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…
How to Sell a Haunted House by Grady Hendrix follows Louise, who’s forced to return to her childhood home after her parents die in a car crash. She’s got to deal with the trauma of her past and her insufferable brother, Mark. I’d love to give you a neat summary of the plot, but honestly? There’s a lot going on—family drama, haunted dolls, puppet warfare, weird inheritance stuff. It’s chaotic in that classic Hendrix way.
Now, I’ll admit—Grady Hendrix has been hit-or-miss for me. I want to love his books, but sometimes they don’t quite land. Still, I gave this one a shot, and for the first three-quarters, I was in. The pacing? Solid. The characters? Believable. The creepy atmosphere? On point.
And then… it just kept going.
You know that feeling when a movie should’ve ended twenty minutes ago but just won’t quit? That was me at Chapter 29. I literally checked how many pages were left, like, why is this still happening?
That’s where it lost me. Poppy became insufferable. Louise reverted to being frustratingly passive. And the ending? Meh. When a horror story over-explains itself, it kills the fear. The unknown is always scarier. Remember how Goosebumps or Are You Afraid of the Dark episodes would end? Or even The Mist? That lingering, “what the hell just happened?” is what sticks with you.
If I’d written the ending? Louise goes home. Ian tells her about Grandma and Poppy’s creepy craft project. She walks into Poppy’s room, sees the Pupkin puppet, and hears her say “kakawewe” in Pupkin’s voice. Louise screams. End scene. That’s a punch-in-the-gut ending. That’s how you leave a reader haunted.
If you’re a big Grady Hendrix fan, you’ll probably love this one. Even though the ending didn’t hit for me, I still think it’s worth reading. Just… be ready for a few too many curtain calls.
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