Reviews tagging 'Gaslighting'

How to Sell a Haunted House by Grady Hendrix

47 reviews

thetinyhealer's review against another edition

mysterious 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? Yes

3.0

This book was pretty interesting and strange. I never thought I'd listen to an audiobook about haunted puppets, but here we are. 

This was a story about loss and generational trauma told as two dysfunctional siblings try to uncover the mysteries surrounding their familial past and strange happenings in their deceased parent's house.

There are some things about this story that just don't make sense, and there are some pretty unforgivable things the characters do that seem to just get glossed over and are never mentioned again. I also don't believe the redemption arc in certain characters that I think we're supposed to feel. The story kept my attention but it also had me frequently thinking, really? I'm supposed to be scared of puppets? It could make a good PG-13 movie for spooky season, but I wouldn't go super out of my way to recommend this book to a friend.

On the positive side? I think this author did a great job of writing a strong, sensible and independent FMC. And I appreciated that she was a meaningful character on her own, without needing any kind of romantic relationship in her story. This book also kept me interested pretty consistently. It normally takes me a while to get through audoobooks but I ripped through this one within a couple of days. A very strange concept, but a ride of a book for sure. 



Trigger warning! There are a few gory scenes. May include: eyes, limbs, blood. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Gore, and Violence

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Child death, Death of parent, Medical trauma, Murder, and Gaslighting

Minor: Vomit and Gun violence

more detail on trigger warnings: eye gets stabbed with a needle, dismembered limb, multiple hospital scenes, scenes where people are scratched or cut bloody by a knife or claws, building burned down with people inside, multiple attempted / successful murders of children by other children, generational trauma that relatives refuse to acknowledge, parental death, child death, and the brother constantly being a complete and utter jerk to his grieving sister.

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

honeybeewitched87's review against another edition

adventurous funny 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? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror

Moderate: Vomit, Injury/Injury detail, Child death, Pregnancy, Grief, Medical content, Blood, Cursing, Death, Gaslighting, Gore, Alcohol, Death of parent, Violence, and Car accident

magellen's review against another edition

emotional sad slow-paced

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

2.0

Boring. So so slow and so boring. Like it feels as if he wanted to build a book off the way we all feel regarding the scary clown in Poltergeist mixed with generational trauma but it all went flat in the bake. Grady tells tells tells with zero show (honestly does no one ctrl+f for FEELS FEELING FELT with his work?) And even the highest points of emotion are BORING as wallpaper paste.

If you think you've guessed the situation in the early chapters, after a couple mentions of Pumpkin,  welp. You're right. It is as straightforward as it seems and never builds tension so much as trips over attempts. It isn't funny either, despite many attempts. It feels like a half assed attempt frankly, cause as awful as SBCGKV w/e was, it was slightly more creative.
That said

again with buring people out back shit? Again?even the *edgy* bits of *scary* are boring repeats.

I was gonna give it 3.5 originally but no. I thought I was half way at 33%, and almost done when there was another 4+ hours of audio book. 
It is SLOW and without substance, try literally anything else in his body of work and you'll be at least slightly less disappointed. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Car accident, Death of parent, Gaslighting, and Death

alexisgarcia's review against another edition

mysterious reflective tense slow-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

3.5

this was pretty good but a little too silly to really scare me. i’ve never thought dolls were scary so this didn’t get to me that much, i also thought the ending was kind of out of nowhere?? idk. i do love Hendrix’s writing though. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Death of parent, Ableism, Addiction, Alcohol, Animal death, Murder, Grief, Panic attacks/disorders, Animal cruelty, Alcoholism, Cursing, Gore, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Body horror, Death, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Toxic friendship, and Violence

snazzy10101's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Car accident, Child death, Death of parent, Grief, and Death

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Gore, Gaslighting, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Self harm, Medical content, and Injury/Injury detail

murmurations_x's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

“Strange noises, bad vibes, your mom and dad recently passed— Your house is haunted and I'm not selling it until you deal with that." 

Our biggest takeaway from reading this book is.... I'm a Grady Hendrix girly.

I really wasn't expecting to love this story

(especially when I realized that it was a haunted puppet not so much ghosts in a house)

as much as I did. I absolutely devoured this book it was such a wild ride and I was living for every twist and turn it took. Please somebody adapt this book now to a series or film its perfect for it!

Hendrix is one of the few horror authors that I actually enjoy how they write women. Louise was likeable, unlikable and very real and Mark was definitely my favourite character of the book and I loved how his backstory is given to us from his own POV. I really enjoyed reading about them both coming back together as siblings to face their family trauma and defeat the entity of the story. Also worth a mention is I loved how the move was broken up by the stages of grief, super clever!

Hendrix does what Hendrix does best in this book which is write a funny, campy, tropey horror story that has elements of some pretty intense body horror. A perfect read for October, definitely recommend. 

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Murder, Cursing, Self harm, Gaslighting, Medical content, and Stalking

Minor: Pregnancy and Alcohol

aryelee's review against another edition

dark emotional 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

4.0

Absolutely in love with this book. Grady Hendrix is incredible. I was hooked from the first chapter and finished reading this in one day, I just couldn't put it down. 

The complex, troubled relationship between the siblings, the family's need to bury their darkest secrets and never speak of it again, the consequences of both these things! And how they have to band together to survive the haunting and go great lengths to help each other... I'm obsessed. I love stories centered on complicated families and this hit! This really hit!

I loved the use of puppets and puppetry, how the puppet is its own living thing possessing the puppeteer when in use. I loved the dolls and how their childhoods were so relevant even decades later. I loved every interaction between the siblings and how it gradually changed into something better so that they could both get out alive.

I would give this five stars, but the plot was predictable. Though enjoyable to read, it wasn't as mysterious as I would have wanted it, but it's still very good. Though I called the plot twist in the first section of the book, even knowing what it is didn't stop my enjoyment of the rest of the novel, but it did dampen the scene when that information is revealed. 

The themes of family, siblings, and mothers and daughters are so good. History constantly repeating itself, the need to pry into the secrets held by the family (and by themselves) and the struggle to be honest and vulnerable... Truly an incredible novel. I do love horror with themes like these.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Death of parent and Child death

Minor: Alcoholism and Gaslighting