How to Sell a Haunted House Quiz
Quiz Instructions
This quiz tests your recall and understanding of How to Sell a Haunted House by Grady Hendrix. It is divided into four sections: plot and sequence, character motivation, theme and symbol, and synthesis. Most questions are multiple choice; a few require short written answers. After you finish, check the answer key for explanations.
Part 1: Plot and Sequence (8 questions)
1. What event compels Louise to fly from San Francisco to Charleston?
- A) Her father’s heart attack
- B) Her parents die in a car crash
- C) Mark asks her to help sell the house
- D) Aunt Honey calls her for a family reunion
2. After the will reading, what does Louise discover she has inherited instead of the house?
- A) A life insurance policy
- B) Her mother’s art collection
- C) The family car
- D) Mark’s student loans
3. What happens during Realtor Mercy’s walk-through of the house?
- A) She finds a dead squirrel in the attic
- B) She hears knocks in the bathroom vanity and refuses to list the property
- C) She offers to buy the house herself
- D) She sees Pupkin walking across the floor
4. How do Louise and Mark attempt to help their parents’ spirits pass on?
- A) They hold a séance
- B) They share a Pizza Chinese dinner
- C) They burn all the dolls
- D) They call a priest
5. Where does Mark first encounter the radical puppet collective Organ?
- A) At a church puppet festival
- B) In Harvard Square after leaving Boston University
- C) At his mother’s workroom
- D) On a street corner in Charleston
6. What does Louise discover about Pupkin’s true identity during the exorcism in Barb’s trailer?
- A) He is a demon from Hell
- B) He is the ghost of her uncle Freddie, who died as a child
- C) He is a fragment of Nancy’s soul
- D) He is Mark’s imaginary friend
7. How does Louise finally stop Pupkin from possessing Poppy?
- A) She cuts off Mark’s arm again
- B) She digs up Freddie’s bones and sends Pupkin to the End of the World
- C) She throws Pupkin into the ocean
- D) She prays with Aunt Gail
8. What happens in the final chapter when Louise returns to San Francisco?
- A) She sells the house and moves on
- B) She finds Poppy asleep with a new Pupkin puppet on her arm
- C) Mark moves in with her
- D) The house burns down
Part 2: Character Motivation (5 questions)
9. Why does Nancy Joyner leave everything to Mark in her will?
- A) She always preferred Mark over Louise
- B) She believed Louise could take care of herself
- C) Mark threatened to disown her
- D) Nancy was not of sound mind
10. What motivates Mark to leave Boston University and join Organ?
- A) He wants to become a professional puppeteer
- B) Disillusionment after 9/11 and a desire to protest the Iraq War
- C) He is expelled for poor grades
- D) He follows a girlfriend into the collective
11. Why does Louise agree to stay one more week in Charleston after Mercy’s visit?
- A) She wants to prove the house is not haunted
- B) Mercy convinces her that the sale will bring over $300,000 for Poppy’s future
- C) Mark threatens legal action
- D) Aunt Honey becomes ill
12. What is Mark’s stated reason for not wanting to sell the house?
- A) He wants to live there himself
- B) He believes their parents’ spirits are haunting it and does not want to banish them
- C) He thinks the property value will increase
- D) He is too busy with work
13. Why does Pupkin target Poppy specifically?
- A) He hates children
- B) He wants to be taken care of and refuses to accept Nancy’s death
- C) Poppy is an easier host than Louise
- D) He is jealous of Poppy’s stuffed animals
Part 3: Theme and Symbol (4 questions)
14. What does the Squirrel Nativity represent in the novel?
- A) Louise’s childhood innocence
- B) Nancy’s obsessive crafting and the grotesque side of family legacy
- C) A harmless hobby
- D) Mark’s artistic failure
15. How does the theme of The Velveteen Rabbit apply to Pupkin?
- A) Pupkin is a stuffed animal that becomes real through love, but fears mortality
