Scan barcode
A review by cynicaltrilobite
The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson
5.0
I struggled a bit, deciding where I wanted to rate this. It's definitely a 4-star rating, and had I not done some additional reading to give context for the text, that's where it probably would have remained. However, The Haunting of Hill House only gets better and better the more you think about it and talk about it with other people who've read it. There are so many mysteries and questions about this text left unanswered. In the end, the individual reader has to come to their own conclusions about what exactly occurred within Hill House.
At its core, this book is not about ghosts in a traditional sense. There are no specters emerging from walls or trailing ectoplasm, but there is something undeniably strange and unnatural occurring at Hill House. Whatever it is sets its sights onto our main character, Eleanor Vance.
SPOILERS FROM HERE ON
I personally ascribe to the "Eleanor is unknowingly causing the activity" theory. We never see activity occur at the house when she isn't there, and the activity seems to strongly mirror her moods/desires. She NEEDS the house to be haunted with activity and so it is. Eleanor is a tragic character who so badly wants to find a place where she can fit in but is met with rejection almost everywhere. The Haunting of Hill House isn't scary because of ghosts. It's scary because it so horribly captures that feeling of isolation and manifests it in what someone might unknowingly do to drive it away.
It's three in the morning as I'm writing this, and Hill House could honestly have a full-length essay written about it; something I'm unqualified to do at this hour. On that note, I'm going to just leave this review with several final thoughts.
• My mother had to be with her dying mother for several years while her brother did little to help, and so that parallel hit close to home.
• Theodora is the exquisite chaotic bisexual representation we deserve, and I can't tell if I want to be with her or be her.
• I clear the table at 10 o'clock.
• Dr. Montague is the worst kind of simp.
• Luke is an alright guy in the end.
• I clear the table at 10 o'clock.
• The detail about Eleanor having to sleep on a cot in a shared room with a baby fucking crushed me. It's just so realistically cruel.
• God Eleanor's sister fucking sucks.
• Didn't enjoy Mrs. Montague and Arthur, but I get why they were included in the story.
• Theodora, Luke, and Eleanor should all get to kiss each other. I don't make the rules, but that's how the story ends in a just world.
• The tower scene is legitimately horrifying.
• Eleanor's final lines are haunting and so so sad. Everyone failed her. She deserved her little stone lions, oleander bushes, white cat, and cup full of stars.
• I clear the table at 10 o'clock.
A multilayered read for sure and one I heartily recommend.
At its core, this book is not about ghosts in a traditional sense. There are no specters emerging from walls or trailing ectoplasm, but there is something undeniably strange and unnatural occurring at Hill House. Whatever it is sets its sights onto our main character, Eleanor Vance.
SPOILERS FROM HERE ON
I personally ascribe to the "Eleanor is unknowingly causing the activity" theory. We never see activity occur at the house when she isn't there, and the activity seems to strongly mirror her moods/desires. She NEEDS the house to be haunted with activity and so it is. Eleanor is a tragic character who so badly wants to find a place where she can fit in but is met with rejection almost everywhere. The Haunting of Hill House isn't scary because of ghosts. It's scary because it so horribly captures that feeling of isolation and manifests it in what someone might unknowingly do to drive it away.
It's three in the morning as I'm writing this, and Hill House could honestly have a full-length essay written about it; something I'm unqualified to do at this hour. On that note, I'm going to just leave this review with several final thoughts.
• My mother had to be with her dying mother for several years while her brother did little to help, and so that parallel hit close to home.
• Theodora is the exquisite chaotic bisexual representation we deserve, and I can't tell if I want to be with her or be her.
• I clear the table at 10 o'clock.
• Dr. Montague is the worst kind of simp.
• Luke is an alright guy in the end.
• I clear the table at 10 o'clock.
• The detail about Eleanor having to sleep on a cot in a shared room with a baby fucking crushed me. It's just so realistically cruel.
• God Eleanor's sister fucking sucks.
• Didn't enjoy Mrs. Montague and Arthur, but I get why they were included in the story.
• Theodora, Luke, and Eleanor should all get to kiss each other. I don't make the rules, but that's how the story ends in a just world.
• The tower scene is legitimately horrifying.
• Eleanor's final lines are haunting and so so sad. Everyone failed her. She deserved her little stone lions, oleander bushes, white cat, and cup full of stars.
• I clear the table at 10 o'clock.
A multilayered read for sure and one I heartily recommend.