Whoa! Strap yourself in and hold on because Grady Hendrix has another tightly strung, gut-wrenching horror novel that will keep you up at night.

Siblings Louise and Mark Joyner are absolutely devasted at the death of their parents at the end of the coronavirus pandemic. Mark and Louise haven't gotten along for years and would rather not be in each others' company but the circumstances have forced them to work together to clear the family home and put it on the market. But upon arriving they notice how strange their parents' final days must have been as mirrors are covered by newspapers and the attic door has been nailed shut. There isn't much up there other than some old family puppets.

But when worn, one particular puppet won't come off and it controls the movements of the wearer. Louise is forced to cut off her own brother's arm to save him. But she can't do the same when her daughter puts the puppet on her hand.

I am not generally a fan of horror stories featuring dolls or puppets - it seems like they've been done to death (pun intended) - so there was definitely a moment or two when I rolled my eyes. Fortunately this is a horror novel by Grady Hendrix, who fuses the horror with humor better than anyone else I've read, making this a delightful read.

There's a small cast of characters here and Louise and Mark are just a little bit bland, letting Punkin the Puppet take the leading role. This is just a bit odd because most of the book is about setting up the characters of Louise and Mark, giving us a reason to care about them so that we can want them to survive the horror about to befall. It's a lot of setup and I'm not entirely sure the payoff is there.

The payoff comes because of a minor character ... Barb, 'an expert on cursed dolls."

"Don't worry!" Barb laughed, seeing Louise's expression. "Dolls and puppets come under the same department as far as the Lord is concerned. I do dolls, I do puppets, I once even did a blow-up s-e-x doll. Now, that one was wild, let me tell you. Come on inside and let's pray together."

Barb plays a small role here, but she (along with Aunt Gail, who introduces us to Barb) steals the book - I laughed out loud a number of times with her.

The final quarter of the book is a fast-paced rollercoaster ride - not only exciting but fear-filled. It was an absolute page-turner and it makes up for the earlier, slower-moving set-up.

This isn't my favorite Grady Hendrix, but it's well worth reading.

Looking for a good book? How to Sell a Haunted House by Grady Hendrix is an often funny, yet still dark horror novel that is worth reading, but fair warning it relies on the horror trope of possessed dolls/puppets.

I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher, through Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.

Louise's parents have died; she's dreading going home. Her brother, Mark, has been no help and just wants to trash everything in the house and sell it off. Louise is determined to go through her parents' belongings because their mother was a fairly popular doll and puppet maker and their father was a great academic. Mark, who has never had a steady job and still lives in their hometown, is just looking for a quick buck. Louise tried to convince him that the house needs to be cleaned out and refreshed in order for it to sell.

Little do they know the house doesn't want to be sold.

Okay, Grady Hendrix is the master of emotional horror. The entire beginning of this book made me want to cry and had some pretty relatable scenes. If you are creeped out at all by puppets and/or dolls, I'd probably skip this one because there are some freaky dolls in here.

Grady Hendrix rarely disappoints.

This was the perfect amount of suspense, spookiness, and excitement for me.

This was a sweet book. It was freaky, creepy, and sometimes gross, but it was also very sweet.

Adult sibling relationships are tough. They're tough to live and tough to write. I think this is because siblings are often the people we go furthest back with--there's not a whole lot they don't know if you happened to share a room or a hallway with them growing up. All the people you've been, your siblings have likely met. Writing all that baggage, all those continuities of selves, without the novel turning into a multi-volume work is difficult. I think Grady Hendrix really pulled it off here. He was able to deftly incorporate both backstory and a realistic progression of Louise and Mark's relationship as they worked together and apart to face the challenges of executing their parents' will and selling a haunted house. What's more, I felt like my own outlook on my relationships with my siblings changed somewhat as I read this book. The character progression was that powerful to me. (But I might be biased since I, like Louise, seem to have older sibling syndrome even though I'm a middle child.)

So, characterization got high marks from me here, and the horror moments were often adrenaline-inducing or gross or both. For me, they felt escalated to a nearly cartoonish quality at certain points near the climax, but Grady Hendrix always had something in his back pocket ready to keep me invested and turning pages.

**spoilers below**

Biggest success of this book for me: I went from hoping the puppets kill Mark to sincerely cheering him on by the final chapters. This hands-down makes How to Sell a Haunted House my favorite Grady Hendrix novel I've read so far (even though I still haven't read the vampires one, the rock n roll one, nor the IKEA one...but I plan to).

It took me a bit to really gather my thoughts on this one, because I am a total mood reader, and found myself reading HOW TO SELL A HAUNTED HOUSE during the Winter months when I typically crave other genres.

