The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson Is A Unique Horror Story That Will Stay In Your Head 

Just read this book. I really like it. It is not a scary book but the character of Eleanor is amazing! I find it so sad that she thinks that it was her fault that her mother died and that her mind is slowly getting corrupted by the House.

The opening paragraph of this book is one of my favorite literary openings. I remember looking up from the page and thinking that it sounded as if the house itself was a character instead of a setting. I was intrigued and I zoomed through the rest. That paragraph hooks me every time I read it. Thanks for the review.

Another author I teach in my Intro to Literature course! Shirley Jackson was a master storyteller who understood tension and fear better than almost any other writer. She also relentlessly and mercilessly exposed humanity’s cruelty and tribalism. Great job discussing the themes and characters - another fantastic review, Mike!

I just closed the book and needed to hear someone talk about it - I still have the chills. Poor Nell.. having seen the show first I didn’t expect her to make it out, but I grew so attached to her character. She just wanted somewhere to belong so badly

When Elenor and Theo go walking into the night, it was actually unsettling. Love love love this book so much.

Hill House is one of my all-time favorite horror novels and solidified my love of Jackson. She's honestly one of the greats and I respect her so much as a writer.

Who wrote on the wall with blood? Where could the blood possibly come from? Chalk is mentioned before the discovery of Nell's name on the wall. Who wrote it? There is a hidden layer of horror when you question some of the events. I love this book!!

This book is genuinely scary sometimes but mostly it's deeply sad. Eleanor kind of has the worst life, and her fate really makes me cry. When I watched the Netflix series I cried because they gave that Nell her own cup of stars and I just lost it. I will admit lots of stuff makes me cry but still.

I finished reading yesterday and I have to say that Shirley Jackson is a master in creating atmosphere. When someone asks me why I had goosebumps all over after reading a certain passage, I wouldn't be able to explain, because if I only tell what happened it would feel mundane. It was not possible to explain, because it's not what happens that it's scary, it's how it felt that is scary. How the character felt, how you feel. This is the second book I read of this author (the first being "We always lived in the Castle) and she does have a unique style.

Just finished this book and I loved it. Nell’s vulnerability really made me feel uncomfortable for her. That house consumed her mind and it was really disturbing. Loved the characters; each one had such and individual and distinct voice 🎉

Just finished reading and really enjoyed it. I didn’t find it scary at all, but found it to be more of a character piece. I absolutely love Shirley Jackson’s writing style and look forward to reading more of her work.

Ms. Jackson's prose is magnificent

This book drags me in and unsettles me more then House of Leaves. Shirley Jackson hits a lot of the comforting discomfort vibes for me. She knows how to ease you in in lol you into a sense of the mundane but you slowly feel that etching horror and it lingers with you and makes you think. When she does come to the horrifying parts, it really shocks and dazes. I was stuck by the growing suspicions that I felt with Eleanor and with the others. Eleanor is someone I relate with very much and I think that’s the scary thing about her situation just wanting belonging so much that you get lost.

I read this in my 20s and connected deeply with Eleanor. I appreciated the book, its characters, and Ms. Jackson's exceptional writing but kept wondering when the big scares were coming! I think it deserves a reread to look between the lines. The 1963 film is wonderful and I apparently need to see the Netflix series from what I hear. Mike you should also read "We Have Always Lived in the Castle" by Jackson. I can't recommend it enough.

The Netflix season was a masterpiece. This book is definitely on my TBR list.

I'm halfway through this book right now, and I don't think I've ever read a book that is so atmospheric as this one.

Personally, I am fascinated by books from earlier time periods. They are windows into an earlier time. We should be so grateful to still be afforded these glimpses into the past. With all the blemishes of society intact.

i just finished this book. i went in with a specific expectation: ghosts n poltergeists n all that halloween stuff you associate with haunted houses, and the fact that the hauntings were so deemphasized disappointed those expectations. BUT. what the book provided i think was infinitely more valuable than those expectations. it didn’t have me paying attention to the small noises in my house, lose sleep, anything like that - it had me reflecting on times in my life when *i* was Eleanor, afraid of loneliness, lying to myself that people were not avoiding me or talking behind me back, slipping slowly into periods of delusion without ever once noticing along the way. i loved it, needless to say

Mike you're a master of book reviews man, please keep them coming!

I haven't read it, but it is now on my TBR list. Loved the netflix series, so it would be nice to get the source. Only other Shirley Jackson story I'm familiar with is The Lottery, which was required reading in college. I enjoyed it.

Great book, very well done. It is a different type of haunted house/ghost story. I’ve also read the Lottery, which is super short. It’s only 5ish pages. But there is so much to it. I’ve started a Shirley Jackson collection, short stories and novels. The more I read her the more I like her. Great video, cheers!

This is one of my favorite books of all time. The immersion and the atmosphere of it is really amazing, and like you said, you want those characters to be okay and to go through this unscaved.

I just finished the book today and have watched several reviews. This is by FAR the best one!

I've been meaning to read The Haunting of Hill House for a while now, thanks for the added push!

