Rating: 4/5 ⭐️
My experience reading Grady Hendrix is the short story, Ankle Snatcher which I enjoyed, so diving into "How to Sell a Haunted House," I went in with high expectations but was not sure what to expect given the title and blurb of the book. I was surprised by the family drama, the pace and the violence in the book.
The protagonist of the story is Louise Joyner and to a lesser extent, her brother, Mark. Her relationship with Mark is strained and they never see eye to eye on anything. One day, out of the blue, Louise learns of her parent's tragic death and returns to her childhood home to arrange for their funeral and get other affairs in order. One of which is their childhood house, crammed with her mother's eerie puppets and dolls. Louise was expecting to receive all their parent's belongings as she was the responsible sibling. But due to a cruel twist of fate, Mark ends up getting everything and refuses to share it with Louise. But with some family intervention and incompetence on Mark's part, he goes to Lousie for help and they end up deciding to sell the house together.
This is where the horror part of the story sets in. They quickly realize the house is haunted and needs fixing before they can sell it. What caught me off guard was the sheer intensity of the violence that ensued, I mean, they are puppets, how bad can it get? Apparently, quite bad. It sort of reminded me of the Chucky movies. Things get so intense that there were moments that made me fear for Louise's survival.
The audiobook's voice acting by Mikhaila Aaseng deserves accolades. When the haunted puppet was singing his maddening song in the middle of everything going down... I felt like I was losing my sanity along with Lousie.
This was an enjoyable read and I'd rate it 4/5 ⭐️
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