I've enjoyed so many of author Grady Hendrix's previous novels, and love the fact that each book feels like such a campy read with plenty of creep factor.

Overall I ended with 3.5 stars, and can't wait to see what's next in store from Hendrix!

*many thanks to Berkley/netgalley for the gifted copy for review

Grady Hendrix is one of those authors where you know exactly what you're getting into. A horror story with some moments of levity... I feel like this book defied that a little.

What spoke to me the most about this book was not the killer puppets (though, WOW, those were terrifying) but the incredible depiction of grief. Naming the chapters after the five stages of grief was an interesting choice for a horror novel, but it absolutely worked.

While this wasn't my favorite Grady Hendrix novel, I know that I will continue to pick up his books.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for a digital copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinions.

This was actually my first Grady Hendrix book and now I am a fan!
It was frightening, funny, and heartbreaking. This made it definitely unforgettable.

“She checked underneath the sink but didn’t see anything that might destroy an evil puppet.” ― Grady Hendrix, How to Sell a Haunted House

“You’ve become such a grouch,” she said. “Having your arm sawed off will do that.” ― Grady Hendrix, How to Sell a Haunted House

“Mark was cleaner but he looked like exactly the type of guy who’d go to a Waffle House at three in the morning after shooting a haunted puppet.”
― Grady Hendrix, How to Sell a Haunted House

Pupkin for President! Absolutely bananas. I laughed until I cried. Feuding siblings versus evil killer puppet. This story starts slow, but then the fun begins. This was a mix of family drama, horror, and dark comedy. Even with all the creepy shenanigans going on, a solid story unfolds. Recommend if you're looking for something a little different.

I feel like demonic dolls/puppets have been done to death within the horror community but this book added so many elements that made it unique that I ended up staying up until 1AM on a work night just to finish the book. It's such an unsettling read and there were several scenes that made me not want to sleep with my lights off for a few nights. Pupkin > Chucky any day.
There were some aspects of the characters that I didn't love but overall, the suspense, mystery and horror were enough to make up for that and then some. I genuinely have not stopped thinking about this book since I finished it. I fear it has permanently altered my brain chemistry

Amazing. Hendrix once again manages to horrify me and also make me laugh while weaving in an excellent examination of family and sibling dynamics.

Thank you to @netgalley and @berkleypub for a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. Thank you to @prhaudio for a free download of the audiobook.

I love Grady Hendrix, but this book was something else…I did not enjoy it, but I also did not dislike it. I gave it a shot. Horror is not my normal genre, but I wanted to try something different. I would rather try something different with an author I enjoy. This book was weird and creepy. Dolls and puppets should NEVER come alive! But if you are into that stuff, then this book is definitely for you!

Overall, I am glad I got the opportunity to read How to Sell a Haunted House. If you are a fan of horror and haunted things, pick this book up!

3.5 stars – Rounding to 4 stars for Goodreads

#books #bookishlife #booklover #readingisfun #iowabookstagrammers #iowabookstagram #netgalley #berkleypub #berkleybuddyreads #prhaudio #ltbreaderteam #berkelywritesstrongwomen #howtosellahauntedhouse #gradyhendrix

Emotionally poignant, riotously funny, and delightfully terrifying all at the same time!

After the sudden death of her parents, Louise is forced to work muddle through a strained relationship with her brother in order to plan a funeral and decide what to do with their home. Upon arriving home, she is surprised to learn that her brother isn't the hardest part of this, rather is dark memories and haunted dolls and puppets.

I absolutely love Grady Hendrix and was so excited to dive into this one! It gave me every element of weirdness that Grady Hendrix continues to surprise me with. This was such a wild and weird setting and I could not get enough. The concept of this story line was different and kept me enthralled until the very end!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the digital arc!

This one was weird for me because puppets and dolls are easily my biggest fears, but I found I hard to suspend my disbelief. Maybe the house needed more detail to it to make me be able to place myself into it, maybe the dolls needed to be slightly more maniacal. That being said Pupkin will haunt me forever and I never want to see a puppet reminiscent of him as long as I live.

A solid 3 for me - read really quickly and kept me turning pages but something was missing, though still very enjoyable!

This book is about a pair of siblings who lose their parents under a mysterious circumstance and have to work to sell it despite strange happenings and a lot of creepy puppets. I wanted to really like this book, and with the bare bones I would say I could have really liked it. The ending was good and the overall message was solid however I just couldn't stand the characters and the pacing was very off.

Growing up I had, what I would describe as, a healthy fear of the murderous doll Chucky. How to Sell a Haunted House by Grady Hendrix did nothing to lessen those fears. Cue in also how I started to read this around Halloween – a great mix. Read down below to get a more in-depth look at my thoughts on this new release.

