Were the houses that Helen sold actually haunted? Or was she somehow staging all the creepy stuff so people would leave the homes so she could sell them again?
I kind of feel that she knew some spells from the very beginning, and was using those to haunt the places...
I wasn't sure myself but just assumed that they really were haunted considering the liberal use of the supernatural throughout the novel. Helen didn't seem to know any magic other than the culling song before Mona revealed the significance of the planner.
"[B]eing good is a fearful occupation; men strain at it and sometimes break in two." - Ray Bradbury