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beccaperson's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Loveable characters? No
3.25
Content Warnings
Moderate: Car accident, Blood, and Suicide
sunn_bleach's review against another edition
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Rereading "The Haunting of Hill House" after my initial foray in 2018 showed how important rereads can be. Six years is a long time, and I've grown as person and artist (dichotomy intended). I love Shirley Jackson, but I thought this book was hella boring. Nothing's scary and nothing happens! Whats-her-face just drives into a tree! How is this the "scariest horror novel" or whatever?
... but this time, I've realized a mastery of Jackson's prose: your imagination is what makes it scary, just as the characters' imaginations bring forth the House. Jackson doesn't outright describe the pathway through the forest that Eleanor and Theo take, because she knows anything your mind uses to fill in the gaps makes it far creepier. You might read about the room in the center of the house that the characters' sing and dance and hang out in, and as we all know merriment dispels ghosts... but what if you expand outward and consider the whole house? What if you imagine this island of ostensible happiness as a silent, dark, house leans over them in what is its absolute focal point? Jackson's stark prose came off as beige in 2018, but that couldn't be further from the truth; what she did was provide me the outline, knowing what whatever I sketched in would be far more terrifying and bring me closer to Eleanor than anything else. And *that* is the horror of Hill House within the book... and without.
... but this time, I've realized a mastery of Jackson's prose: your imagination is what makes it scary, just as the characters' imaginations bring forth the House. Jackson doesn't outright describe the pathway through the forest that Eleanor and Theo take, because she knows anything your mind uses to fill in the gaps makes it far creepier. You might read about the room in the center of the house that the characters' sing and dance and hang out in, and as we all know merriment dispels ghosts... but what if you expand outward and consider the whole house? What if you imagine this island of ostensible happiness as a silent, dark, house leans over them in what is its absolute focal point? Jackson's stark prose came off as beige in 2018, but that couldn't be further from the truth; what she did was provide me the outline, knowing what whatever I sketched in would be far more terrifying and bring me closer to Eleanor than anything else. And *that* is the horror of Hill House within the book... and without.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Mental illness and Death of parent
Moderate: Suicide
Minor: Blood and Violence
poirot's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Mental illness, Suicide, Death of parent, Suicide attempt, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Blood, Toxic friendship, and Car accident
Moderate: Alcohol
thecozyrogue's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death of parent, Toxic friendship, and Suicide
Minor: Blood
charleyyyyy's review against another edition
5.0
🩶I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I was always entertained while reading, and always excited to pick it up again.
🩶I LOVE personified houses!! I love it when the house itself is a charicter in the story, and Hill House had such a personality! I love the descriptions on how the house was built, with everything being slightly out of proportion, and the spiral like structure, it gave the house such a unique and vivid feel. The way the house sucks in the charicters, to the point where there is no sense of the outside world anymore, and a feeling of not being able to escape, realy added to the spooky atmosphere.
🩶And what a spooky atmosphere it was! There is a constant sense of immanent doom, from the very begining, you know that something bad is coming, and I love that in books.
🩶However, it was never scary. Plenty spooky, but not frightening. I wanted it to give more in that regard, especially with where the story went at the end. I feel like it could have gotten so much scarier and delved so much deeper into the creepy elements of the story, but it just didn't. I found that a little unsatisfying.
🩶The charicters were great. Each of them had such a strong, distinct voice and personality. It was interesting to see how their relationships to each other changed during their stay at Hill House because of the creepy things going on.
🩶Eleanore's charicter development was great but, again, with where the story went towards the end, I feel like it could have been taken so much farther than it was.
🩶The plot built slowly, with tension being added with every page, you could always feel that it was creeping towards the climax. It was very charicter based, with the main focus being on the charicters feelings and mentality towards the situation. There is alot more time spent with the charicters having converstsions about the creepy things going on, than actual creepy things happening. I enjoyed that though, as I prefer charicter based story's.
🩶I have never seen any TV adaptations of this book, so I have nothing to compare the book to. From what I've heard they're quite different so I'm glad I've read the book first.
🩶I would recommend this book if you want a ghost story that's not too scary, and don't mind a slow, charicter based plot.
🩶I gave this book 5 stars just bc of how much I enjoyed reading it.
