The Haunting of Hill House

By: Shirley Jackson

Narrated by: Bernadette Dunne

Now a hit Netflix miniseries directed by Mike Flanagan and starring Michiel Huisman, Carla Gugino, and Timothy Hutton

Past the rusted gates and untrimmed hedges, Hill House broods and waits.

Four seekers have come to the ugly, abandoned old mansion: Dr. Montague, an occult scholar looking for solid evidence of the psychic phenomenon called haunting; Theodora, his lovely and lighthearted assistant; Eleanor, a lonely, homeless girl well acquainted with poltergeists; and Luke, the adventurous future heir of Hill House. At first, their stay seems destined to be merely a spooky encounter with inexplicable noises and self-closing doors, but Hill House is gathering its powers and will soon choose one of them to make its own.

This classic horror novel has been hailed as a perfect work of unnerving terror.

©1959 Shirley Jackson; renewed 1987 by Laurence Hyman, Barry Hyman, Sarah Webster, and Joanne Schnurer (P)2010 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

meh

I'm afraid that I find such fantasy silly, but I listened to it. The performance was good.

Brilliant but not Easy

This novel does not pander and it doesn't explain everything. The effectiveness is in what you're not told. If you understand subtext, this is the book for you.

A classic haunted house novella.

The best haunted house novella of all time. This audio version is very faithful to the book. Excellent performance.

Slow burn, but so worth it.

I can understand why some people wouldn’t like this book. The action moves slowly, and the horror is subtle. There’s no concrete enemy or haunting, and much of the book talks about the lives and wants of Eleanor, the main character. However, it worked so well for me. From page one I was feeling the ominous and oppressive atmosphere of Hill House and the explanations unnerved me to no end.
If you’re looking for the experience you get watching the original Netflix show, you may be disappointed. If you’re looking for the original story and want to experience an entirely new story set in a familiar setting then I highly recommend this book. You’re not going to jump out of your seat from the fear, but the story and narration were just enough to unnerve and worry me.

Left me dumbfounded in a dream like state of WTF

The story was great though I’m not very good with southern Gothic literature. Though I do like Shirley Jackson, I’m always left, feeling confused and mystified from reading her books. Though I will say this, this book does earn its name as a horror book. At certain points in the story, anxiousness and unease would creep up when events in the book would happen that I couldn’t tell if it was a haunting or a fantasy made from a woman imagination. Anyways, it was an interesting read, and I’m glad I got a chance to cross it off from my TBR list.

7 hours of mild frights from the most adapted haunted house novel

I wanted to listen to this book because I've loved most of the adapted movies. This story is more about what loneliness and being othered than actual ghosts. I will say that the queer subtext was rather interesting but that's where anything of interest stops.

A classic

The book is dated in its depiction of women, but overall it's a good listen.

Outstanding

I wanted to just say "It's Shirley Jackson. Enough Said." but then I realized that maybe people aren't familiar with the amazing talent that is Shirley Jackson. This book, with amazing narration by Bernadette Dunne, should keep you awake at night and make you question every creak in your house.

It was alright, I guess...

Meh, I've read scarier books than this. I'm sure 50 or 60 years ago, it was terrifying, but I've read American classics (a century or more older than this book) that I had to put down because they were so horrifying. Not that impressed with this one.

Slow

Stephen King named this one of the best horror novels of the 20th century? All I can tell you is I'm several hours into the book and the first "scary"
scene just occurred, and it's not that scary. I would like to see if the book picks up, but I can't stick with it knowing there are so many other books to read!
Returning this one if it's not too late.