Reviews tagging 'Medical trauma'

How to Sell a Haunted House, by Grady Hendrix

18 reviews

maimy_santiago99's review

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Death, Child death, Body horror, Blood, Death of parent, Medical content, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/injury detail, and Medical trauma

Moderate: Child death, Medical content, Death of parent, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Car accident, Blood, Body horror, Mental illness, and Death

Content warning, puppets and dolls

kshertz's review

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.25

What a weird wild ride? I guess that’s Grady’s specialty. It gets really twisted with dolls, clowns, and puppets. I almost threw up once. I had to put the book down a few times. Im very happy my house had none of these things. Read it if you want to be grossed out and horrified by puppets and dolls and clowns. I liked it but also, probably something i’m going to need to bring up in therapy next week🙃

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Bullying, Fire/Fire injury, Car accident, Child death, Gaslighting, Body horror, Cannibalism, Animal death, Animal cruelty, Blood, Confinement, Death, Gun violence, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Gore, Grief, Medical content, Vomit, Injury/injury detail, Violence, and Medical trauma

nrogers_1030's review

dark emotional funny mysterious sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated

2.25

Meh…
I usually love G.H.’s books, but not this one. Slow, mostly unlikeable characters, not scary… I could keep going, but it would be a moot point. I did have a soft spot for the great aunt. She reminded me of Roz from Monsters, Inc. His sense of humor helped the rating. I wouldn’t recommend this one, but I’ve enjoyed several of his others & have every intention of reading his next.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Death of parent, Death, Grief, Torture, Blood, Body horror, Cursing, Injury/injury detail, Toxic friendship, and Violence

Moderate: Child death, Gaslighting, Alcohol, Car accident, Vomit, Fire/Fire injury, and Gore

Minor: Gun violence, Medical content, Medical trauma, and Animal death

dee_elizabeth's review

dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Medical trauma, Injury/injury detail, and Violence

Moderate: Death of parent and Grief

doomcookie's review

dark emotional funny lighthearted fast-paced

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

4.0

stuffed animals being training wheels for your heart really got me 🥲

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Medical trauma, Car accident, Child death, Gore, and Injury/injury detail

Minor: Pregnancy and Fire/Fire injury

itsalina's review

dark emotional tense fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Blood, Torture, Body horror, Death, Death of parent, Violence, Injury/injury detail, and Grief

Moderate: Abandonment, Child death, Medical trauma, Toxic relationship, Emotional abuse, Medical content, and Murder

Minor: Gun violence and Fire/Fire injury

kirtreads's review

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.5

I read this book in one sitting. While I don’t think it comes close to Southern Book Club in terms of literary style, this was a really fun book to read. It was suspenseful, frightening and creepy right from the start. It was a great, spooky read despite some minor issues. Would really recommend! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Death of parent, Violence, Gore, Grief, Body horror, Medical trauma, Injury/injury detail, and Medical content

amphytrite's review

adventurous dark emotional 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Fire/Fire injury, Violence, Death of parent, Injury/injury detail, Medical trauma, Murder, and Grief

Moderate: Gun violence and Death

Minor: Cursing, Blood, and Car accident

aprilbethp's review

dark funny tense fast-paced

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

3.5

I’m a huge Grady Hendrix fan but this was my least favorite of his books.

Listen, I enjoy camp but this was just over the top. I usually love how Hendrix is able to blend camp humor and horror together. The problem for me was that there wasn’t one moment I was scared for the characters. There were a lot of “well, that’s gross and horrific” moments of body gore but not many if any moments of “how are they gonna survive this” moments.

I appreciated the themes of generational trauma and family systems. I always love how Hendrix tackles bigger issues with compassion, humor, and spot on analysis. I also appreciated how unlikeable most characters are because sometimes when in a family you see too much of what makes our own family members, ourselves included, unlikeable. Yet, we still love them. Those dynamics rang true to me.

But the haunting of puppets…

Spoiler

Pupkin

was so ridiculous that everything

Spoiler

he

said and did,  it just wasn’t scary. And while humor is key to all of Hendrix’s books, this humor pulled me out of the story. I like horror that feels realistic even if it contains implausible creatures. I would have perhaps been able to go with it more had

Spoiler

Pupkin not been a hand puppet. Maybe a regular doll or regular ventriloquist dummy? I don’t know the Pupkin commedia masks made sense to me. Completely coverage of the puppeteers the swallowing of them whole. But a small hand puppet made for a child’s hand

…
it was too silly for my brain to take seriously. 

But I did enjoy the read even if no thrills were had. I laughed some. I did cringe at the body gore. I appreciated the themes. I give it a better than average score of 3.5. It achieved what it needed to if not in a fashion I would have hoped for. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Violence, Self harm, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/injury detail, Panic attacks/disorders, Grief, Body horror, Blood, Death, Medical trauma, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Gun violence, Animal death, Child death, Death of parent, and Fire/Fire injury

iwillendyouinc's review

dark emotional fast-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical trauma and Injury/injury detail

Moderate: Death and Death of parent

Minor: Self harm