A Possession That Possesses the Possessor - Reviewing Grady Hendrix' "How to Sell a Haunted House"

Estranged siblings Louise and Mark find themselves back at their childhood house when both their parents die in an excruciating accident, apparently having left the house in a hurry on a rainy night. After their realtor cousin Mercy tells them she can’t sell a house which is very obviously haunted, they decide to cleanse the house of every single one of their mother’s dolls, self-made art and puppets, which proves really difficult with them constantly locking horns. When they reach the (locked) attic, they find something that both of them separately have been trying to burry into the past and never confront again, but, as it is with every thorough cleansing, things need to come to surface and who knows, maybe they can even explain their past behavior to each other and find some kind of redemption? Can Louise protect her own daughter from what has been some kind of curse in this family for so long? And whatever happened for their parents to leave the house like that?

As a younger sibling who has had her fair share of old sister torture, I was ‘Team Mark’ all the way from the point the book switched to his point of view until the end. There are a few shifts like that in this book that make you reconsider what you have read up until that point and see everything in an if not completely different, then in an additional light. All these shifts feel cleverly executed and natural - not really like twists, but as natural explanations to previous mysteries. As a person who, in my opinion, reacts very logically to what’s happening to him – from his search for a place to belong to, to his anti-war activism in art form, to this seemingly unsociable and difficult personality – he made sense to me, apart from some minor points (like claiming to believe in the right the second amendment gives him while at the same time being evidently anti-war and left-leaning in his views, but hey, maybe that’s just part of his complexity as a character).

The ponderings on masks and puppets, and how they have the power to transform you into a different person, to possess you, were another level that Mark’s point of view provides. Although it’s not like the book re-invents the creepy puppet trope and nothing groundbreakingly new is being rolled out, I still feel kind of fascinated by the subject and Grady Hendrix might have invented one of the most annoying, aggressive, evil and creepy puppets with “Pupkin”.

Besides Pupkin, How to Sell A Haunted House features a myriad of other curiosities; a feisty Squirrel Baby Jesus, Southern aunties who know how a lot about demons and ghosts, a radical political art collective that works with puppets, a hell hound named Spider, a seriously dislikable and self-righteous lead and family secrets galore.

     Hendrix enthralls with a flashy title and fast pace, gives a few legendary fight scenes and, as usual, rocks a monumental ending. Still, I have a couple of criticisms;

- The fact that someone is an anarchist does not mean that they will be mean and violent, even though I know the American language uses them as synonyms. The example given here that Punch from Judy and Punch representing full on anarchy because he was beating his wife and stuff, this is extremely misleading. Please! If anything, an informed anarchist will not accept anyone bossing them around, but they too will have respect and consideration for other people’s autonomy and self determination as much as they value their own, because that's what lack of hierarchy means.

- A trip to Germany, Berlin is mentioned in the book where they see people in "Lederhosen", which is basically factually not probable. I have been living in Berlin for over ten years now and have never seen anyone wear “Lederhosen”. A book friend of mine, American herself, told me that they just don't care about details like these, but I still don't lose hope that stereotypes like these might one day be better researched.

Despite these, I really enjoyed the read and would of course recommend, like any other Grady Hendrix book.