Reviews tagging 'Fire/Fire injury'

How to Sell a Haunted House by Grady Hendrix

105 reviews

lsmith725's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

3.5

If creepy doll/puppet horror is what you're looking for, look no further.  It had intensity, especially in certain action scenes.  It had family drama.  It was maybe a touch too long.  There were a few scenes with Poppy attacks that just weren't necessary and didn't add much because Poppy's creepy factor was already established by that point.  But this was entertaining, a bit disgusting, and action packed.  Read this if you want a thrilling, dark horror story ride.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Violence, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Body horror and Death of parent

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

shedevls's review against another edition

dark emotional funny 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? Yes

4.0

though mark pissed me off enough in the beginning that i almost decided to dnf this, i'm really glad i stuck it out it out. i ended up having a lot of fun with this one! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Death of parent, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Child death, Grief, and Car accident

Minor: Animal death, Self harm, Vomit, and Fire/Fire injury

lampbee's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad fast-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

5.0

Very good book :) Really enjoyed it , a lot of books like these can tend to have a very information / backstory heavy first half which this did not. The siblings , Louise and Mark , are both very complex and unlikeable in their own ways and between them and the extended family there’s a lot of wanting to hate one side or the other and being unable to which I enjoyed. I don’t normally reach for haunted stories but this one was fantastic and made sense all the way through , nothing felt like an aside or written in without intention so everything was a clue which was very satisfying. A very satisfying ending too, one that didn’t feel overly dramatic or out of line with the rest of the haunting. Probably my favourite haunted book :)

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Death, Gore, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Car accident, Death of parent, and Fire/Fire injury

glkilbert's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.5

Be prepared to read the word “puppet” several hundred times. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Gore, Mental illness, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, and Fire/Fire injury

sarahbiegelsen's review against another edition

dark emotional tense fast-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Violence, Car accident, Death of parent, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Ableism, Alcoholism, Cursing, Gore, Torture, Blood, Grief, and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Gun violence, Medical content, Pregnancy, and Alcohol

livnmoore's review against another edition

dark funny reflective medium-paced

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

3.5

At its best, it’s a solid 4 star “thriller-lite” story for passing time, with really compelling characters that evoke a lot of emotion. My only problem is the pacing felt inconsistent. It would feel quite slow at times and then jolt along, and then slow up and then jolt ahead, before settling on a good steady pace. Maybe that works toward the thriller feel!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Violence, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Self harm, Torture, Blood, Medical content, and Car accident

Minor: Cursing and Alcohol

fionamclary's review against another edition

dark emotional funny sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

Never thought I'd say "puppet violence" when telling my friends about what I'm currently reading.

I have to say I guessed the twist very early on, which is extremely rare for me, so either I got super lucky or the twist wasn't as subtle as it should have been.

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Content Warnings

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

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

Minor: Alcoholism, Mental illness, Vomit, and Abandonment

Major themes of children in peril

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.

the_vegan_bookworm's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional reflective sad slow-paced

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

4.0

Gardy Hendrix is such a talented writer and he's a master of his craft. This book exemplifies that. This book was genuinely scary, tapped into some very real feelings around family dynamics and grief, and it was an interesting premise and execution.

With this said, this was kind of meh for me. I didn't care for any of the characters , especially Louise, and the plot felt like it really dragged on. I also found the ending to be fine, but nothing really emotional or grounding.

Also the M&M scene was so weird and I could have lived without "sensual" as a descriptor of rubbing candy on a child puppet's mouth...

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Gore, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Medical trauma, Death of parent, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Animal cruelty and Animal death