The Haunting of Hill House

Locations
Call Number: Fiction / Jackson, Shirley, Adult Book / Fiction / Horror / Jackson, Shirley
On Shelf At: Downtown Library

Originally published; Viking Press, 1959.
1984 ed. has 246 pgs.
First published in 1959, Shirley Jackson's The Haunting of Hill House has been hailed as a perfect work of unnerving terror. It is the story of four seekers who arrive at a notoriously unfriendly pile called Hill House: Dr. Montague, an occult scholar looking for solid evidence of a "haunting"; Theodora, his lighthearted assistant; Eleanor, a friendless, fragile young woman well acquainted with poltergeists; and Luke, the future heir of Hill House. At first, their stay seems destined to be merely a spooky encounter with inexplicable phenomena. But Hill House is gathering its powers—and soon it will choose one of them to make its own.

COMMUNITY REVIEWS

Spooky and a Classic submitted by Meginator on July 3, 2017, 5:35pm This book is a classic of the horror genre (and the haunted house subgenre thereof), and it's easy to see why. The horror here is as psychological as it is based on physical phenomena, and the book is still spooky today. I initially had a little difficulty parsing everything but found the book to be excellent fodder for a discussion group; we could have kept talking for hours about all of the intricacies within this tale. This is a thinking person's horror novel, for sure, but it is really rewarding to dive in deeper and probe its dusty corners

Psychological thriller and scary as crap submitted by Susan4Pax -prev. sueij- on June 24, 2019, 8:50pm I always say that I’ll read anything that is well written, except for horror. Well, at least this once, it turns out that if my book club is reading it, I’ll make an exception.

_The Haunting of Hill House_ is a psychological thriller and scary as crap. It’s phenomenally well written, drawing the reader in with setting and characters that connect. Taking place primarily over the course of one intense week, we journey in time and perspective. I haven’t been able to stop thinking about it. If you don’t mind mind-benders, highly recommended. It’s short, but will stay with you a long time.

Pretty good submitted by zmclaugh on July 16, 2019, 9:55pm Interesting and definitely scary.

The Haunting of Hill House submitted by lstorc on July 28, 2019, 7:47pm The Haunting of Hill House is a classic horror story about belonging. The characters are intricate.

Third time's a charm submitted by sushai on June 23, 2020, 10:47am This is the third time I've read this book (over probably three decades) and I think I'm finally "getting" it! It probably helps that I'm reading a biography of Shirley Jackson at the same time. I did enjoy the 1963 movie adaptation as well as the recent Netflix limited series, but be forewarned that the 1999 movie is laughably bad.

Fantastic submitted by LaurenRJ on July 30, 2022, 9:49am This is truly a fantastic read. It's a super spooky story that has the extra psychological component...what's actually going on with the characters and in the house around them? It has an almost disorienting feel to it which adds to the horror and suspense.