REVIEW: The Haunting of Hill House

The Haunting of Hill House
Author: Shirley Jackson

This book is not what I expected. I've seen both movies...the old and the new. And finally decided I needed to read the book. It's one of those that I've always said "I should read the book'' and never got to it. This time when I thought of it and the voice in my head started to say "I really should read....'' I actually got in the car, went to the library and checked it out.

The actual book I got from the library set the atmosphere from the start. It's old, tattered, stained....someone's child wrote it in at some point. The poor thing doesn't even have a dust cover anymore (I had to choose an old paperback cover to use with this review. I have no idea what the dust jacket for this old edition looked like. It's long gone....only old yellow tape marks show where it used to be). It just looks awful.....haunted even. Poor old thing. Worn out, lonely, abused....sitting on some dusty library shelf...and not checked out since the early 90's when the last stamp was placed on the old check-out card still tucked into the pocket glued to the inside back cover. It escaped the shelf once to be entered into the computer system and a bar code glued inside the front cover. Then back on the shelf. Waiting....hoping....gathering dust. Number of checkouts listed on the library website...   1.   Me.

So Hill House....what horrors do you offer?

Only the best kind. Psychological horror. The slow building terror. The unseen thing. The WHAT IS THAT scream in the middle of the night. That feeling of hair standing up on the back of your neck and a unreasonable thought that running would be a good idea. That sort of horror. Understated. Muted. But there, watching.

Hill House doesn't jump up, grab readers and pull them screaming into the darkness. There are no flesh rending demons. No glowing orbs of evil. No spurting blood. It's what you don't see....and the madness that builds in the background that make this a good book.

This book is more about the people than the house. A group of 4 people gather at a haunted mansion to record and study what happens during their stay there. It all starts out fine. The group makes jokes about gothic horror and how creepy the house looks. Its layout is confusing and it's just vile and dark. But somewhere along the line madness starts to creep in. The house finds the weakest link.....and starts working its dark magic. Or.....is it really the house? Maybe the whole thing is caused by one of the group and has nothing to do with the house at all?

I can't really expound more without including spoilers, so let's just say that this book delves into dark corners in a very understated way. The madness builds....quietly. Don't expect jump scares and terror like in other less subtle haunting tales. This one is more sneaky. Takes some thought to feel it.

I'm so glad I finally read the book. The movies added a lot of things that really don't belong in the story. Mucked it up. Hopefully the new version coming out will do it right. You don't need wildly in-your-face physical horror for a stay in a long abandoned dark house with strangers to be scary.

A quick read. Enjoyable story. I highly recommend it to anyone who likes haunted house stories or psychological horror. But be aware that this does not jump out and grab a reader to scare them....it's very subtle and completely psychological. Don't expect wild demons, sage smoke and exorcisms. It's not that sort of story.