"The Haunting of Hill House"

The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson

Pages: 272 Genre: horror

Rating: 3.5 Stars

I'm a really big fan of both this Netflix show and the short story "The Lottery," so I knew I would enjoy the book version of The Haunting of Hill House. Two things you should know, though: I wouldn't say it's particularly scary, and it's nothing like the show.

The Haunting of Hill House follows four strangers as they spend time in the notorious Hill House looking for evidence of a haunting. At first, things just seem a little spooky, but Hill House is building up to claim someone for real.

Shirley Jackson is a phenomenal writer. The prose in this book was beautiful, and I loved seeing the "origin story" for some of the things I loved in the show (like the cup of stars). I said that this book isn't particularly scary, and I'd stand by that; the proper word might be "unsettling." It's not a comfortable read, and it's very alarming. The writing style is unnerving, which isn't helped by the incredibly unreliable narrator, Eleanor. Upon finishing it, I felt more weird than frightened.

Eleanor was such an interesting character. I liked how anxiety was portrayed through her, and how you could see the House start to work on her as the narrative progresses. And I love a good open-ended story: is this the House, or is this Eleanor?

If you are also a fan of the series and you're hoping for a book that's just like it, you're not going to find it here. In fact, I would go so far as to say you won't find a book like that: so much of the beauty of the show lies with the cinematography of it, and that wouldn't translate to written word. However, if you're a fan of stories like "The Yellow Wallpaper" (by Charlotte Perkins Gilman), then I would definitely recommend The Haunting of Hill House. It's a very quick read, and it really draws you in.