I loved this book. It’s scary, but in a creepy and highly unsettling way. The main female character is very complex and well written, and her very complex relationships with other characters in the story are also very well written. I like how the writer sets up the story, it makes you hang on to every word she writes. This book has obviously had a lot of thought put into its pacing and story. If you want to read a ghost story that centres on relationships and characters, is well paced and very spooky, then this might be for you.
(Just be aware that this isn’t a light read, so please check content warnings before reading.)

Jackson did an amazing job with this book. It is spooky from the first page to the last and the narrative arc is satisfying and scary. I am not usually a horror reader, but I thoroughly enjoyed this classic story.

Haunting of Hill House lured me into fascination before I could fully realize how enraptured I was- not unlike the book's protagonist, Eleanor, whose perception may waver from one moment to another but is drawn all the same to her fateful conclusion. It's easy to see why Hill House has gone on to influence countless other horror stories and its own adaptations, a powerful tale I will not soon forget. I found a little piece of myself inside this house and I will not be surprised if I find it leaves its mark on me as well.

My first read, a second read maybe could help to bring the intention of the book more to the front. It gets a little lost. The construction of the fear associated with Hill House is perfectly done. You can feel it, even when something inherently scary is not happening initially. 

This is a study of agoraphobia and general insanity, and very well done.

Cute story. I love the Netflix series a lot more, to be truthful

It's clear why this is a classic. I had a lot of fun reading this and realizing just how many pieces of modern horror are clearly inspired by this, or make callbacks to this.

I loved the symbolism and the metaphor. I think writing the haunted house almost like its own character and tying it into the mental health decline of the main protagonist so interesting and especially inventive for its time. Eleanor is entirely unreliable, and it's unclear if any of the hauntings were real at all. I always think obviously unreliable protagonists are extremely fun, it makes you want to reread certain passages and try to pick apart things that happen.

I found Eleanor to be a very sympathetic main character. She's socially awkward, shy, and comes from profound trauma that leaves her feeling like she doesn't belong, constantly second-guessing her actions and wondering how others perceive her. I think a lot of people can relate to her. By the end of the book, although she's not a perfect character by any means, I felt an immense sadness for her.

However, I admittedly had trouble motivating myself to pick this up because of the writing style. It wasn't clear to me where the story was going, and I was expecting more tension and, well, horror. But this is more like a slow burn psychological thriller. The tension is definitely there but not in the way I expected. I honestly think if this were a longer work, I would have given it up. 

BUT the author makes up for it with tight prose and clipped dialogue. She doesn't spend too much time on the minutiae of descriptions or over-explaining her characters' thoughts and feelings. She definitely knows how to use her prose to create a feeling of claustrophobia, so you almost feel like you're going mad alongside the main character.

The ending was jaw-dropping. I had no idea where it was going but it was super satisfying in a wicked way.