- B) Pupkin is a demon that mimics a rabbit
- C) Louise reads the book to Poppy to calm her
- D) The book is used as a weapon against the ghost
16. What does the “Booger Blanket” symbolize for the Joyner family?
- A) Comfort, messiness, and unconditional love
- B) A literal blanket used in a prank
- C) Nancy’s refusal to clean the house
- D) Mark’s childish behavior
17. What is the significance of the “Tick Tock tree” in the backyard?
- A) It marks the burial spot of Freddie’s bones
- B) It is where Pupkin first appears
- C) It is a family picnic spot
- D) It holds a secret time capsule
Part 4: Synthesis (3 questions)
18. Short answer: How does the handling of Uncle Freddie’s death affect three generations of the Joyner family?
19. Short answer: In what ways does the Joyner family home function as more than a setting—how does it act like a character in the story?
20. Short answer: What is the novel’s core message about grief and the need to let go?
Answer Key
1. B. Her parents’ car crash is the inciting event that brings Louise home (Chapter 2).
2. B. Louise receives the art collection—a lifetime of crafts—while Mark inherits the house and tangible property (Chapter 9).
3. B. Mercy hears knocks from the bathroom vanity and feels “weird vibes,” so she refuses to list the haunted property (Chapter 14).
4. B. Louise suggests a Pizza Chinese dinner as a ritual to help their parents’ souls move on, though her real goal is to secure Mark’s agreement to sell (Chapter 15–16).
5. B. Mark wanders into Harvard Square after quitting Boston University and sees Organ performing a disturbing marionette show (Chapter 21).
6. B. Under Barb’s gentle questioning, Pupkin admits he is the ghost of five‑year‑old Freddie, Nancy’s brother who drowned (Chapter 33).
7. B. Louise digs up Freddie’s skeleton from the backyard and, in a vision, sends Pupkin and Freddie to the End of the World (Chapter 37).
8. B. Louise believes everything is settled, but when she enters Poppy’s room she finds a new Pupkin on Poppy’s arm (Chapter 28–29).
9. B. Nancy’s letter explains she left everything to Mark because she believed Louise was strong enough to take care of herself (Chapter 9).
10. B. Mark is disillusioned after 9/11 and joins Organ to protest the Iraq War, building “penis missiles” for antiwar pageants (Chapter 21).
11. B. Mercy argues that the sale proceeds—over $300,000—will give Poppy a transformed future, convincing Louise to stay (Chapter 12).
12. B. Mark refuses to sell because he believes Mom and Dad’s spirits haunt the house and he cannot bear to banish them (Chapter 15).
13. B. Pupkin speaks through Poppy, asking for Nancy and refusing to accept her death; he craves being cared for (Chapter 33).
14. B. The Squirrel Nativity is a grotesque example of Nancy’s obsessive crafting and the dark side of her legacy (Chapter 9–10).
15. A. The novel references The Velveteen Rabbit repeatedly; Pupkin wants to be real but is afraid of the mortality that realness brings (Chapter 37).
16. A. The “Booger Blanket” is a family comfort object, representing the messy, imperfect love of the Joyners (Chapter 13).
17. A. The Tick Tock tree in the backyard is the cypress where Freddie’s body is buried, as revealed in Chapter 36.
18. Freddie’s drowning death was covered up as lockjaw, leading to guilt and control across three generations. Nancy’s guilt fueled her obsessive crafting and puppet‑making. Gail never forgave Nancy and sent her away. The buried body created a supernatural haunting that forced Louise and Mark to confront the family secret to save Poppy. The cover‑up prevented healthy grief and trapped the family in cycles of manipulation.
19. The house is a trap of memory and unresolved trauma. It resists cleaning, forces characters to revert to childhood behavior, and harbors supernatural manifestations of repressed grief. It demands a cleansing ritual, and its renovation symbolically represents the family’s healing. The house is not a passive backdrop but an active force that must be understood and reconciled before the family can move forward.
20. The novel argues that grief must be fully faced rather than denied or controlled. Attempts to keep loved ones present through supernatural means—or through avoidance—only cause more pain. Letting go is an act of love, as seen when Louise helps Freddie and Pupkin pass on. The final epilogue shows that grief remains, but it becomes bearable when shared with family.