🩶I LOVE personified houses!! I love it when the house itself is a charicter in the story, and Hill House had such a personality! I love the descriptions on how the house was built, with everything being slightly out of proportion, and the spiral like structure, it gave the house such a unique and vivid feel. The way the house sucks in the charicters, to the point where there is no sense of the outside world anymore, and a feeling of not being able to escape, realy added to the spooky atmosphere.
🩶And what a spooky atmosphere it was! There is a constant sense of immanent doom, from the very begining, you know that something bad is coming, and I love that in books.
🩶However, it was never scary. Plenty spooky, but not frightening. I wanted it to give more in that regard, especially with where the story went at the end. I feel like it could have gotten so much scarier and delved so much deeper into the creepy elements of the story, but it just didn't. I found that a little unsatisfying.
🩶The charicters were great. Each of them had such a strong, distinct voice and personality. It was interesting to see how their relationships to each other changed during their stay at Hill House because of the creepy things going on.
🩶Eleanore's charicter development was great but, again, with where the story went towards the end, I feel like it could have been taken so much farther than it was.
🩶The plot built slowly, with tension being added with every page, you could always feel that it was creeping towards the climax. It was very charicter based, with the main focus being on the charicters feelings and mentality towards the situation. There is alot more time spent with the charicters having converstsions about the creepy things going on, than actual creepy things happening. I enjoyed that though, as I prefer charicter based story's.
🩶I have never seen any TV adaptations of this book, so I have nothing to compare the book to. From what I've heard they're quite different so I'm glad I've read the book first.
🩶I would recommend this book if you want a ghost story that's not too scary, and don't mind a slow, charicter based plot.
🩶I gave this book 5 stars just bc of how much I enjoyed reading it.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Suicide, Death of parent, and Car accident
Minor: Child death
the_cheerful_necromancer's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Ported over from my now-abandoned Goodreads:
There is nothing like this book in the world; I've never known language used so richly and vividly, I've never known horror done so masterfully. It seems that Shirley Jackson crafted every single sentence with perfect, meticulous care. The characters are wonderfully, beautifully real. The book may or may not scare you, but it weaves a perfect feeling of slow and creeping dread that will stick with me for a long, long time.
(Also, always points for lesbian homoeroticism, even if probably unintended.)
There is nothing like this book in the world; I've never known language used so richly and vividly, I've never known horror done so masterfully. It seems that Shirley Jackson crafted every single sentence with perfect, meticulous care. The characters are wonderfully, beautifully real. The book may or may not scare you, but it weaves a perfect feeling of slow and creeping dread that will stick with me for a long, long time.
(Also, always points for lesbian homoeroticism, even if probably unintended.)
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Suicide, and Mental illness
Moderate: Death of parent and Blood
Beware especially that mental illness, paranoia and unreliable narration are a MAIN theme of this book.cheazcakeguy's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
This book was so unsettling throughout. Deeply horrifying in a way that makes you question reality along with the characters. The frequent and sometimes sudden shifts in the emotional and mental states of the characters are so off-putting. And it's short, and a total page-turner!
*MAJOR spoiler ahead*
Though I pretty much saw the ending (Eleanor's suicide) coming before I was halfway through the book, I was not expecting the misdirect from the tower followed by the joyful mania of Eleanor as she gleefully sped to her death. And then the brief moment of clarity before she hit the tree. So damn creepy, and a tragic end to a tragic character.
Would like to re-read someday to see if I pick up on anything I missed the first time.
*MAJOR spoiler ahead*
Would like to re-read someday to see if I pick up on anything I missed the first time.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Alcohol, Death, Suicide, Death of parent, and Blood
alexisgarcia's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-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? Yes
4.5
this is such a good book!!! definitely deserves all of the hype and the classic title, shirley jackson is a phenomenal writer
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Grief, Mental illness, Suicide, Violence, and Death
emmonsannae's review against another edition
dark
sad
tense
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? Yes
4.5
The slow dread of this book is unparalleled. Its tragedy is both self-aware and utterly unavoidable. What an excellent read! I can already tell I will be coming back to this again and again.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Blood, Suicide, Car accident, Alcohol, and Death of parent
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.
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