Reviews tagging 'Toxic relationship'

How to Sell a Haunted House by Grady Hendrix

51 reviews

memecomey's review against another edition

dark slow-paced

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

1.5

Almost DNF but kept going (skipped a few paragraphs in the process because the description of the 'fighting' scenes were too hard for me to imagine) just so I cld tick this off. Felt a bit duped as I was hoping the story will truly be about a haunted house. But no, it was actually about

haunted puppets and it was too 'Chucky' for me

. Plot was slow and sometimes it felt illogical e.g.

Mark putting on the puppet, Mark and spider dynamics, Lulu-Spider love-hate relationship

. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Gore, Toxic relationship, and Injury/Injury detail

ajay913's review against another edition

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Gore, Toxic relationship, Violence, Grief, Death of parent, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Mental illness and Gaslighting

Minor: Cursing, Self harm, Car accident, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Fire/Fire injury, and Alcohol

kailynpaig's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense medium-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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Grief, Car accident, Death of parent, Abandonment, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

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

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

Minor: Animal death, Drug use, and Alcohol

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, Confinement, Toxic relationship, and Violence

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

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

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: Blood and Injury/Injury detail

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

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

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

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

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

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

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