Characters and Family
Part of the depth of How to Sell a Haunted House is the apparent intergenerational trauma and fractured familial relationships. Family ties, duties, and shared experiences are the backbone of this book and drive the plot and conflict. The two main characters, siblings Louise and Mark are not very likable initially, but I think that as the story goes along, many things are brought to light that helps to develop and explain their characters.

Plot and Tone
I would say the plot was compelling and, as a reader, I felt very invested in seeing how things turned out. How to Sell a Haunted House certainly utilizes many different horror tropes and plot points, but it did not in any way diminish my experience of reading it. If anything, it helped with the tongue-in-cheek aspects that kept popping up. There were plenty of slightly unexpected moments of comedy throughout the book that I enjoyed. (Note the absurdity of being attacked by a taxidermied squirrel nativity scene.)

Pacing
How to Sell a Haunted House really did feel like a horror movie in how it just kept going. You know when you are watching a movie and are like “oh good, everything is solved!” but then you are also like “I know there is half an hour left in the run time”? That is what Hendrix was able to encapsulate in the second half of the book. I would say the pacing was good overall. The beginning was slower and eventually picked up, but there was one flashback scene that seemed to be very long and lost my interest for a time.

Overall
How to Sell a Haunted House was a proper creepy book and I’m so glad I got the opportunity to read it. If you are a fan of horror, hauntings, and other similar descriptors that start with “h” that I cannot think of at the moment, you need to get your hands on a copy of Grady Hendrix’s book. For some, it might be a haul to read it, but I would say it is definitely worth the length of the book.

Meh. If you are a child's play fan, you might like this. It just wasn't anything I wanted to read about at all. I skimmed through and finished because I received an advanced reader's copy from #Netgalley. If you could find whatever is happening in this book believable, it might be really suspenseful, but I found it more goosebumps-ish than anything. And somehow the brother was dealing with everything his whole childhood without the sister actually believing it? Seriously? And the name Pumpkin? There was just so much about this that I found nonsensical.

Grady Hendrix does it again! I first discovered Grady when the cover of Horrorstör caught my eye in my local Barnes & Noble. The idea of a haunted IKEA knock-off in Cleveland, OH immediately appealed. This time he's spinning us a tale of a classic haunted house, with his usual style and flair.

Louise has a great life in San Francisco, a great job, a darling daughter, but all of that changes when an accident kills both her parents and she's summoned home to deal with the aftermath by a brother, Mark, that she hasn't really spoken with in years. Now the two of them have to decide what to do with their parents house, and everything inside it, including their mother's creepy collection of dolls. Do they keep it in the family? Do they sell and split? It seems straightforward, until unexplained things begin happening.

This one kept me on the edge of my seat until the very end. I hope you enjoy even half as much as I did.

I've seen a few Grady Hendrix novels floating around on Booksta, but this is my first foray into his world, and it won't be the last.

I'm always wary of new authors because I know some will be an acquired taste, while for others, it takes time to get used to their writing style, but Hendrix had a writing style that made it easier for me to get into the story.

What I liked:
-I didn't find the novel scary at all, which was surprising, but I enjoyed the concept.
-The relationship between the MC, Louise, and her brother was at times comical and, at others, contentious. Maybe some siblings never have issues, but some of the interactions were reminiscent of ones between me and my sister (not to that extent). I think no matter how old you get, when you're together, you revert back to your childhood roles. Despite some of the levity, there were some heartbreaking moments between them.
-The character arcs for the MC's brother, Mark, and the siblings' relationship.
-I was not expecting the twist to be THAT.

What I didn't like:
-There was an exposition in the middle that felt a little long-winded to me.

3 stars

Mark and Louise were raised by a church puppet ministry leader mom. Their home was always filled with puppets and dolls that their mother made, each with a unique name and backstory. Louise grows up and moved across the country to raise her daughter, Poppy, away from her parents and her estranged brother Mark. But one day her brother calls with the horrible news that their parents have been killed in a car accident.
Louise heads home to sort things out, visiting her parents home for the first time in many years and once she's there things get weirder and weirder until she realizes that she's not alone in the home.

This was my first Grady Hendrix novel and man, was it crazy! I don't really read horror, but the blurb on this one sounded too good to pass up. I also hate dolls, clowns, puppets, etc. and so this one really creeped me out, but I wasn't sure if it was supposed to be funny or serious! It took me a little while to get through this book. I didn't love Mark and Louise's relationship at the beginning. It was quite frustrating for me. When I got to the middle and read about Mark's experience with the puppet, then it started making more sense and I did enjoy the relationship during the second half of the book when they started working together.

I do think this was a good story and will probably pick up another Hendrix novel in the future.

Thank you to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for my honest thoughts.