How to Sell a Haunted House

Rating: 4/5

In How to Sell a Haunted House by Grady Hendrix, we meet Louise, a single mother living in California, far away from her parents and brother. When her parents pass away, Louise flies home to Charleston to be with family and deal with the estate. Louise immediately gets a bad vibe when she sets foot into her parents’ house. Something seems off, and the plethora of puppets and dolls in the house are only part of the problem.

Louise has a contentious relationship with her brother, Mark. They get into a fight in front of the junk removal guy who Mark hired to clean up their parents’ house, and it becomes clear that there’s a reason Louise wanted to go to the other side of the country to get away from him.

How to Sell a Haunted House is a phenomenally gory, compelling story. It initially starts out a bit slow, but it picks up after the first few dozen pages. Hendrix is an expert at creating complex characters. (Hendrix does a great job of writing women. That may sound like a weird compliment, but he writes women as humans.) We learn that Louise may have some demons and secrets in her past, and perhaps Mark isn’t a total screw up.

This book deals with family secrets and repression. Louise’s extended family refuses to talk about certain family trauma, and without knowing about it, there is no way Louise can battle whatever’s gripping the house. This book illustrates that pushing down the bad feelings doesn’t get rid of them; they just manifest in other more painful and dangerous ways.

There are some incredibly gruesome, visceral moments in this book. I haven’t read all of Hendrix’s books, but this is definitely the goriest work of his that I’ve read. But it isn’t gratuitous; it all furthers the plot, even the really gross life-changing thing that happens. (Believe me, you’ll know what I’m talking about when you read this.)

The title initially felt misleading to me, but it eventually makes sense. If you’re expecting something like Mexican Gothic or The Haunting of Hill House, this may not be exactly what you want. But if you’re looking for a captivating story about life, death, and secrets, How to Sell a Haunted House is a must-read book. Fans of Hendrix’s other novels will enjoy this most recent work.