Fundamentally, How to Sell a Haunted House is a novel about grief and some of the strange ways that it manifests. The supernatural at the center of the novel are representative of the way the grief haunts people; the haunted house shows how grief can sometimes lash out and hurt those dealing with it. Grief is one of the most destructive things a person can deal with, but it can also bring people together (as it does with Louise and her brother Mark).
Thematically, How to Sell a Haunted House explores themes of grief, death, the supernatural, familial relations, the importance of family. It also explores themes of love, companionship, and the importance of holding on to memories and other family mementos. Even with these complex themes, How to Sell a Haunted House is propulsive and exceptionally entertaining with well-drawn characters and a story which is sure to make everyone think. And author Grady Hendrix treats his readers with respect. The novel is never mocking, as some horror novels are. Instead, it is tonally respectful, bold, compassionate, joyful, lively, energetic, and perhaps most important, horrifying.
The novel follows Louise, who is reluctant to return home after the tragic death of her parents. She must simultaneously deal with her grief over her parents’ death and must clear out their home to prepare it for being sold. To clear out her parent’s home, she asks her unstable brother Mark to help her get the house ready to be sold. As they sort through their parents' possessions, strange things begin to happen to them, and they discover that their father was researching a powerful ancient artifact that had caused strange and supernatural occurrences in the house.
As they deal with the supernatural occurrences in the house and unravel the mystery of the artifact, they also confront their history and the history of their family and in the end decide to keep the house in the family and turn it into a museum to honor their parents. They realize that family, in other bords, is the best bond a person can have.
