Reviews tagging 'Toxic relationship'

How to Sell a Haunted House by Grady Hendrix

38 reviews

gopackandstats's review against another edition

dark funny sad tense medium-paced

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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Medical trauma, Body horror, Gore, Car accident, Death, Physical abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Toxic relationship, and Animal death

Moderate: Murder, Gaslighting, Child death, Vomit, and Death of parent

Minor: Alcohol, Drug use, and Animal death

demara_crim's review against another edition

dark tense medium-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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child death, Toxic relationship, Violence, and Confinement

Minor: Death of parent

andyandnormski's review against another edition

dark sad 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? Yes

2.5

As much as I wanted to like this book, it fell flat for me. The dust jacket more or less promised a haunted house story. What I got instead was a possessed puppet, and while the reveal of its origins at the end was well written, the puppet itself came out of left field a little too fast for me. It felt jarring when, up until that point, over half the story revolved around the siblings and a haunting sense of foreboding. Once the puppet arrived on the scene, it went from feeling somber to slapstick horror. I think my problem was there was no sense of build-up towards the puppet being alive and to the extreme levels that it was. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Toxic relationship, Death, Gore, Death of parent, Medical content, Grief, Car accident, Gaslighting, and Medical trauma

Moderate: Gaslighting, Emotional abuse, Blood, and Child death

Minor: Violence

sshpurple1's review against another edition

dark sad medium-paced

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

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail and Blood

Moderate: Gore, Toxic relationship, Fire/Fire injury, Bullying, Death of parent, Gaslighting, Violence, Murder, and Death

Minor: Car accident

sshpurple1's review against another edition

dark sad medium-paced

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

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Gore, Blood, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Fire/Fire injury, Violence, Abandonment, Death, Death of parent, and Gaslighting

bg_oseman_fan's review against another edition

dark emotional tense medium-paced

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

3.5

this book was not what i was expecting based on the title. I initially put it down part way through, but ended up picking it back up and reading to the finish. The writing of the action scenes was not very engaging. I found the attempts to create tension really repetitive such that the twists never really grabbed. as horror, this book didn’t get me. as a story about trauma and intergenerational relationships, i was hooked. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Gore, Violence, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, Death, and Blood

Moderate: Gun violence, Car accident, Fire/Fire injury, Toxic relationship, Child death, and Medical content

Minor: Child abuse, Alcohol, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, and Self harm

missmali's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny mysterious reflective tense fast-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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse, Self harm, Violence, Toxic relationship, Death of parent, and Gore

apoppyinthewind's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad 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? It's complicated

4.0

The basic premise is that main character Louise gets the call no one wants to get and learns both of her parents have died in a car accident. She has to go back home to deal with the funeral, the estate, and the messed up family she's kept at a distance since moving away decades ago. Her younger and only sibling is the most difficult part as they continually bicker over the estate and past hurts/trauma but it gets a whole lot worse their mother's doll & puppet collection seem to be moving on their own.

So yeah, if horror series like Puppet Master and Chucky freaked you out you'll certainly find this story creepy. Be forewarned there is some eye stuff and body mutilation. And a fuck ton of grief and trauma over losing a parent/parents.

If you've ever had to go through an estate process you may relate hard to Louise's exhaustion and sorrow. At least I did and I think the author accurately captured the experience. My only complaints are: One, I felt like it dragged a bit near the end when Louise's daughter Poppy became a larger part of the story and two, while Mark's background reveal was interesting (and makes me want to know more about radical puppets) it felt disconnected from the story especially with the big reveal at the end. Like, what happened to Louise & Poppy makes sense with the reveal but Mark's made less sense once you know the real reason all these things happened.

Still, I'd recommend it especially if you already like Hendrix's other books.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Body horror, Blood, and Violence

Moderate: Animal death, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Death of parent, Grief, Vomit, Toxic relationship, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Car accident, Child death, Death, and Medical content

Minor: Gun violence

rachelunabridged's review against another edition

dark emotional 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Blood, Death of parent, Grief, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Child death, Cursing, and Self harm

Minor: Car accident

stardustvein's review against another edition

dark emotional funny reflective sad 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? It's complicated

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Car accident, Body horror, Death of parent, Grief, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Child death, Medical content, Abandonment, Toxic relationship, Violence, Death, Blood, and Mental illness