HOW TO SELL A HAUNTED HOUSE
Night Of The Living Doll
★★★★★
RELEASED OUT NOW!
400 pages | Hardback/ebook
Author Grady Hendrix
Publisher Titan Books
You’re pretty much guaranteed three things when you pick up a Grady Hendrix novel: a tightly plotted supernatural mystery; a couple of moments of unforgettable visceral horror; and a honking great blast of nostalgia. Sure enough, How To Sell A Haunted House packs in all three, but this time round even the nostalgia is tinged with terror.
The supernatural mystery bit concerns thirtysomething Louise and her estranged younger brother Mark. After their parents die in a horrific car crash, the two of them are forced to come together to deal with selling their childhood home. The problem is, it’s full of their mum’s creepy old home-made puppets… including her favourite, Pupkin, who’s possibly possessed.
The visceral bits: let’s just say bad things happen with a circular saw. It’s slam-the-book-shut grim. And the nostalgia, well, that brings us back to the dolls. Louise and Mark’s mother was a Tammy Faye Bakker-style preacher, using her stable of puppets to tell kids Bible stories – though she may have just succeeded in putting the fear of God into them. Making a creepy puppet terrifying through the written word is no small feat, but Hendrix succeeds; there won’t be many readers who’d fancy spending a night in this house.
Beyond the horror, this is really a story about families and the lies they tell one another. There’s intergenerational trauma to spare, with one Ring-style rug pull that works with ruthless efficiency. The ending does offer a little hope, but there’s no sentimentality here; Hendrix refuses to sand down his characters’ sharp edges, and the book is realistic about the chances of a happily-ever-after.
Notably this book, unlike much of Hendrix’s earlier work, requires no previous knowledge (of horror movies, rock music or furniture shops) to enjoy it. And if you don’t have a doll phobia, don’t worry – you’ll develop one. Sarah Dobbs
This is the third Hendrix book in a row set where he grew up: Charleston, South Carolina. He promises that it’s also his last.