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A review by blackeyedraptor
How to Sell a Haunted House by Grady Hendrix
challenging
dark
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
3.5
This book was... Weird, and not in a Tim Burton, Neil Gaiman kind of way. Tbh, I'm kind of disappointed.
The writing style was fantastic, I would definitely read the authors other works, but I find myself being disappointed in it.
It went from properly creepy to wannabe slasher fic in about a single chapter, and I hate slashers! They're needlessly gory and when a story has to depend on bloody shock factors, the writing is bad, which is sad because the author has style! I nearly dnf'd at least 3 times, but kept plugging on.
*Spoilers*
So turns out, it's not the house that's haunted, even though it initially comes off that way, it's her mom's creepy childhood puppet, who's haunted by her dead uncle who died young. Again, the whole thing felt like it was depending on the shock Factor too much, and was just weird. I love a good spooky ghost story, but I argue that this belongs in that category. If it were a movie, it'd be a slasher, but at least it would get marks for being unpredictable.
The writing style was fantastic, I would definitely read the authors other works, but I find myself being disappointed in it.
It went from properly creepy to wannabe slasher fic in about a single chapter, and I hate slashers! They're needlessly gory and when a story has to depend on bloody shock factors, the writing is bad, which is sad because the author has style! I nearly dnf'd at least 3 times, but kept plugging on.
*Spoilers*
So turns out, it's not the house that's haunted, even though it initially comes off that way, it's her mom's creepy childhood puppet, who's haunted by her dead uncle who died young. Again, the whole thing felt like it was depending on the shock Factor too much, and was just weird. I love a good spooky ghost story, but I argue that this belongs in that category. If it were a movie, it'd be a slasher, but at least it would get marks for being unpredictable.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Death, Gore, Torture, Violence, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, and Murder
Moderate: Ableism, Emotional abuse, and Self harm