My rating is really a 3.5. This book is perfect for fans of The Conjuring and suspense novels. Sylvie is the good daughter, she is the youngest of her parent's two kids and the one that can be counted on. Her parents are "helpers" they take demonic or spiritual cases and try to solve problems with prayer. As their notoriety grows across the country, things get harder at home. Her older sister Rose acts up and starts driving a wedge between their parents. When her parents are murdered in a church after meeting with a client they helped in the past, Sylvie is the key to the case. But what does she really remember. Told in alternating timelines between the past and the present; Help for the Haunted starts out pretty slow but the pace really picks up in the last third of the book. ( )

about 90 % of this book is a well written enjoyable read. Like all good horror-much of the tension comes from underlying psychology and inter-relationships in the everyday world. Then throw in ax murders and creepy dolls for good measure. The author chose to base the story on some paranormal investigators form the Catholic church that lived in the community where he grew up.He should have done some research .
*****spoiler alert don't read further if you have not finished******
Catholics don't have reprogramming schools for homosexuals-as some other "Christian " religions do.
That made the implausible ending even more implausible.
A real shame because the main character and the family dynamic were very interesting ( )

I enjoyed this book a lot. I often dislike stories narrated by a teenager because they don't ring true (too mature or too immature) but I thought the author did a good job here. Sylvie is an interesting and complicated young woman with an unusual family and an even more unusual upbringing. I loved the way the story jumped back in forth in time and gradually revealed her history as well as what was happening currently. The title makes it sound like a supernatural thriller and there are certainly elements of that but people can be haunted in more than one way and this book focuses more on family, experience, and identity than on literal ghosts. ( )

I was with it until I realized the twist and then I was just annoyed.

Help for the Haunted
by John Searles
What an excellent, page turning thriller! Wow! So many unknowns, secrets, mysteries, scary situations, and possibilities! Had me gripping the page to the very last page!

Our young gal just a young teen, barely, and has an older and wilder sister who fights with the over domineering religious parents who are also famous Demonologists.

This is a flash back and forth between present and past telling the history of various episodes in their lives coming up to the parents murder that the sister may or may not have had something to do with. That same sister who has custody of her now, and that our gal lied to the police for to keep her out of trouble. But things aren't adding up.

Then there is the paranormal activity. How much can she explain away? Her parents kept the cursed objects in the basement in a special room. A doll called Penny is down there in a cage too because she was moving around the house.

I loved this book. It kept me entertained and thinking. Multiple puzzles to solve, I love that! The ending was great! But when you thing back, not all was solved....wiggling scary fingers! ( )