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…
Horror Novel Book Review Blog: How to Sell a Haunted House
Grady Hendrix got on my radar after seeing the cover art for, and reading, My Best Friend’s Exorcism a few years ago. The artwork for the paperback version of this book, as well as its title, just screamed YA (young adult) novel and I really had no interest in reading it. So why buy it? Well, like I said, the cover art was very 80s horror retro, and thought it would look great displayed on my bookshelf. Needless to say, I did eventually pick it up to read it. While I enjoyed that book, I can’t say that I became an instant fan of the author. The film adaptation of the said book is a whole different topic of discussion but, they both left me with the same feeling – that feeling of being slighted.
There were a few things, in the novel, that hit hard and other things that were a ‘swing and a miss’. However, his writing prose piqued my interest and I sought out another of his books, We Sold Our Souls. Ok, not bad but, again, while I really enjoyed it I was still not an instant fan. Paperbacks From Hell I loved but it is a work of non-fiction. Third time’s a charm with regard to another of his novels, right? How to Sell a Haunted House. This was sure to be up my alley because haunted houses, ghost stories, and things that go bump in the night are my cup of tea if told right.
Louise is in a bit of a predicament after the sudden death of both her parents and she has to fly back to her hometown of Charleston, South Carolina, leaving behind her five-year-old daughter with her father, to tend to their funeral arrangements and face her estranged younger brother, Mark who, for whatever reason really has it in for her which is, of course, later revealed as the story unfolds. As she visits her childhood home, memories of her past flood her mind, the big, desolate backyard still riddled with remnants of unfinished projects courtesy of her no-good brother, her mother’s obsession with dolls and puppets, and her father’s academic papers and essays strewn about his office. Then, there is the boarded-up attic, the strange noises, and a feeling of unease, or weird vibes, that Louise just can’t seem to shake.
Something had happened right before her mom and dad had left their house for the last time. Something bad.
Grady Hendrix, How to Sell a Haunted House
Hendrix introduces the haunted house plot in a way that most would. However, How to Sell a Haunted House is anything but traditional and I have to say that this story went in a direction that I did not anticipate nor did I see coming. There were hints early in the story that showed the direction Hendrix was headed and boy I really hoped I was wrong and, alas, I was not. Still, I hoped that it was misdirection at its best, and, again, it was not.
Despite my disappointment in the direction Hendrix took it, I went along with the story until its conclusion because, if there is anything that I have learned about Grady Hendrix it’s that he knows how to close a story. The thing about Hendrix that I have a love/hate relationship with is getting to that finale. While I do like his style, there are certain things that I am not a fan of such as that random joke he puts into his characters’ mouths to break the tension when, in reality, any normal human being would be terrified. And yes, the way he writes them, his characters are normal human beings with faults and imperfections. This is not to say that I did not chuckle more than a few times while reading How to Sell a Haunted House, but there were moments where a joke or a jab in the middle of something that most would deem a terrifying situation that took me out of it momentarily.
Another thing that takes me away from the narrative at times is the overuse of extended action sequences. There were times when I had to stop and ask myself if I was reading a novel or Hollywood movie script. Most of these sequences felt like padding, or fluff, and took away from any creepiness he had inflicted prior to any of these “action” sequences.
There were a few spooks and creepy factors but I cannot say that this was a scary novel. Was it good? Yeah, I’d say so. What brought me back into the story was, again, how Hendrix closes out the story, where brownie points are well earned. But, yet again, I am hard-pressed to consider Grady Hendrix a favorite author of mine because the scares are just not quite there for me. But, I know he has it in him because I enjoy his writing albeit his “action” sequences. I really, really wanted to like this one more than I did. While I enjoyed How to Sell a Haunted House and the creepy bits were strewn throughout but, in the end, there just weren’t enough of them in my opinion. I, however, am not giving up on this author because I really do enjoy his writing.