How to Sell a Haunted House by Grady Hendrix

January 17th, 2023 Kimberly Review 20 Comments

17th Jan

How to Sell a Haunted House by Grady Hendrix delivered a creepy tale with dolls as siblings try to prepare their parents’ home for sale after they died unexpectedly. A twisty, atmospheric tale that will have you keeping the lights on.

How to Sell a Haunted House by Grady Hendrix
How to Sell a Haunted House
by Grady Hendrix
Genres: Horror
Source: Publisher
Purchase*: Amazon | Audible *affiliate
Goodreads
Rating: One StarOne StarOne StarOne Star

When Louise finds out her parents have died, she dreads going home. She doesn’t want to leave her daughter with her ex and fly to Charleston. She doesn’t want to deal with her family home, stuffed to the rafters with the remnants of her father’s academic career and her mother’s lifelong obsession with puppets and dolls. She doesn’t want to learn how to live without the two people who knew and loved her best in the world.

Mostly, she doesn’t want to deal with her brother, Mark, who never left their hometown, gets fired from one job after another, and resents her success. But she’ll need his help to get the house ready for sale because it’ll take more than some new paint on the walls and clearing out a lifetime of memories to get this place on the market.

Some houses don’t want to be sold, and their home has other plans for both of them…

HORRIFIC Scary SUSPENSE twisted

✔️ Creepy dolls whose eyes follow you across the room

✔️ a twisted backstory about a childhood girl and her favorite toy

✔️ Evil entities and shocking twists

✔️ imaginary pets

✔️ chase scenes involving axes

I listened to The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires and was curious to try this author again. How to Sell a Haunted House was a twisty, atmospheric tale with suspense, gore and fear filled moments.

The story involves Louise, a divorced mother of a five-year-old who gets the news from her estranged brother Mark, that her parents have died. She really doesn’t want to go home and leave her daughter with her ex, but she flies home to help Mark bury their parents and clean out their home. The home is filled with her mother’s dolls and puppets. When they arrive in the home, things don’t feel right and the attic hatch is nailed shut.

The story that unfolds shares some strange moments in their childhood as things in the home seem to move around. The story took on some dark tones and the more they tried to clean out the home, the more things escalated.

The pacing was well done as the buildup and suspense grew. By the time we knew what was going on, Hendrix threw another twist into the tale and plenty of horrific moments. You’ll never look at puppets or dolls the same. LOL I would love to talk more about some details and events, but don’t want to spoil it for you. Let me just leave you with this; if you are a fan of some of the darker Goosebumps episodes, you’ll love How to Sell A Haunted House.

Amazon | Audible

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About Grady Hendrix

Grady Hendrix

Grady Hendrix is the author of the novels Horrorstör, about a haunted IKEA, and My Best Friend's Exorcism, which is like Beaches meets The Exorcist, only it's set in the Eighties. He's also the author of We Sold Our Souls, The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires, and Final Girl Support Group. He's also the jerk behind the Stoker award-winning Paperbacks from Hell, a history of the 70's and 80's horror paperback boom, which contains more information about Nazi leprechauns, killer babies, and evil cats than you probably need. And he's the screenwriter behind Mohawk, which is probably the only horror movie about the War of 1812 and Satanic Panic.

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About Kimberly
Kimberly is a coffee loving book addict who reads and listens to fictional stories in all genres. Whovian, Ravenclaw, Howler and proud Nonna. She owns and manages Caffeinated PR. The coffee is always on and she is ready to chat. Twitter | Facebook | Instagram

20 Responses to “How to Sell a Haunted House by Grady Hendrix”

  1. Katherine

    I’m hooked just reading the blurb and I love your comparison to the Goosebump books. This sounds like such a good creepy read.

  2. Rachel @Waves of Fiction

    This would probably terrify me and it’s hard to do that with a book for me. I am intensely afraid of puppets and dolls! Never had a puppet, thank god, but I did have dolls when I was really young and got rid of them because I was afraid they’d come alive while I was sleeping and come after me. Thank you, Twilight Zone Talkie Tina episode! Having said all that can you believe I might want to read this? Lol. I have a love/hate relationship with horror, thus the nightmares. Fab review, Kimberly!

    Rachel @Waves of Fiction recently posted: My Favorite Non-Review Books: December 2022