Book Title:
The Haunting of Hill House
Author: Shirley Jackson
My Rating: 4*
Publisher: Penguin
Classics
Publication
Date: Originally 1959
Genre(s): Horror,
Classic, Gothic, Paranormal
Pages: 246
Format
Read: Paperback
Goodreads: It is the story of four seekers who arrive at a
notoriously unfriendly pile called Hill House: Dr. Montague, an occult scholar
looking for solid evidence of a "haunting"; Theodora, his
lighthearted assistant; Eleanor, a friendless, fragile young woman well
acquainted with poltergeists; and Luke, the future heir of Hill House. At
first, their stay seems destined to be merely a spooky encounter with
inexplicable phenomena. But Hill House is gathering its powers--and soon it
will choose one of them to make its own.
The
Haunting of Hill House is regarded as one of the classics of the horror
genre and so I was really excited to get stuck into it. The plot is good; a
group of strangers are invited to stay in Hill House by a Doctor who has a keen
interest in the supernatural and wants to study the house. It starts off quite
slow but picks up around the middle when things start to happen in the nights.
There is a mix of personality in the characters that have
been chosen to stay at the house: Eleanor is quiet and has no confidence, she’s
always wondering if she’s making a fool of herself in front of the others and
thinks too much about what other people think of her. Theodora is the complete opposite
of Eleanor. She is overly confident, snappy and can be quite brutal in her
opinions, especially to Eleanor, making Theo to be quite cruel sometimes. Dr
Montague is the one who brought all this together and so acts as the fatherly
figure, guiding and protecting everyone and brings the knowledge of the house
and the supernatural. Luke is only here because his aunt wanted someone in the
family to keep an eye on the strangers and his unwillingness to be there shines
through his manner. He is meant to be the brave young man but turns out to be
quite a coward.
The gothic setting of the house and the surrounding area is perfect
for a haunted house and Jackson captures the heart of the house perfectly with
her detailed imagery as it made me feel like I was there in the house with the
guests. I liked the idea of the house being at an angle in some sort of way,
emphasising how off balance it is and how that affects the people living there.
Although not a lot happens in the book, when the scary moments
occur during the nights it did make me nervous and sent a tingle down my spine.
However, the main focus in the book is not the scares but how the people react
to it. The reader can see in great detail how it affects the group
psychologically, especially Eleanor who struggles to cope with each act being worse
than the previous one.
The doctor’s wife, Mrs Montague, is a breath of fresh air
when she arrives bringing with her a little excitement and vigour to the house.
With her sharp manner and professionalism, it’s as if she has no time for
pleasantries and wants to get straight down to business as she selects the most
haunted room to stay in (the nursery of course). However she does get a little
irritating with her self-righteousness when she starts her work and completely
ignores her husband’s opinion and does not let anyone disagree with her
findings, no matter how ridiculous she sounds.
The ending of the book was much better than I thought it was
going to be. The ghostly activities reach a crescendo and turns a member of the
party crazy and will leave you thinking about their actions for a long time. I
also love how the book comes full circle as the first paragraph of the book is
also the last paragraph and the last sentence chills me to the bone: “whatever
walked there, walked alone.”
I am going to watch the Netflix series based on this book
soon and I will compare it to the original. Its always interesting to see how
adaptations deal with the original. Have you read the book or/and watched the
series? Which did you prefer? Let me know in the comments!
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