How to Sell a Haunted House

In How to Sell a Haunted House, Hendrix explores the power of secrets to shape a family and the distance that those secrets create. Through Louise and Mark’s distant relationship, Hendrix shows the Joyner family dynamic at the beginning of the novel. Mark sums it up when he says, “There’s all this stuff in our family we don’t talk about. Mom doesn’t talk about her family, Dad doesn’t talk about his family, and you and I don’t talk, period” (189). This lack of communication inevitably leads to secrets, and not until all of the family secrets are revealed are Louise and Mark able to put Freddie’s spirit to rest.

From the beginning, Louise is resistant to both learning about and telling the truth about her family. She follows the family tradition of secrets and silence. Even when faced with obvious signs of the supernatural, Louise retreats into what she wants to believe to be true, ignoring the evidence of her own senses and keeping it a secret from Mark. Despite the pain these secrets cause, no one will share the truth until Mark begins to peel back the secrets the family has been hiding.