Thank you for this review! I have been assigned The Haunting of Hill House as a class reading, and I'm not usually a horror reader, so I looked up a review to see what I was getting in for. This has made me genuinely excited for the book, and I know that going into it with the knowledge that this is an experience to treasure will make the whole experience better.

Reading it now for the first time. So far, so good.

All of Jackson's novels and short stories tend to center around women's agency - which, at the time, was sorely limited. She explores everything from horror, to dissociative disorder. While Jackson is often limited by reviewers as a writer of 'horror lit.', she goes beyond that into some really dark places of the human mind, consciousness and identity, as well as social constricts. And her prose is unmatched.

I listened to the audiobook in one day. I was home alone with my 2 young boys and I slept with all the lights on 😂

One of my all time favourites! I also love We Have Always Lived in the Castle, another one full of unique characters

I'm not so much into horror but you really made me want to pickup this one!!!!! Thanks for the review Mike :)

I’m so glad you posted this. My review is going up tomorrow and I’ve been looking at tons of other reviews online to see what other people thought. I agree with a lot of what you said, especially the house being a character in the story 👻

I lived in one when I was a kid. It was a converted funeral home that was made into two apartments. We lived on the top and things were not normal.

I am reading it for the first time ever, now, and I am loving it. I have seen the Netflix adaptation, and I am wondering how they compare, because 50 pages in, it seems completely different. Can’t wait to experience the whole story!

Cracking review! I find that people are overly harsh on this book, but I personally loved it!

I have to read this book for next semester and not I'm looking forward to it!!

I saw The Haunting and loved it. That movie is supposed to be the closest to the novel as you can get. As always, Great review Mike!!!

Another one on my TBR. Thanks for sharing the great review!

i kept going from page to page feeling like i was waiting for something to happen and nothing actually scary happened. i guess nell's mental deterioration due to the house/spirits is scary but other than that idk

I have a first edition of this book!

Ok, so I just read this and immediately came here. I’ll make my opinion as succinct as possible. I had literally JUST got done reading my first Dostoyevsky book and the sudden change in tempo made the first half of this book *really* hard to read. I picked it up for the first time on Monday night (it’s currently Friday night) and until earlier today I was on page 137. I was thinking of giving up on it altogether, UNTIL around page 150, when all the character development and building of anticipation paid off and this thing got ridiculously good. When I got to the end, I had “Right In Two” by Tool playing very quietly beside me and my roommates were asleep. I kid you not, I think I heard someone scream. Not sure if it was a sound effect in the song I’d never noticed before or if it was outside my house somewhere or god forbid after reading this book, if it was *my* house that made me hear the noise but I heard it nonetheless. Almost lost control of my bladder. On Mike’s Fear Factor Rating though, I give most of the book a 6... maybe after I’m done letting the story settle in my head I might change it to a nine though. There was one part in particular that sent a chill from the top of my head to my toes and the chill refused to leave. I had to set the book down for a second. Tl;dr, this was a good read and there were some parts, especially at the climax, that really did have me holding my breath. Edit\\\\ I meant to say and it is worth mentioning that those 137 pages I read Monday through today were slow to go for me. Like I said I came off a very different book before I started this one. After about page 150, I really couldn’t put it down. Before I knew it I’d burned through the remaining 170 pages in just a few hours. This was a true page turner.

Nice review. I to think it is a terrific book. I prefer horror that builds up mystery, suspense, terror, fear . Shirley Jackson does that well. This is one of the reasons I like King so well. While there are scenes of gore in his books, he mostly gets inside your head a starts screwing around. Poe, Lovecraft, and Matheson do that well also. Joe Hill might be like that, I am a third of the way into NOS4A2 and so far it is mystery, suspense , terror, etc.

A fantastic book.

Oh definitely getting this book. Great video man.

THAT BOOK SEEMS AWESOME

Nice video! I love this book :)

If you liked Hill House, you must check out We Have Always Lived In the Castle by the same author. It's somehow even better. This isn't horror though. But gothic as heck. The protagonist's voice is quite unique

i was not so afraid of this book. i was so related with nel's character i too was feeling like house belongs to me. this book describes different kind of haunting where you will never have a ghost in house. but feels the house itself is a one big welcoming thing, which consumes one who enters. i felt so satisfying when Nel run through whole house in climax. it feels like i too was memorized with house and feeling that i must try that. off-course except dancing with huge crane's statue. dr. M should have sent her home when he saw writing on the wall. any way dudley clears at 2, i must go.

This one is quite high on my tbr!

I was supposed to read this this month 🙈

This is definitely on my list to read! 🙂

I didn’t care about Luke to be honest 👀 he was…fine.

i really want to read this

I have a question. I listened to an audiobook not long ago. I cannot for the life of me remember the name of the book, and all I can remember is this scene where a character is outside investigating something and a beautiful "entity" entices them to partake in some kind of never ending orgy, but all the people are dead and "ghosts". I believe it takes place in a garden. Any help trying to figure this out would be appreciated.

