(OK, so the Latin is probably wrong...)

More Grady Hendrix is a Good Thing - these books always represent thoughtful horror, alive to the tropes and conventions, indeed often rather slyly commenting on them, but going A LOT further than that.

In How to Sell a Haunted House, we are back in Charleston, when Louise, a designer living and working in California, is called home after the horrific deaths of her parents. Her no-use brother Mark, who she's always rather pitied and despised, has appointed himself to manage all the arrangements but Louise just KNOWS he wan't be able to cope. And that's before strange things start happening at the old family house...

How to Sell a Haunted House is a book that works on several different levels, much of the fun being how those levels interact and contradict.

At the most basic, there are issues between Louise and Mark. A death in the family is apt to expose family fractures: it can't but, because by definition, things and situations are left unresolved forever - and grief and fear of the future can be articulated as anger and regret. We certainly get that here. The book, written from Louise's perspective, dwells on her resentment that while she is the good girl, the hard working and practical one who has sacrificed, Mark has coasted through life, taking advantage of his parents - and now wants to sell their house as soon as he can and enjoy the money. Rather cleverly, Hendrix waits to let Mark have his say and give his side of things - so by then what we hear comes as rather a shock.

It's even more of a shock because at that stage, strange and scary events in the empty house (a house filled with home made puppets!) are in full swing. Mark's and Louise's understanding, and interpretations of what is going are different, reflecting their by then well established character differences, and so the emerging supernatural threat does not bring them together in solidarity. Rather, it drives them further apart. Both family discord and gathering horrors are very well done - no spoilers though! - and Hendrix consistently wrongfooted me about what was going to happen next. It's a very particular mix of implied threat and full on, physical horror. (CW: readers may want to be aware that we do see some rather gory events - be careful if you're squeamish).

So - family issues, Something Nasty in the Empty House - but there's more besides. There is, of course, a mystery to be solved before Louise and Mark will have any chance of sorting the problems, indeed of surviving at all. It seems their family isn't quite what they thought, and the presence of a large number of cousins and aunts obscures that more than casting light on it. Again, everyone has different, and skewed, points of view but these need to be brought together to find the answer. That was rather skilfully reflected in the number of times that I thought, ah, they've spoken to X, X will know what's up and how to fix it - but X never did (even if some of the scenes of failure are rather hilarious).

It's that social, cooperative angle that always makes me enjoy Hendrix's books - there may be objective, supernatural horror here but it's entwined with real, believable family dynamics and psychology. Nothing's going to be solved by waving a cross around or drawing a circle of protection. You have to go back to the roots of the thing, but how can that work when the people who really know about it have just died?

This is the perfect horror! I found it so creepy and unlocked some new fears…Grady Hendrix is so good at what they do. This was a really fast paced read and had me record page turning. Was looking forward to reading this for a while and it did not disappoint!

I’m not right after reading this story! I think I am actually traumatised and definitely won’t be able to sleep properly ever again! As a person with a phobia of dolls and puppets, this story absolutely got under my skin. I was truly left in bits thinking about the sound of the little feet running in the hallway.

Grady in this novel masterfully brings forth truly terrifying imagery (some elements might be upsetting for squeamish readers!). As much as I was left traumatised after reading it, I loved this story! Fast-paced, packed full of tension and nail-biting moments, Grady knows how to get under your skin. There’s moments of humour scattered throughout that helps relieve some of the tension, but just when you think things have relaxed, another horrifying element rears its ugly head. The senses get assaulted throughout!

This is a story about tumultuous brother/sister and parent/child relationships, family trauma and drama, and most importantly of all, grief. Grady weaves all of these elements into the story of a haunted house and it was a delight to read. I might not be able to forgive Grady for traumatising me beyond belief with the house’s occupants, but it’s a novel that will hit the spot for horror and supernatural fans alike!

A smart, terrifying and creepy read, How to Sell a Haunted House is out now. Thanks to Titan Books and NetGalley for the arc.

I finished reading it in two days since it was so captivating from beginning to end. You never knew what was going to happen next, which made it suspenseful. A fantastic book with the ideal air of unease

I ended up loving How to Sell a Haunted House by Grady Hendrix!
I love so many of their books so I was so excited to read this and I'm so happy that it lived up to my expectations!
It was such a fun horror read and I definitely highly recommend it!
Thank you for giving me the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review.

Right. Okay. Right.

I'll start this off by saying I am terrified by ventriloquist dolls, porcelain dolls and puppets, and I have been ever since I was a child. They're scary and evil and my mind won't be changed. So imagine when this gal discovered said haunted house from the title is filled with puppets and dolls. Needless to say, it resulted in me reading this during daylight hours with my boyfriend in the room.

