From the Bookshelf of Never too Late to Read Classics…

The Haunting of Hill House

Shirley Jackson,

Laura Miller (Introduction)

Start date: May 1, 2025

Finish date: May 31, 2025

Discussion: The Horror of it All

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The Horror of it All

* 2025 Horror Reading Schedule
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What Members Thought

Oct 31, 2018 Sara rated it really liked it

Shelves: mystery, horror, pleasure-reading

How have I gotten through the 59 years in which both this book and I have existed without reading it? I have known about it forever, I have even read many glowing reviews here on Goodreads and been tempted, but I have always thought of reasons not to read it now--to save it for later. And then there was Julie. I mean she went over the top for Shirley Jackson and I caught her enthusiasm and it seeped into my skin and I thought, “I need to read this now. I need to read it for Halloween.” So, I did ...more

17 likes · Like · see review

Mar 12, 2022 Jen from Quebec :0) rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: ongoing-challenges-and-groups, classic-cartoons-challenge, 2020-public-domain-books, color-challenge-for-book-covers, reading-challenge-books, copies-i-own, horror, classics-i-ve-read, science-fiction-y, favorites

I NEVER thought that I would say this, but: this horror classic by Jackson is better than BOTH 'The Lottery' and 'We Have Always Lived in the Castle', the other 2 major works that I previously thought were my 'favorite Shirley Jackson book'. This book totally sucked me in-repeatedly! I actually listened to the audible version a few times in the last 2 years, as various reading groups continually selected this for a monthly read. This one is WORTH IT, imo! -Jen from Quebec :0) ...more

11 likes · Like · see review

Sep 01, 2019 Josh Caporale rated it liked it

3.5 stars

This was a book that I really wanted to rate higher. Shirley Jackson is an extraordinary writer. The pieces in which the characters in entering the haunted house were all laid out, there were aspects of mental health that could have been covered, and as a work of psychological horror, it did what it needed to do. My criticism lies in the fact that it could not decide the direction it wanted to take when executing such a story. It sets itself up as wanting to follow all of the characters ...more

6 likes · Like · see review

Oct 23, 2020 Laura (Reading is a Doing Word) rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: ebook-kindle, library-book, 2020-read

This was a sinister, insidious read. The claustrophobic atmosphere of the house creeps up on you, as does the increasingly disturbed nature of Eleanor's mind. I felt the ending was a little abrupt. A lot is left to your imagination, which I think is the cleverest trick of this book. ...more

2 likes · Like · see review

Feb 13, 2021 Z. rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: horror

The 1963 Robert Wise production which I absorbed and memorised much of as a teenager inspired my first read of this. My supposedly maturer eye now, however, remains struck both by its devious sophistication AND the simplicity and economy that remain essential to its appeal in so many respects.

Its themes of loneliness, self-doubt, the trickery (and horror) our own minds inflict on us, and the ambiguity in what or who is haunting whom, are well known; but its power also lays in those elaborate an ...more

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Oct 22, 2023 Fernanda rated it really liked it

"It was an act of moral strength to lift her foot and set it in the bottom step, and she thought that her deep unwillingness to touch Hill House for the first time came directly from the vivid feeling that it was waiting for her, evil, but patient."

This story is so confusing, mysterious, and funny. I couldn't put it down!

Shirley has her own way of constructing the characters, giving Hill House its eerie atmosphere & taking us down a rabbit hole... We're not sure if things are imagined, real, or ...more

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