How to Sell a Haunted House, by Grady Hendrix
She put her back to the wall and tore puppets from her body, flinging them as far as she could. The crashing headlamp showed flashes of the nightmare all around them: puppets with no legs dragging themselves over the carpet like felt slugs, puppets swinging from the doorframes, puppets hurling themselves toward Louise, their eyes fixed on her, their mouths screaming. The three-foot-long articulated Danny the Imagination Dragon ran across the ceiling upside down, clinging to it with foam claws, wings outstretched. Red and white striped candy canes her mom had made for a Santa Claus pageant pogoed toward them...
How to Sell a Haunted House is exactly what it says on the can. When single mom Louise's parents die in a car crash, she and her estranged alcoholic brother Mark inherit the house, which is filled with dolls and puppets, as Louise's mother collected dolls and made puppets for her puppet ministry doing Bible stories with puppets.
Louise and Mark are thrown into a series of horrifyingly/hilariously relatable situations following that, such as fights over the will, fights over what to do with the house, attempts to sell the house, sorting through their parents' possessions, and generally dealing with family issues - all complicated by the house and/or its puppets and dolls being haunted.
I was a little hesitant to start this book as Grady Hendrix's books are a bit hit or miss for me. The hits are spectacular, but his previous book, The Final Girls Support Group, was a big miss for me.
I'm not sure if it's that Hendrix is more into evil puppets than slashers or if I am or both, but How to Sell a Haunted House is a great return to form. In fact, it is now one of my favorite of Hendrix's books. It's scary, compelling, often very funny, has a lot of heart and an excellent central relationship, and even has some very interesting points to make about the symbolic uses of masks and puppets, and the differences between puppets and dolls. Louise and Mark's relationship is a lot more interesting and complex than it first appears to be, as are their pasts and relationships with their parents. The book is very thematically unified and just a whole lot of fun; I read it in a single sitting.
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How to Sell a Haunted House is exactly what it says on the can. When single mom Louise's parents die in a car crash, she and her estranged alcoholic brother Mark inherit the house, which is filled with dolls and puppets, as Louise's mother collected dolls and made puppets for her puppet ministry doing Bible stories with puppets.
Louise and Mark are thrown into a series of horrifyingly/hilariously relatable situations following that, such as fights over the will, fights over what to do with the house, attempts to sell the house, sorting through their parents' possessions, and generally dealing with family issues - all complicated by the house and/or its puppets and dolls being haunted.
I was a little hesitant to start this book as Grady Hendrix's books are a bit hit or miss for me. The hits are spectacular, but his previous book, The Final Girls Support Group, was a big miss for me.
I'm not sure if it's that Hendrix is more into evil puppets than slashers or if I am or both, but How to Sell a Haunted House is a great return to form. In fact, it is now one of my favorite of Hendrix's books. It's scary, compelling, often very funny, has a lot of heart and an excellent central relationship, and even has some very interesting points to make about the symbolic uses of masks and puppets, and the differences between puppets and dolls. Louise and Mark's relationship is a lot more interesting and complex than it first appears to be, as are their pasts and relationships with their parents. The book is very thematically unified and just a whole lot of fun; I read it in a single sitting.
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