However, aside from my deep-seeded childhood fear, this book was everything! I loved it! Even though I wasn't too sure what I was expecting heading in, it delivered on every level. There were nail-biting moments, humor, jump-scares and heart, some twists thrown in for good measure too. It's just utter madness and I adored it! Although grief is a huge part of this novel, it doesn't take away from the terrifying and quirky feel of the book. There are, of course, some moments full of feeling and depth surrounding this topic but they're quickly moved on from.

I absolutely loved Louise and Mark. Their journey is far from the norm but I loved seeing their relationship develop. Their family is mad, and somewhat broken which I feel everyone could relate to in some small way. These two go through the absolute wringer but what a wild read it makes!

How to Sell a Haunted House is a must read read 2023, a truly bonkers read but worth every minute! Thank you so much to NetGalley and Titan Books for thos advanced copy!

* Please research any trigger warnings before reading *

DNF @ 55%.

Perhaps it's my own fault for requesting a novel by an author I haven't enjoyed for many books now, but I can now say that I will not be picking any other novel by Hendrix up in the future.

Truth be told, I was planning on writing a really long, almost rant-review of this book and my thoughts on Hendrix as an author, but honestly? I'm too tired. I don't have the energy. It just makes me so sad to see this author constantly topping the horror charts and being praised when, personally, he doesn't deserve it.

The main issue I have with Hendrix, and this book, and all his books - is the way he writes women. Now of course, I don't know Hendrix well enough to judge his character from his writing; at the same time, your writing can be a reflection of your own personal thoughts and feelings. And, to me, he writes female protagonists in order to appeal to women, to come across as some woke feminist kind of author who toootally respects women - when, if you actually read his books, he comes across as the exact opposite. Every female protagonist he writes is the exact same, with only a couple of changes to try and make them look like completely different characters. I don't even remember the woman in this novel's name, that's how memorable she is. Additionally - and again, I don't know Hendrix like this but his writing definitely makes me think some things about him as a person - he uses these women as punching bags, dumping traumatic experiences and suffering on them to the point where I wonder if he enjoys this. Of course, horror as a genre inherently explores the horrific and terrifying; having read almost all of Hendrix's books (as well as other author's horror novels), though, the deliberate choice he makes to write women with trauma to dump even more trauma on is.... uncomfortable. This also bleeds into the humour (which, to me, isn't funny; maybe that's just a generational gap though), which seems to boil down to "wow, this traumatised woman sure is behaving soooo weird, isn't that funny!" - this was a bigger issue in The Final Girl Support Group, but it's still present here.

There's also the issue of: 55% of the way in, I had no investment in the plot, the characters, or the horror. Because it's not scary; it's not horrifying. If this were a film, it would be the most generic, made-for-TV plotline - oh, dolls and puppets as a representation of childhood trauma? How unique! Of course, there's no problem with using familiar tropes and metaphorical devices. The problem is that Hendrix makes it boring. Also, one of the themes of this book is exploring a woman's relationship to womanhood and motherhood - which is done in the most bland, generic way, because Hendrix doesn't actually know what either of those lived experiences is like.

So, DNF. I don't care where this book goes, and I'm sure it wouldn't be satisfying, either. As I mentioned, I won't be picking up any Hendrix books in the future - and honestly, I advise those who like his books to maybe pick up a horror novel written by someone who isn't a man that writes about non-male protagonists.

Thanks to NetGalley and Titan Books for providing me with this ARC.

After loving other books by Grady Hendrix I couldn’t wait to read this new book but it didn’t meet all my expectations.

In some parts it’s a bit slow and my attention has dropped a lot, in other parts I liked it and I couldn’t stop reading it, and the horror/weird component in this book is really weird and unusual for me!

It looks like one of those 80s/90s horror movies!

Overall it’s not a bad book and I really liked the protagonists characterisation!

Thanks to Netgalley and Titian Books for providing me with this ARC!

By far Grady Hendrix best story, it’s a twisting turning scary of jumps and intrigue. Not your expected haunted house story this book is a den of intrigue and wonder. I read it in one sitting as I was hooked from the first chapter and will never step into a house with dolls or puppets ever. I am convinced and believe every word.
A pleasure to read and a delight to reach the end, a thrilling exciting release so early in 2023 is a must read!

“I’ll come right out and say it,… Strange noises, bad vibes, your mom and dad recently passed - Your house is haunted and I’m not selling it until you deal with that.”

My thanks to Titan Books for an eARC via NetGalley of ‘How to Sell a Haunted House’ by Grady Hendrix.

The title is pretty descriptive of this novel’s premise as he combines family drama and supernatural horror with dark comedy.

