What's creepier than a solid haunted house story? How about one filled with creepy puppets?

I'll admit that Grady Hendrix's novels are usually big hits or big misses for me - but this one was a huge swing, right out of the park. Known for blending typical horror tropes and wacky twists, Hendrix wrote a story here that is full of well-written characters. These are people you feel like you know, they could be your own family - and the decisions they make in the most absurd situations still manage to feel authentic.
Maybe I'm biased due to my own unfounded fears of dolls and puppets (any other 80s kids out there who had a Cricket doll? ~shudder~), but the craziness of this one really satisfied my desire for good old-fashioned horror, while still delivering on character development.
This was my first read of the New Year and I have a feeling it's going to be one of my favourites.
5/5
Thanks to NetGalley and to the publisher for the advance copy to read and review. All opinions are my own.
Publication date: January 17, 2023

I received a gifted galley of HOW TO SELL A HAUNTED HOUSE by Grady Hendrix for an honest review. Thank you to PRH Audio, Berkley Publishing Group, and Netgalley for the opportunity to read and review! This was my most anticipated January release so was happy to kick off the year strong with this one!

HOW TO SELL A HAUNTED HOUSE follows Louise, a single mother who gets a horrible phone call telling her that both of her parents have been killed in a car accident. She must make her way back to her hometown to sort things out with her brother Mark, a brother she has barely talked to in years. They must come together to plan a funeral and deal with their parents’ estate.

When it comes to their childhood home, something about it feels off. It is stuffed full with their mother’s crafts and especially with the puppets she created to perform her unique ministry. There is a lot of work to get done to have the house ready for sale and a lot of tension between the siblings. When disturbing things begin to happen in the house, each suspects the other is to blame, but there is more going on than they could have guessed.

This isn’t your typical haunted house story and looking at some of the less favorable reviews, I think that is at it’s core. If you’re going into this one expecting a standard haunted house, then I could see why this wouldn’t live up to expectations. That said, this book absolutely delivered the creepiness and the shudder inducing eww-ness I was looking for when I picked it up. There are definitely moments from the book that my brain is still vividly showing me!

Louise and Mark didn’t really impress me in the beginning, but I really enjoyed the character arc each goes through and the way their relationship changes as things begin to happen and different secrets are uncovered. There is a lot of toxic drama in this family!

There were a few places where the pacing slowed down a little bit, especially as we got into some backstory between the more high action sections. Still, I can see why the information given through those sections was needed for the story.

Overall this book was WILD and intentionally over the top in the way I expect from Grady Hendrix. He is definitely and autoread author for me and I’m already eager for more!

Without question, this is my favorite Grady Hendrix book to date. Please, please, please let there be a movie of this book! I also can't say enough good things about the audiobook... Be sure to check it out in audio format for some epic narration.

An interview with the author will be published on the Wrath of the iOtians podcast in January circa pub date.

Disclaimer: I am a Grady Hendrix Superfan, so I was thrilled to receive an e-ARC for this latest novel. Louise is living in San Francisco with her young daughter when she receives a phone call from her brother that will change her life. Both of her parents have been killed in a car accident. She returns to her childhood home in Charleston to take care of the house and her mother’s eccentric, vast and creepy handmade dolls. But selling the home isn’t as easy as it seems, especially since it is clearly haunted. This book is equal parts funny as it is moving as it is scary. In addition to the trademark Hendrix horror, the novel examines Louise’s fraught relationship with her mother as well as her current complicated relationship with her brother. A wild and winsome read. Thank you to Berkley Publishing Group and to NetGalley for the advanced review copy.

Excellent haunted house horror novel that also explores family relationships and the ways grief manifests in our lives. Would recommend for fans of Hendrix's previous work, especially My Best Friend's Exorcism.

