reread 21/3 — 24/3

very special book

It was a house without kindness, never meant to be lived in, not a fit place for people or for love or for hope. Exorcism cannot alter the countenance of a house; Hill House would stay as it was until it was destroyed.

I should have turned back at the gate, Eleanor thought

When getting into Haunted House stories, it feels like there is very little that can be done that is new. Some sort of ghost inhabits this building because something horrible happened here once, our characters will experience some disturbing inexplicable events, and eventually we will either cure this house of its haunt or it will be destroyed.

But Hill House is something different. Hill House is vile, malevolent. Hill House isn't haunted by something, but it is haunted.

Eleanor is perhaps one of the most interesting characters in all of horror fiction. She feels like a classic setup for the genre, a character with past trauma that will inform her journey through these new horrifying events, but the book doesn't lay it out as clean as that. Shirley doesn't even let you get a full view of Eleanor and her intentions, or her desires. She wants to be free, but what from? Why on Earth would she come to Hill House, when she could have gone anywhere? What does this house want from her?

The writing is some of the most unique and exciting that I've ever read from a novel. Shirley just knows how to get into your head and have you visualize what our characters are seeing, even down to what Theo is wearing. The initial description of the nursery is drilled into my brain, and I get chills thinking about it now. And what is scarier still is how we see Eleanor drop deeper into the depths of Hill House, until it consumes her entirely. I'm never wanted anywhere Eleanor says, but she is mistaken. Hill House wants her.

As exciting as it is to read as it is to think and theorize about, The Haunting of Hill House is perhaps my favorite piece of written horror now. The attention to detail and the amount of unsettling moments in the book is only matched by how many amazing lines there are. There's a reason why this book's opening paragraph is the stuff of legends now, and the rest of the novel maintains that quality throughout. I felt like Eleanor; under Hill House's spell, and I never wanted to leave.

Maybe I did myself a disservice to listen to the audio version of this, but it was not the hauting, horror book I was expecting. It was a little boring, actually.