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Book Review: How to Sell a Haunted House by Grady Hendrix

 

How to Sell a Haunted House by Grady Hendrix

Berkley, 2023

ISBN-13: 9780593201268

Available: Hardcover, paperback, Kindle edition, audiobook

Buy: Bookshop.org | Amazon.com

 

Louise receives a phone call she never thought she would get from her brother, Mark. Their parents have been killed in a car accident. A single parent to Poppy, Louise doesn’t want to leave San Francisco for Charleston, South Carolina to deal with the estate. However, certain her brother can’t cope with any of the organization and care that is needed to get the old house sold and settle things properly, she grudgingly goes back to her childhood home. Their father, Robert, was a retired successful academic. Their mother, Nancy, ran a successful Christian puppet ministry, creating every puppet with her own two hands, as well as a amassing a collection of dolls, handmade art, and taxidermy. Then there is Pupkin. Oh, we will get to Pupkin later.

 

It seems the moment she sets foot in Charleston, she can’t find the time to mourn or cope with the shock of the death of her parents. Fighting with her brother over everything, including and especially the inheritance, sets the siblings on edge. When they do manage to talk in a civil way, they discover they have very different views on their childhood, and what Pupkin meant to both of them.

 

Pupkin…is he possessed? Is he haunted? Whatever he is, he’s a terror in more than one sense of the word. If you’re his friend, he will take over your entire being. If you are foe, just watch out. He’s got a killer mindset and he’s not afraid of anything.

 

Part of the reason I keep picking up his books is that Hendrix has a unique mix of off the wall horror, gore, and humor in his novels. Another part is that he has a way of writing believable characters, and everyone has flaws. The tense relationship between Louise and Mark feels very real. When the rest of the family gets involved in, well, everything, the story gets even more interesting. Mark opens up about his experiences with Pupkin after Louise has left their family home, which is intense and one of the most horrifying parts of How to Sell a Haunted House. Where Louise felt her brother was the favored child, always being coddled and supported throughout every failed scheme of his, he felt she was the gold standard and that she was always so perfect. The scenes between the siblings are well executed.

 

If you’re a fan of creepy dolls and puppets, family drama, and good, campy horror, pick up How to Sell a Haunted House. Just beware of taxidermy squirrel nativities…

 

Highly recommended.

 

Reviewed by Lizzy Walker

 

 

Posted on October 28, 2023 by , Reply

Book Review: Delicious Zombie by Wol-vriey

 

Delicious Zombie by Wol-vriey

Burning Bulb Publishing, 2022

ISBN: 9781948278485

Available: paperback, Kindle edition

Buy: Amazon.com

 

Would you be okay with cannibalism if it would stop the aging process?

 

That’s the idea behind Delicious Zombie, a tour de splat that adds some new twists to the zombie apocalypse storyline.  The zombies are all humans that have been infected with a virus that makes them eat anything alive– nothing new there.  But, uninfected humans who eat zombies find that the aging process slows, and actually reverses, keeping everyone in their late 20s-early 30s.  Diseases like cancer?  A thing of the past, thanks to zombie meat.  All ills have been conquered, thanks to eating undead people that used to be normal human beings.

 

However, not everyone is happy about the idea of immortality, since it involves munching on your former neighbors.  Scientist Ethan Hackman and his companions Paula and Zoe lead a clandestine mission to Ohio to recover the cure for zombies, which has been hidden away by the powers that be.  It’s a question of whether they can survive, because a LOT of people don’t want the status quo changed.

 

This author has always excelled at writing fast-paced stories with a large dose of messiness, and this one is no exception.  What makes this one good is the author’s world-building: it’s quite the dystopia!  This is one story that actually makes the zombies sympathetic characters, which is unusual in the genre.  It’s a haunting place: there is a Church of Zombie, which preaches “digestion is salvation” ; the poor zombies are kept on farms for slaughter, and some people even keep a live zombie at home to cut off a piece of meat whenever they feel the urge.  It’s factory farming gone crazy.  At the grocery store, you go up to the deli counter and order whatever cut of a person you want.  Needless to say, serious ethical questions are present in this book!  That’s why the book is much more than the standard undead stories.  It’s not just the usual ‘plucky humans trying to survive a zombie plague,’  there’s a plotline with some real thought to it.  It’s enough to keep the reader engaged right through the last pages of the book.

 

Bottom line: if you like zombie stories and are hungry for one with some originality that will make you think, this one is the way to go.  Recommended.

 

Reviewed by Murray Samuelson

Posted on October 27, 2023 by , Reply

Book Review: Fettered and Other Tales of Terror by Greye La Spina, edited by Michael J. Phillips Jr.

Fettered and Other Tales of Terror by Greye La Spina, edited by Michael J. Phillips Jr.

From Beyond Press, 2023

ISBN-13: 979-8987574331

Available: Paperback, Kindle edition

Buy: Bookshop.org | Amazon.com

 

 

 

Greye La Spina (1880-1969) was a prolific American writer, who published in various genre magazines (e.g. Weird Tales) more than one hundred dark short stories and novelettes, most of which, sadly, have been lost.

 

During her lifetime she was extremely popular, more than HP Lovecraft (who, incidentally, had a low opinion of her fictional work).

 

Tracing her stories is indeed a hard task nowadays, so praise to From Beyond Press for making available again to the public some of her production.

 

The present volume collects four stories and a novella, providing to today’s readers a pleasant, small  taste of her body of work.

 

“Fettered” is a dark novella dealing with the theme of vampirism, certainly a bit outdated today, but addressed by La Spina with a vivid and disquieting approach, able to unsettle even the readers well-used to this particular topic.

 

“The Last Cigarette” is a very short but effective story featuring a suicidal man whose plans are ruined by an unexpected occurrence.

 

“The Remorse of Professor Panebianco”, despite its unlikely pseudoscientific basis, is a powerful, intriguing story able to fascinate and disturb.

 

In the tense, dramatic “The Scarf of the Beloved”, a grave robber has to face a terrible truth, while in the engrossing “Wolf of the Steppes” a dangerous werewolf is finally discovered and defeated.

 

The themes addressed in the included stories are traditional enough, but I have the feeling that this is the very reason why these specific tales have survived or have been saved throughout the years.

 

Reviewed by Mario Guslandi

Posted on October 26, 2023 by , Reply
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