Reviews tagging 'Toxic relationship'

How to Sell a Haunted House by Grady Hendrix

43 reviews

vanessamariebooks's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective 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? Yes

4.0

This story is about grief and loss and I liked that Hendrix broke up each section into one of the stages of grief. I also thought it was interesting (and well done) how Hendrix not only shows us how Louise and Mark move through the stages of grief, but also how Pumkin (a puppet) deals with his grief as well. 

In the 3rd act, towards the end, the story started going in a direction I didn't expect and I would've been disappointed if it continued this way (simply because I don't like this trope in supernatural stories), but luckily it didn't and changed directions again (back to what I originally thought was going to happen).

I will say, if you're used to ghost/haunted stories like this, you'll probably see the "twist" at the end coming from the beginning (I knew where this was headed the moment we're introduced to Louise's family), but I still enjoyed it anyway. Something about Hendrix's writing makes you not want to put the book down even when you know what's coming.

Also, while this story does have a gross scene with squirrels, it's definitely not as bad as the rat scene in The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires (though I probably still wouldn't recommend eating while reading this). 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic relationship and Grief

Moderate: Death of parent, Death, and Child death

Minor: Car accident

margolovie89's review against another edition

dark funny medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Murder, Toxic relationship, Physical abuse, and Car accident

memecomey's review against another edition

dark slow-paced

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

1.5

Almost DNF but kept going (skipped a few paragraphs in the process because the description of the 'fighting' scenes were too hard for me to imagine) just so I cld tick this off. Felt a bit duped as I was hoping the story will truly be about a haunted house. But no, it was actually about

haunted puppets and it was too 'Chucky' for me

. Plot was slow and sometimes it felt illogical e.g.

Mark putting on the puppet, Mark and spider dynamics, Lulu-Spider love-hate relationship

. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Child death, and Toxic relationship

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, Grief, Death of parent, Death, Toxic relationship, Violence, Gore, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Mental illness and Gaslighting

Minor: Cursing, Alcohol, Car accident, Fire/Fire injury, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Self harm

kailynpaig's review against another edition

dark emotional 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? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Grief, Alcohol, Toxic relationship, Car accident, Injury/Injury detail, Gore, Violence, Abandonment, Blood, and Death

gopackandstats's review against another edition

dark funny sad tense medium-paced

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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Medical trauma, Body horror, Gore, Car accident, Death, Physical abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Toxic relationship, and Animal death

Moderate: Murder, Gaslighting, Child death, Vomit, and Death of parent

Minor: Alcohol, Drug use, and Animal death

demara_crim's review against another edition

dark tense medium-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child death, Toxic relationship, Violence, and Confinement

Minor: Death of parent

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