Louise Joyner moved away from her childhood home, never looking back on the house where so many memories haunted her. When her estranged brother Mark calls to tell her that her parents have both been killed in a car accident, she’ll have to quite literally deal with those demons once again.
As the two siblings sort through the estate and try to figure out what to do with the house full of her mom’s creepy puppets, strange things begin happening. Louise hears noises upstairs, the TV seems to spontaneously turn on and just why did her parents tape newspaper over the mirrors and nail the attic door shut? Never mind that the puppets seem to be moving around the house on their own and coming to life.
Houses can’t really be haunted, can they?
Grady Hendrix, author of “The Final Girl Support Group” and “The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires” is back with another twisted horror-filled novel. To read a Grady Hendrix novel, you must suspend all sort of disbelief and just go with it, because it’s quite a ride.
But this is much more than a horror novel – it’s also a story of loss. Cut through the blood, guts, horror and evil puppets and you’ll find a take on how the past shapes us. Louise and Mark have to let go of the childhood trauma that caused them to drift apart in order to take on the evil that faces them in the present. As they work through their differences, they also uncover generations of family secrets that have kept everyone trapped in a dangerous web of lies.
Hendrix is a MASTER of the horror genre. He brilliantly weaves comedic elements into his most bizarre plots and is able to effortlessly bring the story to life. With nods to classics like “Child’s Play” and “Chinga” (the X-Files episode written by Stephen King), Hendrix honors those staples without falling into predictable horror tropes.
“How to Sell a Haunted House” starts off a little slow, but goes full throttle once Louise returns home to deal with the funeral arrangements and her parents’ estate. Content warning for a very graphic, bloody scene close to the end and a caution to people who don’t like clowns or puppets. Overall rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars.
“How to Sell a Haunted House” releases on January 17, 2023. Thank you to Net Galley for the advanced reader copy.
Looking for something to read right now? Check out this list of horror novels perfect for the Halloween season.