The Haunting of Hill House in Reading with Style

Sep 17, 2012 Sara C rated it liked it

Shelves: mustreadsoon

This ranks up there with one of the most...engrossing books I've read this year. Not because the story line was so amazing. But just because the psyche of Eleanor was ~~so completely wonky~~ jumping from place to place. I found myself with an enormous headache when I finally finished, and walked around in a haze for a couple of minutes still trying to recover my sense of reality. It's one of those books for people who like to forget where they are. People would talk to me and I wouldn't hear them. I This ranks up there with one of the most...engrossing books I've read this year. Not because the story line was so amazing. But just because the psyche of Eleanor was ~~so completely wonky~~ jumping from place to place. I found myself with an enormous headache when I finally finished, and walked around in a haze for a couple of minutes still trying to recover my sense of reality. It's one of those books for people who like to forget where they are. People would talk to me and I wouldn't hear them. I couldn't put it down once I got started.

Jackson paints a pretty picture of an awful scene. It's done in such a way that, even though you know that it will all turn out badly, you want to be there with them. Her characters are beautifully flawed. You hated them, and it was done with careful precision. Your feelings for each character shift throughout the book, causing a jumble of emotions.

This isn't a haunted/mystery story. It's a psychological profile of a troubled woman trying to find a place in the world. Eleanor is who the book revolves around, following her from beginning...to end. Throughout the book, we see her slowly change, though you tend not to notice until the end. Looking back, it was all quite obvious from the beginning.

I was guessing throughout the book, one of the things that I really like about it. Usually one can sniff out the reasons and actions of the book. Most are predictable. Most are forgettable. This is not. I find it difficult to write a review about this book, mostly because after finishing it I strangely forgot. The details are hazy. All I remember is to stay away from the house. At first, I wondered if the hauntings were only a ploy set up by the doctor. They weren't. Then for portions I believed Eleanor to be in a dream. None of it was real. She was still with her mother. Then I believed Eleanor to be imagining all the people around her. Then I thought she wasn't real. Nope. And so it went. Each possible plot was set up, just to be knocked down at the turn of the page.

I would suggest reading it, contrary to the numbers of stars I gave it. ...more

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Sep 04, 2021 Andrew rated it did not like it · review of another edition

Shelves: guardian-1000, reviewed, usa-american-lit, horror, mystery, gothic, library, abject-garbage

I only really have a one word review of this...BOOOOOOOOOOOORRIIIIIIIINGG.

The fact it has taken me 3+months to finish this says volumes about how dull, plodding and tiresome it is. At least 1 of those months was me just casually abandoning it out of sheer boredom.

Here's the rub. M.R. James, perhaps the greatest ghost story writer ever, was capable of introducing the character, setting the background, relentlessly build up the tension, then explode it in a single moment so utterly pant shifting t I only really have a one word review of this...BOOOOOOOOOOOORRIIIIIIIINGG.

The fact it has taken me 3+months to finish this says volumes about how dull, plodding and tiresome it is. At least 1 of those months was me just casually abandoning it out of sheer boredom.

Here's the rub. M.R. James, perhaps the greatest ghost story writer ever, was capable of introducing the character, setting the background, relentlessly build up the tension, then explode it in a single moment so utterly pant shifting terrifying it will leave you a gibbering terrified wreck. He would do this sometimes under 7 pages. Jackson gives herself 246 pages to tell the story, and by around 100 pages in she hasn't even managed to accomplish what James could do in 4. We are still no where near any tension whatsoever at this point, the aimless waffling of a group of fairly tedious middle class people. Its backstory, endless set up with no dread or anticipation whatsoever. The few moments that do come are, in the end, mildly thrilling. But it certainly isn't scary, contrary to some ludicrous overpraise by authors like King and Gaiman.

Oh, and I hated the characters. Eleanor, frankly, should have just taken some setraline and shut the fuck up. She's so anxiety ridden and vulnerable it borders on really clingy, needy and annoying. But God, do I DETEST Theodora. I wanted to punch her in the throat. She only speaks in a kind of air of droll, bourgeis contemptous witty asides, a sort of tedious one line put down way of talking which is a grating as it as stupid. There's a moment, when she says, appropo of almost nothing, something akin to "what i really want to do is slide down those bannisters". Like, really? How you would respond to someone saying something as dumb as this? It's eye rolling. She speaks entirely in this kind of lackadaisical sort of wry airy-fairness which to the person speaking much seem ever so witty and wild and fabulous but to everyone else is merely symptomatic of a fucking grating sense of preening, attention-seeking, faintly weird sort of narcissism. Yuck.

I guess the plot is kind of interesting. Kind off. Not really. Stephen King clearly took it for inspiration for the Shining. Its a run of the mill haunted house story without really a haunted house. Sort of. You'll have to read it. Although the ending almost picks up in interest by the end I was glad to just be relieved of the book, barely caring at what happened just desperate to make it end. ...more

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