I have never read anything by Grady Hendrix before, and I guess judging by How to Sell a Haunted House, he writes comic-horror novels. I bought How to Sell a Haunted House because I wanted something spooky to read, but this is not a scary novel. It is low-key terrifying, though, because of all the creepy dolls and puppets that populate the story. I still found it to be an interesting read as it is about how trauma can affect generations of a family.

When Louise finds out that her parents have both died in a car accident, she flies back to her hometown of Charleston to deal with the aftermath of their deaths. She also must deal with her younger brother, Mark, who she does not get along with as he cannot take care of himself, and her parents supported him more than they supported her. When she finds out that her mother left her parents’ estate to Mark, Louise gets ready to pack it in and head back home to San Francisco, until Mark convinces her to help him sell their parents’ house for a cut of the sale proceeds.

Louise’s mother was obsessed with dolls and puppets, so her parents’ house is full of dolls and puppets. The dolls and puppets are unsettling, to say the least, as Louise feels like they are watching her and moving on their own. She tries to dismiss these feelings because they are not rational, but then she is attacked by her mother’s favourite puppet from her childhood called Pupkin. Pupkin literally moves around on his own and tries to kill people. Now, I am a visual reader and books play like movies in my head while I read them, so I was trying really hard not to visualize this homicidal puppet slithering around lol. Just when Louise is about to be killed by a puppet, Mark shows up and they defeat Pupkin together, albeit temporarily.

Louise suddenly finds herself in the situation where she must work together with Mark to take out Pupkin permanently so that they can cleanse their parents’ house of all the bad juju that is haunting it. This is when family secrets start to come out and Louise and Mark hash out their issues with each other and clear up the misunderstandings that have ruined their relationship for most of their lives.

As creepy as the dolls and puppets are, there is a lot of humour in How to Sell a Haunted House, which makes it more entertaining than frightening. I did not have a problem going to bed at night after reading this book (probably because I do not have any dolls or puppets in my house).