How to Sell a Haunted House by Grady Hendrix

 

How to Sell a Haunted House by Grady Hendrix, 419 pages, ⭐⭐⭐

    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. Most of all, 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. Unfortunately, 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. But some houses don’t want to be sold, and their home has other plans for both of them…

    I picked this book as the first read for my horror book club. I didn't do too much research into it, just that it was a 2023 release by a popular horror author. The blurb doesn't give much to what this book is really about, which is a killer hand puppet. If I had known that I'm not sure that I would have picked it... I found the horror aspects to be very goofy and sometimes comical, and I'm not sure if that was the author's intentions or not. I also did not like the two main characters and thought that the brother especially was just a horrible person, even with his "moments of redemption." Nonetheless, I thought the writing was fine and the action did keep me interested so I ended up rating it 3 stars. If anything, I do think this will make for a good conversation in book club!