From the Bookshelf of Mostly Sapphic…

The Haunting of Hill House

Shirley Jackson,

Laura Miller (Introduction)

Start date: October 1, 2012

Finish date: October 31, 2012

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Oct 29, 2012 MEC rated it really liked it

Shelves: spec-fic-sf-fantasy-horror, horror, 2012-read-and-re-read

For me, The Haunting of Hill House will always be the Grande Dame of horror novels. I read the book when I was probably much too young and it scared the bejesus out of me. It remains my gold standard for psychological horror and ghost stories. After all these years and all the times I’ve read it, it still manages to give me that delicious thrill of fear and I recognize elements from it in so many books and movies. Ms. Jackson was a phenomenal writer, and in a relatively short novel, evoked a chi For me, The Haunting of Hill House will always be the Grande Dame of horror novels. I read the book when I was probably much too young and it scared the bejesus out of me. It remains my gold standard for psychological horror and ghost stories. After all these years and all the times I’ve read it, it still manages to give me that delicious thrill of fear and I recognize elements from it in so many books and movies. Ms. Jackson was a phenomenal writer, and in a relatively short novel, evoked a chilling story that lasts a lot longer than the actual length of pages.

Hill House is an evil house – built by an evil man who corruption and cruelty was built into the very foundation of the structure. Jackson’s beautiful prose and style evokes the unsettling appearance and ambiance of the house and its impact on the group of people who have arrived as part of a paranormal investigation of the house. The key characters in this story are Eleanor and Hill House itself and the obsession that grows between them. The horror is low key, slowly building the feelings of dread and the unraveling of Eleanor’s psyche. Eleanor is such a fascinating character and Ms. Jackson deftly paints a fragile and damaged woman who is desperate to find a life and home of her own. You can’t help but feel sympathy for her and watching her succumb to the draw of Hill House, evil and unsettling as it is, is spine-tingling. And then there’s the whole “take my hand Theo” scene that still freaks the crap out of me.

This isn’t a lesfic per se, but Jackson weaves subtext into the characters of Eleanor and Theo and even though I didn’t know what a lesbian was when I first read the book, I knew damned well Theo was one and I adored her (possibly my first crush … after Wonder Woman).

If you are someone who prefers the movie over the book, I would recommend the 1963 film version The Haunting directed by Robert Wise. Filmed in black and white, Wise’s movie is a pretty faithful to the original story and takes the time to build the psychological suspense and horror. I still get chills when I watch it. Do NOT watch the 1999 abomination – other than a few elements and the name, this movie does a disservice to the original book as well as to the actors. Horrible movie. Horrible. If you have ten hours and a strong heart, I’d also recommend the Netflix adaptation which is more of an “inspired by” than full on adaptation. You can tell that the writers love the original book as much as I do – they take the premise and expand and twist it into a much larger and, at times, scarier story about a terribly dysfunctional family and the long lasting and tragic impacts of living for a summer in Hill House. The suspense in this miniseries is top notch and the writers blend elements of Hill House – themes, names, incidents and items – that anyone who has read the original will recognize and enjoy the hunt for easter eggs and references.

2012 Review:
One of my all time favourites. I saw the original movie (The Haunting) when I was much too young and then read this when I was still probably too young. Thanks to that, everytime I reread this book, I get the same shivers down my back as the first time I read it. Definitely a classic that is more of a psychological horror than an all our scarefest. ...more

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Oct 13, 2012 Cheri rated it liked it · review of another edition

I read it back in 2012 with my eyeballs and this time (a decade later almost to the day) with my ears. The narrator was fine but it couldn't hold my attention at all. If I read it again in the future, will definitely stick with the eyeball version. ...more

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