rmartin93 's review for:

The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson

5.0

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Wow. Amazing. I didn't care much for We Have Always Lived in the Castle but this was just incredible. Where to start!? Shirley Jackson fucking naiiiiled it at personifying this being that is Hill House. A ghost story that at the same time felt as if there were no ghosts-- but that the haunting was purely the house itself. The house slowly gnawed away at Eleanor's sanity with its ability to manipulate all of her weaknesses; as if her mind simply couldn't cope with the parasitic (idk if that's the best word) nature of the house. I was also in awe of how Jackson was able to make the characters more mysterious over the course of the novel; they became more distant as the story went on, their thoughts and motives less clear. I couldn't even be sure if what Eleanor was real or fake, a figment of her imagination influenced by the increasing malevolence and hold the house was having on her. Perhaps a mixture of both. Nonetheless, it was a completely chilling representation of the degradation of Eleanor's mind, of the house's possession. I am not all that eloquent at accurately describing what I am actually thinking; others have expertly dissected what makes this book the masterpiece that it is. I could read this again and again and I think I would continue to gain insight or different perspectives on the characters and the story. One of my favorite if not the most reads of this year.