Review: How to Sell a Haunted House by Grady Hendrix

When you read a lot of horror, in particular a lot of haunted horror, you get to think you know the ghost story. There will be grief, there will be unearthed secrets, a wrong will be righted. What I love about Grady Hendrix is his ability to destabilise even the most jaded horror fan.

For me, the destabilisation in this book was stress! I was so stressed out for most of the book, I didn’t have time to be triggered by dead parents — normally a topic which gets me crying at least once per book. I was so stressed I had to read this book in segments. What got me so stressed? What gets any of us stressed? Family relationships and difficult siblings. I can only say, thank God I’m reading this book now I have a good relationship with my siblings, because ten years ago I might have thrown my Kindle across the room!

I want to stress (ha - stress!) that this is not a criticism. This is a massive stonking compliment. Because we all know a haunted house story, and we all think we know what we want and what we’re going to get. And don’t get me wrong, Hendrix delivers on some proper creepy, Poltergeist-level scares. But those scares were all the more effective because I was so distracted by the strong character work, I wasn’t watching to see them coming.

How to Sell a Haunted House is about Louise and her brother Mark, two thirty-somethings whose parents have just died. They will need to put aside their childhood differences and work together to organise clearing and selling their parents’ house. Except they can’t put aside those differences. And something in the house seriously doesn’t want to be sold. All delivered with Hendrix’s trademark inky-black humour, and a strong dose of grief denial.

This is the perfect book for horror fans who think they know how the story goes, who want to be shaken down to their boots. It’s also a great introduction for people still getting used to the genre, to see how far anything and everything can be pushed.

How to Sell a Haunted House by Grady Hendrix is available to purchase here.

With thanks to Netgalley.co.uk and the publishers for an e-advanced review copy.