Eleanor Vance has led a sad and lonely life so far. Now in her early 30s, she spent most of her youth caring for her emotionally abusive and disabled mother. The mother has recently died, leaving Eleanor penniless, friendless, and forced to sleep on the couch of a sister and brother-in-law who clearly don’t want her around. So, when a cryptic invitation arrives to join a small team of researchers living in an allegedly haunted house for the summer, she jumps at the chance as a new beginning. After stealing the family car, she arrives at Hill House to join three others: Dr. Montague, the academic scholar who arranged the visit; Theodora, a carefree, confident young woman who is everything Eleanor is not; and Luke, the ne’er-do-well scion of the family that owns the mansion. Shortly after settling in, the foursome begins to experience strange phenomena—doors suddenly closing, banging on walls, random cold spots in entryways, blood splattered on clothing—most all of which center on Eleanor, who seems especially desperate to establish the family ties she never really had before. Hill House is gradually possessing her and it is unlikely that things will end well.

In The Haunting of Hill House, Shirley Jackson’s celebrated gothic horror story, we learn the fate of Eleanor and the rest of the unfortunate, short-term residents of that evil mansion. The novel is well plotted and extremely well written; the author creates an unsettling atmosphere throughout the book while never resorting to overt “slash-and-scare” tactics in developing the sinister nature of events that unfold. In fact, the horror elements are conveyed in quite a vague manner, leaving it to the reader to fill in many of the details. Indeed, for readers conditioned by far more explicit “haunting” treatments in fiction or film, this novel will seem less like a horror story than a compelling character study of a disturbed and emotionally fragile young woman. In that respect, all the author’s characterizations are strong, even those of the supporting cast that includes Mr. and Mrs. Dudley, the caretakers of the mansion who refuse to stay past dark, and Mrs. Montague, the doctor’s vain and silly wife who provides some comic relief. So, while I found the novel to be disappointingly light on thrills and chills, it was still a worthwhile reading experience for the insightful and compassionate portraits of the people involved. ( )

The Haunting of Hill House could perhaps be considered the inauguration for the golden age of horror writing, taking off from where the Turn of the Screw and Dracula left us stirring uncomfortably half a century prior to pave the blood-chilling road to the Shining in only years to come. With the exception of Frankenstein and a few notable examples, it is difficult to find works of horror which are successful in actually terrorizing the inflexibly emotionless modern soul (whose senses have been notoriously anesthetized) without resorting to cheap slashers and chainsaw massacres. Jackson, however, thrives in the psychological sphere in bringing us the greatest horror of all: our innermost selves unhinged for us to see. ( )

"No live organism can continue for long to exist sanely under conditions of absolute reality. No live organism can continue for long to exist sanely under conditions of absolute reality; even larks and katydids are supposed, by some, to dream. Hill House, not sane, stood by itself against its hills, holding darkness within; it had stood so for eighty years and might stand for eighty more."

A creepy psychological thriller. I listened to it on audiobook. Next time I will read it. It is fast moving and at time I had to rewind so as not to miss important story beats! ( )

A classic ( )

Creepy, yes. At times even scary. Still, I think this book made me sad more than anything. Poor Nell may haunt me longer than any of the apparitions will, which I think says a lot about the effectiveness of this novel. ( )