Reviews tagging 'Child death'

The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson

21 reviews

voidling's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad tense fast-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? No

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Car accident, Child death, and Death

meliemelo's review against another edition

mysterious slow-paced

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

4.25

Quite spooky, and I loved how much of it remained mysterious. It made me appreciate the Flanaghan adaptation even more, seeing what had been used and how. I'm also really curious to watch the first movie adaptation (the one with Catherine Zeta-Jones was... well, maybe tried to explain too much, and went for spectacular above all else).

But back to the novel itself. It was very atmospheric, more psychological than I expected, with the characters' emotions and behaviour progressively hightened. I would love to read essays about Eleanor and especially Theo (may have gotten a bit of a headstart on that one).

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Mental illness, Death, Suicide, and Car accident

Moderate: Blood and Child death

luv2readbooks's review against another edition

dark 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness

Minor: Suicide, Child death, Death of parent, and Suicide attempt

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

taleofabibliophile's review against another edition

dark mysterious 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

2.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Blood, Mental illness, Suicide, Death, and Bullying

Moderate: Car accident and Death of parent

Minor: Child death and Murder

yoiterini's review

dark mysterious tense slow-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? It's complicated

4.0

When writing from Eleanor's perspective, Jackson does love to repeat herself, and some of the descriptions and longer passages of dialogue are a bit wordy, using roundabout ways of saying things that can lose you before you finish the sentence. But, after you're used to her writing style, some examples of this actually become the best parts of the book. E.g., Eleanor using repetition to try and rationalise her own behaviour to herself, and her wordy but brilliant prose in my favourite quote:
"the trees and flowers [...] turned toward her with attention, as though, dull and imperceptive as she was, it was still necessary for them to be gentle to a creation so unfortunate as not to be rooted in the ground, forced to go from one place to another, heart-breakingly mobile."

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death

Moderate: Blood

Minor: Child death

rinitealeaf's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? N/A
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide, Death, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Suicide attempt, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Gaslighting, and Medical content

Moderate: Blood, Death of parent, and Mental illness

Minor: Blood, Child death, and Bullying

accovino's review

dark emotional 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

5.0

It messed me up. The interactions between the characters were confusing sometimes, which I'm chalking up to the writing style of the time, but oh man. Why did I spend so long reading Stephen King? I wish I could go back to my 13-year-old self and point to the REST of the horror section.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Suicide and Blood

Minor: Child death

jbabbm's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

Slow start but interesting development and ending. This is not a scary or horror book, at least in my opinion and the way I felt while reading it. Shirley Jackson did make a great job at writing this story.

If you are planning to read this because of the Netflix show, do know that this is a very different story with only some similarities and details they did decided to include in the series.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Death of parent, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Suicidal thoughts, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Mental illness, Medical content, and Car accident

jonsnowsmanbun's review

adventurous dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Violence, and Suicidal thoughts

Moderate: Car accident, Child death, Death, and Death of parent