Reviews tagging 'Mental illness'

How to Sell a Haunted House by Grady Hendrix

48 reviews

skersnick's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Grief, Death of parent, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Child death, Gun violence, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Self harm, Medical content, Car accident, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Fire/Fire injury

hopesux's review against another edition

dark emotional funny mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

Wonderful book. Gripping and exciting. Made me cry in the end.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Mental illness, Violence, Vomit, Medical content, Grief, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, 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

kauliflower's review against another edition

slow-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

2.0

stars ,, 2.0
cawpile ,, 4.0

super disappointed. the only enjoyable factor in this book was the authors writing style, which i already knew i liked because of my last read, another of his books (which was actually super good). even though i wasn't necessarily bored or angry, i wasn't interested in the plot at all - the horror aspect didn't even truly begin until about ,, 250 pages in? even though you spend so long with the characters & their backstories, they still felt underwhelming and i had trouble feeling bad/scared for them, which then ruined the atmosphere. overall, didn't hate it, but certainly didn't love or like it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Violence, and Death of parent

Moderate: Body horror and Mental illness

Minor: Child death, Self harm, and Alcohol

jesssicawho's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious sad medium-paced

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

4.0

While this is a horror story about a haunted house (specifically a

house full of possessed and murderous puppets

), it's also a story about family, sibling rivalry, and coming together through shared trauma. I thought a few parts dragged a little but overall this was a delightfully weird and somewhat sad read. The idea of a "squirrel baby Jesus" still makes me chuckle.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Body horror, Child death, Death, Mental illness, Car accident, Death of parent, and Fire/Fire injury

haileyhardcover's review

adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

How to Sell A Haunted House tells the story of Louise and her brother, Mark, who are grappling with the sudden, violent death of their parents… and all of the many secrets they left behind. This is more than a horror story. It’s about grief, complex family relationships, generational trauma, secrets, and puppets. 

So much about this book surprised me in the best way. I wouldn’t say it was scary, per se, but it definitely made my heart race! Multiple times, my jaw dropped, my eyes bulged, and I pterodactyl-screeched at what I was reading. There is another chilling surprise around every corner, and I thoroughly enjoyed the journey.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Gore, Torture, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Car accident, Death of parent, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Cursing, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Murder, and Gaslighting

Minor: Self harm, Pregnancy, and Fire/Fire injury

lisette_eponine's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad 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

3.25

Not my favorite Hendrix, but a very interesting story. There were several jump scares, and quite a bit of body horror. While the overall theme was good, the pacing was a bit off. It felt like the momentum stalled a few times. I did love that the chapters were centered around the five stages of grief. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Gore, Mental illness, Violence, Vomit, Medical content, Grief, Car accident, Death of parent, and Injury/Injury detail

timelord10'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? Yes

3.5

This is my first Grady Hendrix book, and I loved the writing style. I'm not a big horror fan in general, but I'll definitely be checking out all of his other books. The only reason I'm rating it 3.5 stars is because there was a big part in the middle where I got bored, and I put the book down for a while. It just wasn't doing it for me for part of the book. However, I feel like I can't fully judge how good of a horror book this is because I don't have much to compare it to, but it definitely creeped me out at times. I think my favorite aspect of the book was the relationship between Louise and Mark. I loved how their bond grew over the course of the book.

It was also amazing how Grady Hendrix made you hate Pupkin the entire book, but at the end when you found out he was the ghost of Freddie, you still felt bad for him despite how terrible he had been. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Cursing, Death, Gore, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Grief, Car accident, Death of parent, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Mental illness and Self harm

Minor: Medical content

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

dr_aimz's review against another edition

dark emotional 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? No

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Mental illness, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Child death, Death, and Grief

Minor: Animal death