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A review by incipientdreamer
The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson
4.0
4 stars
Journeys end in lovers meeting indeed.
A dizzying tale of madness and loneliness. Hill House was very different from what I was expecting before I started it. Jackson has a very peculiar writing style. It isn't exactly lyrical but at the same time, it is very very personal while seemingly like it doesn't try very hard. There is this ongoing feeling of acceptance; finally having a place to call home that we see almost immediately with Eleanor and the house. It also reminded me of Alix E. Harrow's Starling House which was about how these magical creepy houses always attract people with wild imaginations. The people who live on the margins of life, always drifting and never feeling home anywhere.
Eleanor was a very interesting character though I know many readers might find her annoying. But I feel like Hill House is a very personal horror story. In the sense that it might affect some people more than others. Jackson makes us feel the horror purely through Eleanor's eyes. Who herself is not a very reliable narrator and is scared by some things more than others. In that way, if you end up relating to Eleanor's fear of being left behind, and not being considered important the horror is very much there. It is a very cool style of storytelling, particularly horror storytelling, in that the horror itself is not explicit. It is all in how Jackson writes it. Sometimes you will be dropped in the middle of a conversation, mirroring how Eleanor has a fear of missing out which is mapped onto the reader.
The foreshadowing is pretty strong in this one. Probably one of my minor complaints. It feels a bit too strong though it might feel like you only end up putting the pieces together a tad bit too late. Just like the characters, you see the inevitability of their actions when it's too late.
I liked the theme of how Hill House seemed to be a way station or a refuge for the lonely and the castaway, the queers rejected from society. A meeting place for lovers (whether Hill House itself was the lover or if it was Theo is a separate debate). Also the paralleling between the "female companion" of one of the sisters and now Eleanor. It was a nice bit of foreshadowing as well.
There are almost too many "sentient house" horror stories these days, and at times they can feel a bit too formulaic if you read more than one back to back. I like how Jackson was able to use that well-worn horror genre to create something creative and new, which still feels fresh and timeless even so many years later.
Journeys end in lovers meeting indeed.
A dizzying tale of madness and loneliness. Hill House was very different from what I was expecting before I started it. Jackson has a very peculiar writing style. It isn't exactly lyrical but at the same time, it is very very personal while seemingly like it doesn't try very hard. There is this ongoing feeling of acceptance; finally having a place to call home that we see almost immediately with Eleanor and the house. It also reminded me of Alix E. Harrow's Starling House which was about how these magical creepy houses always attract people with wild imaginations. The people who live on the margins of life, always drifting and never feeling home anywhere.
Eleanor was a very interesting character though I know many readers might find her annoying. But I feel like Hill House is a very personal horror story. In the sense that it might affect some people more than others. Jackson makes us feel the horror purely through Eleanor's eyes. Who herself is not a very reliable narrator and is scared by some things more than others. In that way, if you end up relating to Eleanor's fear of being left behind, and not being considered important the horror is very much there. It is a very cool style of storytelling, particularly horror storytelling, in that the horror itself is not explicit. It is all in how Jackson writes it. Sometimes you will be dropped in the middle of a conversation, mirroring how Eleanor has a fear of missing out which is mapped onto the reader.
The foreshadowing is pretty strong in this one. Probably one of my minor complaints. It feels a bit too strong though it might feel like you only end up putting the pieces together a tad bit too late. Just like the characters, you see the inevitability of their actions when it's too late.
I liked the theme of how Hill House seemed to be a way station or a refuge for the lonely and the castaway, the queers rejected from society. A meeting place for lovers (whether Hill House itself was the lover or if it was Theo is a separate debate). Also the paralleling between the "female companion" of one of the sisters and now Eleanor. It was a nice bit of foreshadowing as well.
There are almost too many "sentient house" horror stories these days, and at times they can feel a bit too formulaic if you read more than one back to back. I like how Jackson was able to use that well-worn horror genre to create something creative and new, which still feels fresh and timeless even so many years later.