Reviews tagging 'Confinement'

The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson

18 reviews

mattyvreads's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.75

I’m obsessed with this book. Shirley Jackson’s writing is impeccable. I love that the book feels so modern, despite being written in the late 50s. It is an impressive and utterly horrifying piece of literature.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Confinement, Death of parent, and Mental illness

Moderate: Violence, Gaslighting, Murder, and Suicide

vaguely_pink's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

5.0

Big thanks to my newest literary heroine Shirley Jackson for yassifying the ghost story. You truly were ahead of your time.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide

Moderate: Death of parent, Bullying, Abandonment, Car accident, and Death

Minor: Grief, Gun violence, Toxic friendship, Confinement, Gaslighting, Mental illness, Sexism, and Blood

glitterdeww's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

5.0

I feel a tremendous urge to write essays about this book. MULTIPLE essays. This is a masterpiece. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gaslighting, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Confinement, Dysphoria, Emotional abuse, and Mental illness

Moderate: Self harm and Suicide

filipa_maia's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad 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? It's complicated

3.0

So... I was expecting a little bit more from this book. Being my favorite genre and so acclaimed (this book was the inspiration for the Netflix series) I was expecting pure, dark horror.

Don't get me wrong, the book is good: a haunted house and a bunch of people living in it is the perfect plot to a great book. We get all the classics: knocks on the doors, footsteps when nobody is around, people acting in a very weird way. But that was not enough. The dialogs are long, superficial and, sometimes, very confusing - almost as if it was written to be a script and not a actual book. The characters are annoying and you never, truly, understand if that's how they really are or if that's part of the house's influence. Maybe that's the intention, after all. But we will never find out.

For me, there is a lot of talking and not enough action. I hear very nice thing about the series so I'm going to give it a try. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Grief, Gaslighting, Child abuse, Toxic friendship, Suicide, Suicidal thoughts, Confinement, Death, and Death of parent

Moderate: Car accident

Minor: Alcohol

finleyfrogreads's review

dark tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gaslighting, Confinement, Alcohol, Blood, and Toxic friendship

starlit_pathways's review against another edition

dark mysterious reflective sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Death, Suicide attempt, Suicidal thoughts, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Confinement, Car accident, Suicide, Death of parent, and Alcohol

Moderate: Religious bigotry, Gaslighting, and Grief

kyrstin_p1989's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

2.5

I think perhaps it was intentional, but this book was so disjointed that I had a hard time enjoying it. There were bits and pieces that I found enjoyable but overall it was confusing and strange. I think the possession of one of the characters affected their interactions with the others but I can’t be sure because it’s never clearly stated. If I hadn’t seen the show first, I think my expectations would’ve been different or less and I may have enjoyed this more. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicidal thoughts, Death, Grief, Toxic friendship, Classism, Gaslighting, Violence, Abandonment, Child death, Car accident, and Confinement

brandie_abbie19's review against another edition

challenging dark tense slow-paced

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

2.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Suicide, Blood, Confinement, and Car accident

annoyedhumanoid's review against another edition

mysterious medium-paced

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

4.0

i wouldn't say i found it scary or tense at all, just a lil spooky at times. it started off strong but kind of fell into a lull for the last third until the very end. i wanted to see

the house's control over Eleanor

play out longer; it was definitely a slow burn but there wasn't much payoff.
also, no, this book doesn't have any queer undertones. they are so blatant they're fucking overtones.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Suicide attempt, Car accident, and Suicide

Minor: Blood, Child abuse, Death of parent, Confinement, Alcohol, Fire/Fire injury, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic friendship, and Death

flowingleaves's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Death

Moderate: Cannibalism and Confinement