Though maybe best to save for Halloween, How To Sell a Haunted House by Grady Hendrix is a thrilling book about two siblings who struggle to decide what to do with their parent’s house when they die.

Our main character is Louise who lives with her young daughter. She rarely goes home and almost never speaks to her brother, Mark, so when she gets a call from him she knows it must be bad news. Their parents have unexpectedly died in a horrific car crash. The last thing Louise wants is to have to return home to a brother who hates her and a creepy home full of dolls and puppets that were all lovingly made by her mother. But that’s exactly what she has to do.

Leaving her daughter at home with her ex, she travels to Charleston to begin arranging the funeral and the sale of the house with her brother. However, when she gets there she discovers that her parents have left every single thing they own to her brother – except the puppets. In a fit of petty rage, Louise decides the best thing for her to do is to spend as much time in the house collecting all of the puppets and dolls to prevent her brother from selling the house without her.

This seems like a good plan… until she begins to swear that some of the puppets start to move about the house on their own.

I think that this is definitely a bit of a slow burner in terms of the creepiness factor. I wasn’t really scared while reading the book until towards the end. However, it worked really well. The story slowly built up and became a little creepier with every chapter.

I’ve never read a book about creepy or haunted dolls and puppets before… and this has definitely made me more interested in reading books about them. I’ve never been one to watch movies like Annabelle or Child’s Play and I think I pretty much missed the craze when I was younger so I’m not as scared of them as I probably should be. However, I did love the puppets and dolls in this book. Making these puppets was a hobby of Louise’s mother, so Louise and Mark grew up in a house full of puppets. And, I mean full. They are everywhere in this house. Louise isn’t immediately freaked out because of the puppets in her parent’s house in the same way that Mark is but they definitely still make her uneasy right from the start. The main puppet is one called Pupkin. Pupkin was created by Louise and Mark’s mother years ago and he was her prized possession. He is incredibly creepy but he’s also a very interesting ‘character’ and it was so cool reading all about the characters’ experiences with Pupkin.

I think that there is something just so special about books with haunted houses that focus on complicated family dynamics. Just Like Home is another fantastic one that does this. Some of Louise’s extended family make appearances. They don’t have major storylines but the dynamics between the family are important and it was nice to see them. Much of this book focuses on the strained relationship between Louise and Mark. Things happened between them when they were children and their unreliable memories mean that none of them can really agree on what actually happened. When Louise realises some of the puppets have moved about, her first thought is that Mark is moving them around to scare her, even though he refuses to even touch them in her presence. They really didn’t have a good relationship.

But one of the best things about this book was their developing relationship. You start the book agreeing with Louise. Mark seems lazy and like he doesn’t care about his family or having a good job, but as the story progresses you realise that there is probably something that we – and Louise – are missing. Of course, there are three sides to this story – Mark’s version, Louise’s version, and what actually happened. However, Mark was incredibly annoying at the beginning of the book. It was so difficult to read about him because you just feel like there’s no way a real adult would act in this way. I think it’s probably important to note that the way these characters were brought up definitely contributed to the way they act as adults. What originally seems to be a normal childhood for them both becomes something…more.

If you’re looking for something that will solely focus on the horror then this might not be for you. The main storyline other than the horror is definitely the relationship between these two siblings and it really does take up a large chunk of the book! 

I haven’t read many books by Grady Hendrix but I’ve enjoyed the ones I have read. He has a way of writing that is just so incredibly entertaining while also being fairly easy to binge. If there’s one thing I love it’s a horror book about haunted or creepy houses and it’s rare that I read one that I don’t like so do keep that in mind when you’re deciding whether or not to read. However, I do think if you’re not the biggest fan of the subject matter (i.e. creepy houses and dolls) then you might still enjoy this book purely because Grady Hendrix just knows how to craft a good story while keeping you entertained.

However, How To Sell a Haunted House was a well-written, creepy haunted house story, but maybe don’t read it if you’re scared of haunted dolls.

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