Louise receives a call from Mark, her estranged brother, matter of factly advising her that their parents have died in a car accident. While she is not keen on dealing with the funeral arrangements and estate, she leaves her five-year-old daughter, Poppy, with her ex and flies to Charleston.

It’s clear that the siblings have a lot of history and as soon as Louise arrives at the family home she and Mark are fighting. Add to this the house is stuffed to the rafters with the remnants of her father’s academic career and her mother’s lifelong obsession with puppets and dolls. They need to cooperate to clear it out in order to place it on the market. Yet the house isn’t keen on being sold and has other plans for them. No further details to avoid spoilers.

While dysfunctional relationships are standard for family dramas and psychological thrillers, when you add in a sinister house filled with creepy dolls and even creepier puppets, we quickly enter horror territory.

This novel is quite a slow burn with an emphasis upon character development over excessive jump scares. Still there’s plenty of frights as the story progresses to quite a fever pitch.

I will admit that I found elements of the story very frightening. While I can cope fine with haunted houses and ghosts, I find old dolls and puppets especially chilling just on their own. That Pupkin, the lead puppet, has a clown face - well that had me in a quivering puddle.

Overall, ‘How to Sell a Haunted House’ proved an effective horror novel infused with just enough humour that allowed some respite from the scary bits. I always feel that it’s quite difficult to balance humour and horror though Grady Hendrix has clearly mastered it.

So Grady Hendrix is an auto buy author for me. I’ve loved some of his books, I’ve liked others. I immediately loved the premise of this one. Louise and Mark are a brother and sister whose parents have just died. They have to sell the house but creepy things are happening. Did I mention the house is full of dolls and puppets?

I loved the writing. The initial creepiness when first going to the house. You aren’t sure what’s real or not. This really did freak me out and I thought it was excellent. Would definitely recommend.

Another smart, funny, frightening novel from Grady Hendrix. I love how the sibling relationship is just as horrifying as the freaky dolls…

I loved How To Sell A Haunted House. I love horror and haunted houses so this was winner for me. I’ve read a lot of books about haunted houses; I mean A LOT. I loved how this book tries to do something new with a well-worn genre. I loved the intense relationship between Louise and Mark and how they hate each other until horrific events force them to find and admit common ground. Dolls and puppets are creepy and downright terrifying in this book. I found some humour in the darkness. I loved this a lot.

Any house of a decent age is haunted. There are no spectres, but there are ghosts of memories, the people that lived and died there over the years. I grew up in a house that was once a Victorian police station and then a Greengrocers. As I moved out, my parents stayed. When they left, instead of moving far, they built a cottage in the back garden and now every time I visit, I see my old house out front. Full or memories, ghosts of the past. What I do not see is any demonic puppets like in Grady Hendrix’s latest, How to Sell a Haunted House, and the only reason it took a while to sell was the depressed housing market. This may be the truth but would not make as fun a horror novel.

Louise has moved far away from her childhood home, from her eccentric parents and irritating brother, but when her parents die, she is forced back for the funeral and to sort through their things. Her relationship with her brother, Mark, has always been poor, but when inheritance is on the line, things get worse. Mark cannot be trusted with money, but he does not seem to agree. To make matters worse there is the minor problem of their Mum’s puppet collection that appears to be coming to life and attacking people. That will make selling a house full of the things slightly trickier.

I enjoy Hendrix’s work. This is an author who takes a post-modern look at horror and spins the classic feel of 80s movies and makes them something new. My Best Friend’s Exorcism was a John Hughes take on The Exorcist, and the excellent The Final Girl Support Group was a love letter to classic slasher movies that took the genre in a new direction. You would think that with this title that Haunted House would be Hendrix’s take on the haunted house genre, but it is more a homage to the likes of Demonic Toys and Puppet Master, two series of films that 80s horror fans will know and may even cherish.

Out of all the books I have read so far by the author, this is the least left field. It is a straight horror in many places with scenes of dolls and puppets coming to life and harassing Louise and Mark in particular. Action horror struggles in the written form and the visceral scenes in Haunted House are easy to understand but feel like they should be on the screen. The sense of tension and terror is just not the same.

Where a novel has an advantage is in character development and here Hendrix pushes the sibling relationship. It is the friction and begrudging respect that Louise and Mark have for one another that separates the book from straight slasher fiction. However, I found their attitude to one another harder going than the horror. The opening act is not slasher horror, but the grimness and horror of warring families. I found it depressing and sad. True to life for many, but far more uncomfortable than a doll chasing someone down the corridor with scissors.

Hendrix’s work is often underpinned with a wry humour and in this case, it did not work as well. The eccentric extended family and nonsense about Christian puppets are there to lift the story, but the grim family feuding left me sad. The horror is of a good standard and does remind you of the Tunneller in Puppet Master, but it is not the high standard I have come to expect from the author. A competent novel, but not one of Hendrix’s best.