This book has so much heart. Yes, it does it's job as a horror novel, particularly for those afraid of dolls, but it's also deeply human and heartfelt. As a GenX person, I also believe this will speak to my generation since so many of us are experiencing our own grief, parental death and navigating our generational trauma. It's so well done. It tugged at my heartstrings! I can post a link to my upcoming interview with him soon.

Grady Hendrix has done it again, and I think that this one MAY have dethroned MY BEST FRIEND'S EXORCISM for favorite novel of his. I'll have to think about it. But the reason it has made a serious play for this title is because Hendrix has once again created another quirky and heartfelt but also truly scary horror story here, and he has finally taken on the haunted house trope. Once again his characterization is fantastic and on point, as we follow Louise and her brother Mark as they have to not only navigate the sudden and unexpected deaths of their parents as the house, memories, and mistakes that they left behind, but also their estranged and somewhat hostile relationship with each other. All while the house is acting weird, they're hearing things, and memories are being opened up about their childhood and the family secrets and traumas that still linger. So not only do we get some really scary moments (I can't go into it TOO much as it would be pretty spoiler heavy), we also get a lot of pathos, a lot of familial angst, and a lot of unpacking about generational trauma. I really, really liked it.

HOW TO SELL A HAUNTED HOUSE is highly enjoyable, pretty darn scary, and also, somehow, a bit healing in a way. Seriously, you need to get on the Grady Hendrix train if you haven't already.

Louise’s parents died in a car accident prompting her to return to her childhood home to deal with the estate. Louise and Mark feud over what should happen to the home and their mother’s massive collection of dolls and puppets. Being in the home reignites their childhood trauma of the puppets terrorizing the children and their near death experiences. Pupkin, a puppet that causes a large amount of issues, will not be destroyed, even reinventing itself and befriending Poppy, Louise’s daughter. Pupkin forces the family to deal with secrets and get to the bottom of the haunting and the gruesome events that happen along the way. Hendrix once again writes a tale that is uncomfortable and often graphic.

Grady Hendrix brings us on a wild ride yet again! I absolutely loved this book.

Louise learns about her parents death and returns home to settle the estate with her estranged brother. But once at the house, things are not as they seem. Stuff moves around the house and things thump in the attic. As the mystery unravels it’s clear that this family has been haunted for a long time.

I did not fully know what to expect going into this title but I really enjoyed how it ended! Super fun and a quick read!

I really loved Grady Hendrix’s “Horrorstor” and while I liked his releases that followed, “How to Sell a Haunted House” managed to outdo my favorite title by him. This book felt personal and touching, but creepy and funny at the same time. It was bananas. The less you know going into it, the better. Can’t wait to suggest this one. There’s nothing else out there like it.

This was one of my favorite books that I read in 2022. The genre "horror" can mean so many different things, but I think Grady Hendrix is the master of horror writing. This book had unique characters and creepy puppets that had me not wanting to put it down. I highly recommend this title if you enjoy creepy horror!

“The past can ground us, teach us, and keep us safe. It can also trap us, bind us, and suffocate the life out of us.”

Thank you so much to Berkley for my digital ARC of Grady Hendrix’s upcoming novel! His books are such a refreshing take on horror and the writing is superb! While on the surface it is a story about a haunted doll, it really is so much more! The complexities of family and relationships between parents and children. This book thoroughly scared me, but had me wanting more! There were so many twists that had my jaw dropping! If you already have a fear of dolls, this will take that to another level! I found some humor within it as well. It really has layers and complexity in it that I think will have people talking about it for awhile after the release on January 17th! Definitely for fans of his previous book, The Southern Book Clubs Guide to Slaying Vampires.

Grady Hendrix has done it again! This one was so so good! And I think this was the first for me that was a bit more scary than funny! Definitely recommend!

Possessed puppets is everything you need to know about this book to run away as fast as you can or to set aside a dark stormy night to read. Hendrix's books always sound like they're just a fun take on some aspect of the supernatural, but they're not. They're very serious. This was another good one.

