I was not impressed with this story. It follows a brother/sister dealing with the unexpected passing of their parents and only becomes about a haunted house about half way in. The writer initially makes the siblings’ relationship seem irreconcilable as they’re always at each others’ throats. The brother is especially unbearable at first, but the reasoning behind his actions flips the dynamic to the sister being the villain. Essentially, they’re both pretty obnoxious for most of the story. One could argue that it’s the stress of their parents dying, even so, the constant conflict was really frustrating as a reader.

Also, the haunting really only manifests as possessed puppets, because their mom was a crazy puppet lover, and the other form of haunting made me roll my eyes. I felt like the puppet stuff was enough because it tied back into the shared childhood problems the siblings had. Honestly the other haunting felt more like a plot device to be used in the final act rather than a natural addition. It failed to make sense with the direction the rest of the story went; mainly the actual ghost that was haunting the house. That reveal fell flat for me too, leaving the entire novel a chore to read overall.

I’m not sure I like Hendrix’s writing style. I have one more of his books to read on my shelf, and if it doesn’t impress, I’m done. There never seems to be any cohesion with his narratives. Elements are thrown in haphazardly and don’t depict a clear vision. While the haunted puppets tied into the childhood of the main characters, the character interactions were all so one note that I didn’t feel like they were real people. The nuance was missing and a lot of the dialogue was so dry that I wouldn’t recommend this story to most people. It’s just frustrating.