The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson

The Haunting of Hill House

by Shirley Jackson

The greatest haunted house story ever written—the inspiration for the hit Netflix horror series!

First published in 1959, Shirley Jackson's The Haunting of Hill House has been hailed as a perfect work of unnerving terror. 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.

Reviewed by Veronica 🦦 on

4 of 5 stars

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A-/B+ | Spooky, haunting, and definitely one of those horror classics that every fan of horror and haunted houses should read. Not a spine-tingling spook, but a spook.

It took me a bit to get through this book - partially because of my classes and partially because of the fact that what time I had free I would either play video games or try to listen to the LOTR audiobook. I started this book because of the Netflix series. I was surprised about how different things were because I hadn't realized that the Netflix series was an adaptation, rather than a strict book-to-tv sort of thing. It was a good surprise though! It's actually what drove me to continue reading beyond the first few pages.

This book is absolutely deliciously spooky. Writing ghost stories is hard. Writing stories that make the hairs in the back of your neck stand up day or night is even harder. While I didn't get any goosebumps moments or hairs standing up, I did find this book to be spooky. Unfortunately, I was expecting spooks but I was a bit disappointed. I will say that it's less creepy than the stories my relatives have told me about the weird, creepy things they've experienced in the Philippines. Those make me shiver. This book? Not so much.

There are those times I found myself rereading sections because I felt like I missed something and that isn't necessarily a bad thing. It's just me being scatterbrained.

Still, a little after the midway point and towards the end? I could not put the book down (well - my phone actually because I was reading this on my iPhone). I admit that I was sitting on my couch with my jaw dropped at the ending. (Although, I will say that Mrs. M and A.P. were pretty annoying).

I definitely say to give this book a chance. Nellie is interesting, and especially as the story goes on, the change in her adds to the spooks.

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Reading updates

  • Started reading
  • 14 December, 2018: Finished reading
  • 14 December, 2018: Reviewed