I'm coming to realize that I am not a good person to watch or read books about haunted houses or dolls. They just don't scare me and they all feel corny. Now, I am over forty, so I have had a lot of time to become desensitized to a lot of horrors, but I feel there isn't much that genuinely scares me anymore.

I don't expect books to scare me as moves do, but I have come to find Grady Hendrix's books to be uniquely creepy because of his skill of including a human element in the books. The characters are not one-dimensional; they have lives, likes, loves, and issues. They are normal people faced with the abnormal.

There is less humor in this one than in his other books, but given his acknowledgments (yes, I read them) I can see why this book was different for him. While this wasn't my favorite, I do have to acknowledge the author's craft and the complex characters he writes.

I do have to give the author some props because he does take a classic horror idea (I.E vampires, exorcisms, slashers etc) and adds his own touch. I wasn't a fan of the horror trope used in this one, but I think others will thoroughly enjoy it.

I'm still a Hendrix fan for life.

I loved The Final Girl Support Group and am looking forward to featuring How to Sell a Haunted House in the January 13 episode of The Library of Lost Time podcast (https://strongsenseofplace.com/library). Snappy writing, gripping plot, and a very strong sense of place (as well as characterization) — these are all the things I love about Grady Hendrix's writing.

Siblings Louise and Mark are brought together in a bloody war against malicious spirits when they discover that their recently deceased parents' home is possessed by an evil hand-puppet. Yes. An EVIL hand-puppet.

"How to Sell a Haunted House" is peak Grady Hendrix, and it has got to be my favorite Hendrix novel since "My Best Friend's Exorcism." There's a lot to love about this horror story. The pacing is well done, and the tone transitions seamlessly from suspenseful to downright terrifying. Hendrix is well known for the female friendships in his work (see "My Best Friend's Exorcism," "The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires," and "The Final Girl Support Group"), so I'm especially happy to see Hendrix branch out and focus on a sibling relationship with this novel. The themes of generational trauma, sibling angst, and the trials of parenthood are explored with real depth, and Hendrix does a great job of e the ways in which family members pass their ghosts (real or imagined) on to their loved ones.

Wow...this book pushed almost every single one of my things guaranteed to freak me out in horror stories buttons and I loved every minute of it. The humor and horror was the most balanced that Hendrix has done in a while and reminded me very much of Horrorstor. Because this was one that I definitely stopped reading an hour before bed just to avoid having nightmares, much like I did with that other one.

The ride was a crazy one and whenever a new development happened I was on the edge of my seat. One would think it would be overkill at one point but it never ran the risk of that for me.it just kept me more engaged for whatever was coming next.

I think it also did a very good job of exploring exactly how wide the effects of grief are, even years after, for people who don't even know the person behind the grief. It also shows how much good intentions can ultimately fail, regardless of the reasoning behind it. And it's something that you don't even realize until the story has ended which to me is a sign of talented writing.

This book was creeeeepy! I don't know what I was expecting, but a house full of puppets where one is possessed wasn't it.

Louise's parents die in a car accident and she heads back home across the country to take. care of their estate. Louise meets up again with her estranged brother Mark, and they begin to fight about the estate. As the days progress Louise starts seeing strange things in their childhood home. Once they finally agree to sell the house, their aunt decrees it "haunted" and says she can sell it as a real estate agent once it is no longer haunted.

Louise and Mark end up working together to try to fix the house, and here's where it gets scary, creepy and just evil. Louise has to face some of her assumptions of her childhood and her brother's and Mark tells her the story of why he left Boston University after one semester, which has to do with their mother and her puppeteer career.

Along the way they also find out about other skeletons in their family's closet, and they end up working together to save themselves and Louise's daughter, Poppy from the evil puppet. There were a couple of surprises and Louise and Mark learn a lot about their relationship. and become closer along the way.

If you can get past the creepy scary stuff, this is a really good book.