Loved this book, great ratio of creepiness and humour. Great character building and development. Send you through a rollercoaster of emotions, especially how realistic family relationships are when there’s death and money involved. I’m a big fan of chuck, Annabelle, the puppet master so loved the storyline in this one!

When their parents die in a car accident, estranged siblings Louise and Mark are forced to come together to decide what to do with their parent’s belongings and their childhood home. The land is worth a lot of money and they are keen to get the house on the market, but not until they’ve removed their mother’s vast collection of puppets and dolls. But disturbing things start to happen in the house, and it seems that one puppet in particular doesn’t want to leave.

Grady Hendrix is a really good horror writer. I wouldn’t say this book is scary as such, but it is definitely creepy, atmospheric and exciting. No time is wasted in getting things going, and the attacks start to happen almost as soon as Louise steps foot in the house after her parent’s deaths.

It’s quite a traditional style haunting, but has a fresh feel when combined with Hendrix’s dark humour. I loved how quickly Mercy identified that the house was haunted, and the rest of the families casual willingness to get involved. It was only Louise’s resistance to the idea of a haunting that really antagonised and escalated the situation (and boy, did it ever escalate!). Louise’s blind resistance to the facts did get a little frustrating and repetitive at times, but the fast pace and almost constant action helped to smooth over this and keep the story moving.

Having read many other Grady Hendrix books I was really looking forward to reading this, and I was not disapointed. The story is fast paced, detailed and the characters are incredibly well fleshed out.

This book was amazing! Spooky,dark,funny and sad I felt all the emotions reading this! I love Grace Hendrix’s books and was so excited about this release and it did not disappoint. All of your favourite horror elements in this book! I will recommend this book to everyone. I feel like I will think about this book for a very long time. The character development was excellent especially Marks arc as I really didn’t like him at first! Even though this was a horror it felt very real. Especially when losing a loved one and all of the secrets you unearth !

Amazing! Thank you Titan books and thank you Grady Hendrix for another masterpiece !

There was just something about the blurb of How To Sell A Haunted House that had me intrigued immediately. I've been meaning to try more of this author ever since I read The Final Girl Support Group back in 2021, and this sounded like the perfect story to do so. It's true that don't read all that many horror stories, but I loved the sound of the haunted house with the creepy puppets and dolls and I simply couldn't resist reading it to see just how far the story would go. And boy, things get without a doubt seriously twisted and spine-chilling long before you reach that final page!

I really like the premise of this story, with the seemingly haunted house stuffed to the brim with creepy dolls and puppets. Talk about the perfect backdrop for a horror story! How To Sell A Haunted House isn't just your typical horror read though, because it also has that family drama vibe as well as paranormal/supernatural elements. While it's true that I'm never a big fan of family dramas, I do like that it gave the story more balance and a little break from the truly creepy stuff.

As for the characters... I can't say I was a fan of any of them, but Mark particularly frustrated me, and I hated having to read about his relationship with Louise. True, things got better in the second half once certain things are explained, but still... I never really warmed up to Louise either, and certain actions by her are particularly stupid. The characters were part of the reason it took me a while to truly appreciate this story for what it was, but that is probably mostly me not being all that into family drama in the first place... The pace was a also bit slow in the beginning especially when compared to the second half.

Things can be said about creepy horror stories involving puppets and/or dolls, and they might or might not be your thing, but there is no doubt that How To Sell A Haunted House chilled me to the bone. I've never been a fan of dolls, and now I will never look the same at puppets either! Grady Hendrix does an excellent job slowly building up the suspense and creep factor, and the house itself had the perfect ominous feel about it. True, things get pretty wild and over the top especially in the final part, but there is no denying that the story delivers on an entertainment level while also scaring the pants off you.

In short, if you enjoy a well written horror read with creepy dolls and puppets and I like a story that focuses on family drama as well, How To Sell A Haunted House is an excellent option for you. Make sure to hide any dolls/puppets you have in your house before you read this story though if you want to be able to sleep afterwards... Pupkin is the stuff of which nightmares are made!

This was my third Grady Hendrix book and is possibly my favourite. Super creepy and darkly funny, Louise has to return to her hometown to sell her parents’ house. She’s got to deal with her complex family and also the small issue that the house is haunted…

I really don’t want to spoil any of this so I won’t give too many details. However, I’d really recommend this one if you like a creepy horror with a funny side. I loved Louise’s relationship with her brother, loved the twist when I thought where the hell is this going with so much left, and loved the final dramatic scene (can’t get the ripped fingernail out of my head of all the things that happened in the book!)

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC in return for an honest review.