Reviews tagging 'Bullying'

How to Sell a Haunted House by Grady Hendrix

16 reviews

nickoliver's review against another edition

dark emotional tense slow-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? Yes

3.75

This book was a bit of a challenge for me. First of all, I think the premise is a little bit misleading - it was less of a haunted house as it was a haunted puppet. Still creepy (or even creepier, if you're like me and hate dolls), but not the same thing.

Second of all, the characters often just made me so mad I could barely concentrate on the actual story. For the first 100 or so pages, I desperately wanted to punch Mark in the face. And while it got better later on when you got an explanation, I still thought it didn't completely justify his behaviour in the past (despite the fact that everyone acted like it did). The tense scenes were often impossible to read because it was often just Louise getting hurt and not being able to defend herself despite constantly talking about "If I just do XX, I'll be save". 
Plus, the denial was incredibly strong with her, and it drove me nuts. Especially later in the book when you found out that Louise already had a lot of supernatural experience with the puppet, because why on earth did she have several near-death experiences in the house and still tried to tell herself it was nothing.

The later half of the story was better in my opinion. Getting Pupkin's backstory, and the way the characters dealt with it, made it a lot deeper and intense, and I genuinely enjoyed that. But I do think the story could've benefited from being a tiny bit shorter.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Bullying, Child death, Death, Violence, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

vixenreader's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring tense medium-paced

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

4.25

An exciting, and yet heartfelt, horror novel of how failing to address the grievances of the past will come back to haunt generations to come. Plus if you are afraid of dolls and puppets, this book is nightmare-fuel. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, Cursing, Emotional abuse, Gore, Mental illness, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Bullying, Child death, Gun violence, Vomit, Car accident, Murder, Gaslighting, Abandonment, and Alcohol

Minor: Racism, Xenophobia, Pregnancy, and War

Be aware that this book features estrangement within families, unstable sibling relationships, unresolved generational trauma, children drowning, cult-like behaviour, 9/11 and the Iraq War, bad exes, mother-daughter relationships, sewing needles as weapons, eyeball trauma, and killer dolls/puppets/imaginary dogs.

shubka's review against another edition

adventurous challenging 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

3.75

This book definitely makes me never want to be around puppets or dolls ever again! Full of twists & turns I never could have guessed. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Emotional abuse, Gore, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Death of parent, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Animal death, Bullying, Torture, Grief, Gaslighting, and Toxic friendship

clrouse's review against another edition

dark funny mysterious tense fast-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

5.0

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Bullying, Child death, Medical content, and Car accident

Minor: Cursing, Drug use, Mental illness, Fire/Fire injury, and Alcohol

aseel_reads's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-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

1.75

This author is a hit or miss for me, and this was a miss. For starters if the house is

filled with puppets and dolls

OBVIOUSLY ITS GOING TO BE HAUNTED. Being a cliche was the lesser of the crimes this book commited. The next was the weird historical add on of

9/11??? Like why did the brother join anti war puppet organisation and then like lose his identity within the puppet and kill (?) his friends

. The last thing that had me gagged, as the kids say,

POPPY MAKING HER OWN PUPPET?? that was straight up messed up, as well as cutting off her own brother's arm??? And some pretend/real spider pet?? Damn this book went off the rails

Lolol as I'm writing the review, I brought down the rating 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Grief, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Abandonment and War

lilyreadsthings's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Bullying, Cursing, and Blood

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

ladygray_'s review against another edition

adventurous dark funny fast-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Torture, and Death of parent

Moderate: Bullying, Child death, and Gaslighting

thatoneguyjm's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful 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? Yes

3.5

Half Sam Raimi-esque spook-a-blast and half family drama about the secrets we keep and the thing we (mis)remember, How to Sell a Haunted House might be Grady’s most emotionally affecting book. Not that it’s all feelings and family - there’s also attacking taxidermied squirrels, puppets shoving needles where needles shouldn’t go, and emergency amputations. While you may or may not resonate with the characters, the moments of horror carry the book quite ably for those who are into that sort of thing. (And I am.)

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Child death, Gore, Panic attacks/disorders, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Car accident, Death of parent, Gaslighting, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail

elizafiedler's review against another edition

challenging 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

4.5

Much creepier than I thought it would be!  Very much liked the last three hours of the audiobook; I wasn't paying attention to how far I'd gotten, and assumed the story was wrapping up, but NOPE! It got creepier and more dangerous, AGAIN. Brilliant. The family reconciliation is also nice; not perfect, not saccharine, pretty believable. 
Avoid if you have difficulty with dolls and puppets.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Grief, Death of parent, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Child death, Gun violence, Violence, and Blood

puppet horror