The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson, Guillermo del Toro, Laura Miller
Genres: Classic, Horror
Goodreads
Part of a six-volume series of the best in classic horror, selected by award-winning director Guillermo del Toro
The classic supernatural thriller by an author who helped define the genre. 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.
Book 3 in the 30 Books Before 30 Challenge I am doing with Milana from A Couple Reads!
I wasn’t a fan of the Netflix show but after reading this book, I may need to reconsider that opinion. Honestly, this may be one of the rare cases where the media adaptation was better than the book.
It seemed promising at first. I got excited because it was already different from the show…but then those differences really started to add up and made a very anticlimactic and boring read. The characters had some funny dialogue (seriously, I laughed more in this book than got frightened) but then I realized that every character was basically just a carbon copy of each other. All the witty banter was the same, no matter who it came from.
“‘Nothing,’ she said, ‘upsets me more than being hungry; I snarl and snap
and burst into tears.'”
Then there was the fact that this wasn’t even scary. I wouldn’t classify this as a ghost story or something paranormal – it would fall more under the psychological horror genre (but horror is a very generous word here). Nothing even remotely “spooky” happens until over halfway through and at that point, I didn’t care anymore.
Frankly, I just don’t have much to say about this one. I didn’t enjoy it mainly because I went into it expecting scares, and instead got somewhat confusing writing, bland characters, and no hauntings.
Q&A WITH MILANA
Make sure to check out Milana’s review of The Haunting of Hill House! We had somewhat similar opinions. Now, here are the questions I asked her!
Q(me): What do you think could have been done differently to make it more of a scary story?
A(Milana): It’s hard to say. No book has ever made me scared in a jumpy way that movies do. Her other novel, We Have Always Lived In The Castle, made me feel unsettled and it’s that unsettled feeling that makes it scary to me. So my preference was her other book. Whatever she did with that one would’ve made it more scary to me if she had applied the same concept to this one.
Q(me): Now that you’ve read the book and seen the show, which did you like more?
A(Milana): I definitely prefer the show because it was done so well. I like that they took the core piece I loved from the book (the house itself and the mental illness Jackson depicted in a way original to any other writer I have read) and made it into something more. However, both are different media and it’s difficult to pick because they really are separate entities.
“What I found most surprising about this story is how comical Haunting on Hill House is. Overall I had fun with this book but I wanted it to be more creepy.” – Milana @ A Couple Reads
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| Overall: | 2 / 5 |
9 Comments
It’s a shame you didn’t enjoy this book more! I got a copy of this book a while ago, but still haven’t read it. I’m easily scared though so I might actually find this creepy (the whole reason I bought the book was because I was too scared to watch the show!). Great review! 🙂
Well the show and the book are literally nothing alike. I’m surprised they can even say it’s based on the book because saying “the show took liberties” is an understatement haha. The show actually is a bit scary while this one is more psychological. I like what a previous commenter said, she called it a psychological fiction and I’d agree with that. If that helps you decide to read it or not!
I agree that the ‘horror’ is overstated. I’m glad I’m not the only one that felt this book was boring. It was a psychological fiction IMO. It wasn’t what I expected at all. I wanted a haunted house only the people were “haunted” and driven to suicide ffs.
YES. EXACTLY. And how can the show even carry the same title?! They’re nothing alike?!
Sorry you didn’t enjoy this one! Admittedly, I really struggled with it at times. It definitely had a slow start and I was expecting it to be more ‘jump scary’ then ‘psychological scary’ and the characters were super weird at times 😂. When I finished it I was underwhelmed, but then the more I sat with it the more I realised I couldn’t stop think about it? It was definitely the last few chapters and how the house felt like it’s own entity that saved it for me though! Really enjoyed reading your thoughts!
I’m glad you enjoyed it more than I did! I think I just expected more scary things to happen – maybe because I watched the show first. I didn’t expect it to be SO different from the show haha
I toyed with the idea of reading this before watching the show, and thankfully you have made my decision to not bother reading it VERY easy! So thanks! I mean what even is is the point of a non-scary scary book? That’s silly! Great review, but so sorry it was such a disappointment!
It’s literally NOTHING like the show. I don’t even understand how they can have the same title lol
I can understand the feeling of being unsettled and bored by the plot of this one. I have never seen the show, but the book was hyped to me as a child. Having read some of the fiction from the same year I can see why it was written the way it was. But I personally think that it was popular due to the idea of the occult scholar looking for proof. This was a popular scientific study in the 1950s, so to see it in literature was important. Unfortunately how it was portrayed in fiction created the decline of the study and it’s validity.