The Haunting of Hill House ISBN: 9780143039983
by Shirley Jackson
Published by Penguin Books on September 7, 2022
Genres: FICTION / Gothic, Fiction / Horror, Fiction / Psychological, Fiction / Thrillers / General
Pages: 182
Goodreads
The greatest haunted house story ever written, the inspiration for a 10-part Netflix series directed by Mike Flanagan and starring Michiel Huisman, Carla Gugino, and Timothy Hutton
First published in 1959, Shirley Jackson's The Haunting of Hill House has been hailed as a perfect work of unnerving terror. It is the story of four seekers who arrive at a notoriously unfriendly pile called Hill House: Dr. Montague, an occult scholar looking for solid evidence of a "haunting"; Theodora, his lighthearted assistant; Eleanor, a friendless, fragile young woman well acquainted with poltergeists; and Luke, the future heir of Hill House. At first, their stay seems destined to be merely a spooky encounter with inexplicable phenomena. But Hill House is gathering its powers--and soon it will choose one of them to make its own.
For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.
Once again, I am back with another author I just discovered and enjoyed the hell out of. Haunting of Hill House is the second Shirly Jackson Novel I have read. The first was We Have Always Lived in the Castle.
It always amazes me how I can love one book based on a feeling and then another book I just downright hated for the same reason. I read Small Things Like These earlier this year, and thank God it was a Libabry Book, so technically, I did not waste money. I know it counts as some support if you checked out a library book but just let me have my fantasy, alright?!
I can’t believe it has taken so long to discover Shirly Jackson. I’m committed to reading her entire backlist. It took me a while to understand why the story in both We Have Always lived in the Castle and Haunting Hill house left a reader deeply unsettled. Your subconscious signals that something is wrong in the story. Based on what the characters show, the everyday life brain is like, nahhh, you are fine.
After I recalled the first book, I learned to dig deeper into a story and remembered how I finally realized that The Old Man and the Sea was one big ass symbol of hopes and dreams that weigh on us and lead us to our doom. Then I realized in both Sherily Jackson books that I have read; that the horror is not on display where anyone can easily see it. Still, everyday things are fine on the surface, but behind the facade is where the real story lies. The story is usually a lot darker than what one would first believe. If you need another example, think of Stranger Things. Before Eleven opened the gate, no one knew that those giant flower heads that ate everything excised. People were dispersing, and no trace of them in the “real” world. However, once the Upside Down was discovered, shit gor a lot darker in Hawkins.
Shirley Jackson’s rendition of The Haunting of Hill House stretched the feelings of despair and gloom to the book’s last page. In the final scene, the reader realizes they have been reading a ghost story from one of the masters all along.
And what a story this is !!
This is not a typical horror story in that there does not seem to be a ghost in the traditional sense.
As for Eleanor, there seems to be some kind of entity that is “using” her. Still, as she is the one telling the story and she is a very unreliable narrator, it is basically up to you, the reader, how you would like to interpret everything that happens.
I must warn you, if you are the kind of reader who likes action in their stories, this is NOT your story. The most step is when the people invited to stay there with a dr who is researching the Occult move from room to room. I like a bit more ok, a lot more action, at least a horrifying twist such as one would find in Mexican Gothic but nope. Even at the end of the book, there is no real conclusion; it just ends like maybe Jackson missed a deadline and put in the scene where everyone goes back to where they came from.
That said, I did like this book. It would be perfect if you wanted to read a creepy book in October that won’t scare the shit out of you, then make sure and read The Haunting of Hil House!
