Haunted House Quick Reviews

 She is a Haunting by Trang Thanh Tran (2023)

Jade's father is restoring a historic house in Vietnam and she travels there to spend five weeks with him in exchange for tuition money.  She soon realizes that the house is not what it appears to be - she suffers from sleep paralysis, there are bugs everywhere, food is rotting for no reason, and oh yeah, there's a ghost or two trying to give her a message - or something worse.  Jade will do just about anything to save her family from the haunted house.  This was just a "meh" read for me.  I think it suffered a lot from overwriting and could have used a good editor.  I felt like it was trying too hard to be cerebral or something, and it just ended up confusing.  It may have been because I ended up skimming a lot, but I felt lost - was the house the problem?  The ghosts?  There were also issues of race, identity, sexuality - it was just too much in one book.  2.5 stars

 

How To Sell a Haunted House by Grady Hendrix (2023)

 

After her parents are killed in a car accident, Louise travels back to her childhood home to deal with the situation.  She's not looking forward to working with her brother to get the house ready for sale, especially not after strange things start happening.  Some paranormal force is at work, and Louise and Mark will have to overcome their differences to get rid of it.  I've enjoyed a few of Hendrix's books - to me, they're a good mix of horror and, strangely, humor.  This one featured the main element of a haunted house, although the manifestation of that haunting may be a deal breaker for some!  Spoiler alert - it's dolls and puppets.  Super creepy!  Hendrix's writing is straightforward and easy to read, although it certainly does get very gory and very graphic, so if you're not into that, you might want to avoid this one.  In addition to the haunted house, there is also a focus on family and relationships.  Mark and Louise have a very complicated relationship, and the tough conversations they have are achingly relatable and honest.  It's funny how two people who grew up in the same house have such different memories of it.  I think the story dragged on a little too long for me, but overall, another great addition to the horror genre from Hendrix.  4 stars

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