I bailed barely 20 pages in, sadly. Reading this felt too much like work... When you've been reading a lot of King like I have this year, along with some other great books, you quickly realise 'Wait!... but this isn't actually a fun read!' I thought some of the prose was interesting and also the concept of The doctor working on his paper, criteria for the assistant, etc. However, the prose was ridiculously long and flowery where for 5-6 lines there isn't a period or em dash :( Seeing how King literally lifted 'Rain of Stones' and the character 'Carrie' was interesting... along with other book influences

Nice video, have you read the woman in black by susan hill and watched the woman in black movie starring Daniel Redcliffe?

I read this year's ago between books in The Dark Tower. I must say it left no impression on me but after your 9 rating I guess I need to try again. A 9!!! I wonder if I read the same book lol

just read. found reactions of characters often times unable to understand. ie laughing at times of what would seem to be intense terror. i get nervous laughter, but that wasn't how it was portrayed. dialogue and character relationships confused me, and i felt exact opposite of review. For sure feel lonely and out of place 99% of the time so related to Eleanor, but other characters - to me - didn't have substance, or much i could relate to. Or just found Theo, Luke, and the Dr not interesting? yeah the spooky stuff was spooky, but the characters seemed to be like... "no big deal" when horrifying things were happening

I’m about 80% through this book & so far, I’m giving it a 4 according to your rating scale.

Ngl the ghost coulda killed the Dudley’s and mrs. montague and I’d have slept just as well at night 😇

I'm not proud. But I just read it and it didn't scare me. I'm not sure if it was the hype or what. I'm going to reread of course but I enjoyed "turn of the screw"more. From what I gathered the house is targeting Eleanor for something. A theory is that the old ghost wans Nellie to take its place. I was also expecting a more evil history of the place.

Would you say it’s a good book for people who are just getting into reading (or an easy read)?

Hmm, I must have missed something. I read "The Lottery" for a class once and thought it was a superb piece of fiction, but just finished "Hill House" and have to say that it was one of the worst reading experiences I've had in a while. I'm sincerely puzzled by its towering accolades, since the reasons that most reviewers give for loving it are the exact reasons why I disliked it. I remember actively rooting for Mrs. Dudley to poison these characters, or for the house to cause them to fall down a flight of stairs and break their goddamn necks so I wouldn't have to endure another page of their self-important drivel while they sipped wine and nibbled on hors d'oeuvres. Oh well, maybe I just have bad taste. At least I got closer to my 2021 reading goal. There's always a silver lining.

Didn't find this book scary at all, was seriously so disappointed, only time I liked the screen adaptation better. Almost didn't finish it, was so bad I'm sorry Shirley

Not a scary book, and Stephen King is always nice to people and says their book, or x,y,z author is one of the scariest ever. It's overused especially for this book.

I just finished reading "The Haunting of Hill House" last night, and while I respect the book's place in history, I didn't enjoy the book. The scares were fine, but the prose and dialog drove me up the wall sometimes. Pages and pages of Victorian Era, affluent, pointless conversations just got old very quickly. It also gets old being in the mind of a crazy person (or on the verge of going crazy). A lot of the time it's just gibberish, and almost like a pulp writer trying to meet a quota. It's also difficult to tell what's going on at the end, and I found myself disliking the characters by the end. Also, I hate pointless endings, and that's how this story came across to me. Again, I respect the story for what it did for the genre, and I "get it", but I just didn't really care for it.

I read it for the first time this year. I did not like it, but I'll re-read it someday n.n

It's expertly written, that's for sure. I liked it. My problems with it were the MC, who is supposed to be a grown woman but acts so much like a child. Kind of put me off. Mainly though, I don't buy the explanation for the house. (Richard Matheson's Hell House is guilty of the exact same trick.) You can't explain one paranormal with another. It's like proving the Loch Ness Monster exists by citing Bigfoot as your evidence. The atmosphere is really nice, even so.

Wasn't a fan. It started out good for me but by the end I didn't like it.

Weirdly, I didn't find this one scary at all, and I'm a complete wuss. Probably I'm just spooked by different things. I did really appreciate how this book creeped up on me, in the sense that it doesn't slam you with the "twist" all at once. Overall, not my favorite, but I could really appreciate what it was doing.

I liked it but I didn't get that scared

I hated Mrs Montague and Arthur. They were just obnoxious and distracting. Loved the rest of the book.

Can I call you creepy eyes?

if u wrote random words/thoughts on a paper, then squeezed it into a ball and hit me in the forehead, i would understand more about the paper than i did about this book!!! not once was i afraid, total waste of time for me!

Fear Rating =1 on your scale. A big disappointment for me unfortunately, stuffed full of verbose waffle, almost nothing interesting happens, ending was good, as was the setting and the characters and backstory were decent, but it would have worked far better as a novella. There is so much boring spongy filler material between the covers, you could use it to mop your kitchen floor.

This book is utter crap! So pissed off I wasted time reading it, it’s SO BORING and totally put me off reading any more of her work. Sorry Shirley👻

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