Reviews

A Haunting on the Hill by Elizabeth Hand

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grimmwinters's review

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dark mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

kat_reads_horror's review

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challenging dark tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

Holly and her girlfriend Nissa are on a small vacation while they work on Holly's stage play when Holly comes across a mansion that no one is living at. Holly loses track of time and tries to sell Nissa on the idea of a writer/actor retreat. They meet with the local real estate agent who says she owns the house and decides to let them rent it for two weeks. Holly invites Stevie and Amanda who are two of the main actors in the play. Soon after they arrive (against the better judgement of two of the care takers and a neighbor) they find themselves at the mercy of the house.

I think the story had a lot of good bones. I just wish instead of a lot of different occurrences that happened while at Hill House that we would have gotten some expansion on them. A lot of the things that felt they were there to terrify you felt unexplored and not in the use your imagination way. The audio version had a lot of really great sound effects that I was not prepared for and caused me to jump a time or two.

dfrancis's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

lefthandlou's review against another edition

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dark tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.25

Pages and pages dedicated to a stained table cloth and creepy bunnies? A tiny door? A magazine? The first 80% of the book had nothing actually scary, horrifying, or even a little creepy. And so much was left unresolved. Not in a mysterious way, but in a “the author forgot about this plot point” kind of way.

Deeply irritating, self-absorbed, and boring characters with extensive back stories that do nothing to make them feel more real or likable. Their backstories are also awkwardly shoe-horned into the rest of the story.

The constant inner monologues from the characters were an attempt at building suspense but were just irritating.

This felt less like an homage to Jackson’s work and more like a mish mash of everything that has ever tried to capitalize on the genius of The Haunting of Hill House.

There were some creepy moments in the last bit of the book, but not enough to redeem the lack of cohesion in the plot, the detestable characters, the abrupt ending, and the many forgotten threads.

I’m disappointed. I really, really wanted to like this but it’s a failure for me, both as a riff on Jackson’s work and as its own story

Content Warnings