Reviews tagging 'Fatphobia'

How to Sell a Haunted House, by Grady Hendrix

7 reviews

hallowreads's review

emotional funny reflective tense slow-paced

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

2.0

Hendrix writes another badly stereotyped female protagonist. Louise is the “uptight, successful man hater”. While some parts of the middle were funny and engaging, I think overall this book should be much shorter. Hendrix needs to challenge himself to write male characters, as the most engaging part of this book was the short section from the main character’s younger brother’s perspective. Mark is the only character in the book that is fully fleshed out with interesting motivations and choices. Overall I don’t recommend readers *not* read this book, but there are more engaging, less problematic books out there by authors creating diverse horrorscapes with fully realized characters.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Child death, Gore, Violence, Injury/injury detail, Self harm, Blood, and Death of parent

Moderate: Confinement, Fatphobia, and Gun violence

Minor: Animal death and Animal cruelty

rqdreads's review

dark mysterious tense slow-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

4.0

This book is ridiculous from start to finish. It’s giving RL Stine but for adults. There’s definitely a lot of creepiness, especially if you don’t like puppets or dolls 🤮 it’s not terrifying to where I can’t sleep at night but it’s creepy enough to where I had to talk about it with my friends.

One thing I liked was how it kept twisting and turning. At one point I legitimately was rolling my eyes at where it was going because I just couldn’t understand what was happening and then it came together 😂

If you like campy horror, this is for you 👻

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Child abuse, Toxic friendship, Dementia, Injury/injury detail, Body horror, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, and Gore

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Gaslighting, and Car accident

Minor: Gun violence, Fatphobia, and Excrement

soshereads_'s review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

I am not sure what I just read but I am HERE FOR IT. I really want to get into Henrix’s brain and see how his mind works because how one person could come up with this book is beyond me. I never get scared by books but this creeped me the f*ck out. I still stayed up late reading it through. I didn’t want it to end! One moment you think it has to be done but the next a whole other off the wall thing happens that’s even more outlandish than the last. I will never look at puppets or squirrels the same way!
I promise it’s better to go into reading this book without knowing a lot. It’s much better that way!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Self harm, Death of parent, Child death, and Death

Moderate: Confinement

Minor: Panic attacks/disorders, Toxic relationship, Torture, Fatphobia, and Gun violence

jaedia's review against another edition

dark emotional tense medium-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

5.0

Wow, I could not put this book down. How to Sell a Haunted House follows Louise as she returns home following the sudden death of her parents, only to find herself feeling frustrated by her brother Mark who has already taken control of all of the funeral arrangements and she's not happy. The entire book is about grief and family, and just happens to include a haunted house as its backdrop, although this one is not exactly as you would expect. And I will say no more because the way this story unwinds is so good. As I said, could not put it down. All this did was remind me that I need to pick up his other books because this is the second time I have fallen in love with his writing! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Death of parent, Car accident, Blood, Gore, Grief, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Injury/injury detail

Moderate: Alcohol, Self harm, Vomit, Fire/Fire injury, and Medical content

Minor: Fatphobia, Abandonment, Alcoholism, Emotional abuse, Medical trauma, Pregnancy, Body shaming, Gun violence, Bullying, Child abuse, Mental illness, and Gaslighting

anniup's review

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Child death, Death, Gore, Injury/injury detail, Violence, and Blood

Moderate: Fire/Fire injury, Grief, and Car accident

Minor: Fatphobia and Medical content

librariangeorgia's review

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? Yes

4.0

Wow.

I went into this not expecting much from it after not enjoying THE FINAL GIRL SUPPORT GROUP. However, this book, was so much better - creepy but more interesting.

I was completely enraptured yet completely freaked out. The whole concept was just plain weird. It actually stressed me out and gave me a headache with all the hauntedness and weird puppet ghosts/demons/paranormal. I wasn't really a puppet fan but i definitely don't like them now.

Overall, a solid book but not one i'd be rushing to reread!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Fatphobia, Animal death, Addiction, Violence, Death of parent, Injury/injury detail, Child death, and Car accident

roemsy's review

dark mysterious 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? Yes

3.5

We’re back in Charleston with haunted houses, creepy dolls/puppets, family drama, etc. Grady Hendrix knows how to do horror that can’t be denied. I do feel like the first half was a little too heavy on the family drama and wasn’t as action packed and spooky as I wanted it to be, but the last half really came through. Pupkin is the stuff of nightmares and I want nothing to do with him. I rebuke it lol.

I think this is a weird one though, that some people may find extremely creepy and horror-filled and others might be like “really?” In my opinion, it’ll rely heavily on your imagination and what you find scary. If movies like Dead Silence or Chucky are your jam, I have no doubt you will love this book. But since scary dolls are heavily used as the spook-factor I think if those don’t scare you or if the image you conjure of them isn’t scary, then you might just shrug at this one. This also might be why I think it would be more intriguing as a movie where your imagination is less heavily relied on. All in all though, this was a good read and while it’s not my *favorite* of his… I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, Grady could write a phone book and I would read it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Gore, and Medical content

Moderate: Death of parent, Car accident, and Child death

Minor: Fatphobia