do, Louise thinks she’ll have years ahead with them. One evening her estranged, waste of space brother Mark (Louise’s opinion!) rings to tell her they’ve been killed in a car crash in their native city of Charleston. When she arrives at their house everything, absolutely everything feels wrong giving her chills and bad vibes. She makes discoveries that seriously disturb her, then she thinks she must be hallucinating but it’s the sealed up attic that really rattles her bones. What on earth is going on at the house???

Oh boy, what have I just read??!! It sure taps into some of my phobias IN A BIG WAY but it does so in such an entertaining way though I doubt I could watch if it’s ever made into a movie!! Some things really do creep you out, make you hot under the collar whilst also raising the hairs in the back of your neck! The claustrophobia is so intense at times - let me out of here!!!! At one point I genuinely do yell ‘Oh no, no, no, no, no’ rather loudly which raises an eyebrow elsewhere in the room! There are some freaky, scary scenes and so I need all my braves not to jump out of my own skin.

Yet, yet, it’s also really darned funny, quirky, original, creative, imaginative, crazy, mad, weird and totally creeptastic! How clever to be able to combine funny and ‘feary’ in the same book, what a skill.

The characters are excellent, on one I admit to a massive U-turn when you learn more as the novel progresses with the two lead protagonists being made of stern stuff if not titanium. The dialogue is also really good with the author sometimes making me hoot with laughter whilst at others covering my eyes which is not helpful when reading! I like the ending which is very satisfying. Highly recommended to fans of horror.

With thanks to NetGalley and especially to Titan Books for the much appreciated arc in return for an honest review.

Post to Goodreads and Twitter on 1/1/23
Post to Amazon and Waterstones on 17/1/23.