the way i hated multiple characters in the beginning and then cried over them in the end...... good book ( )

Well, this was another Grady Hendrix that I didn't really enjoy. I enjoyed enough that I did finish it. And maybe the puppets will stick in my mind for awhile. But this book was weird. And I also hated the part where it was randomly in the perspective of her brother and he went to school and went touring with the puppet people. It just seemed so randomly placed in the book and I didn't really like it. I liked the premise of this, but all the puppets made it a little crazy and out there. ( )

I don't think I'm going to finish this one. I loved The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires and enjoyed Horrorstör, both from the same author, but this one is not what I was hoping for.

The premise is interesting, as is customary for this author serious themes (saying goodbye to your parents and re-building a relationship with your sibling) are put in the context of a "pulpy" horror novel.

Sadly though it didn't work for me. I love the haunted house trope, but I find evil dolls to be just too stupid and uninteresting (even though they also are a beloved "trashy" trope: I realize my aversion is entirely subjective), so as soon as I realized this was the direction we were heading to I saw myself starting to tune out from this book.

So, while I could never take the "scary" parts seriously, at the same time I wasn't able to embrace the "ridiculousness" and have fun with it.

The serious themes started to get a bit muddled (Mark's backstory is quite out of the blue, I didn't need him to have "hidden depths").

I realized at 52% that I didn't really care. I was in the mood for some horror but this wasn't really scary and this wasn't all that funny either.

(3.25 Stars)

This was pretty good. Well worth the read. ( )

Good read. Finished in 24 hours. I think I would've given it more stars but I felt that the story kept elongating. Nonetheless, the secret revealed by one of the family members 3/4 into the story was compelling. ( )