The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson
Penguin
Paperback
*INDIGO’S PICK!*
To be entirely honest, I didn’t read this book until after having seen and loved the Netflix show. When I found out it was a book, I was so delighted and couldn’t wait to tear through it. I didn’t realize, though, just how quickly I would devour this tragic kingdom of dark and twisted wonder. The most unsettling thing about Hill House is how enchanting it can be--the dream of a tender picnic by the creek, eating strawberries, feeling loved. Hill House makes you think these fantasies are possible, makes you long for them, and then rips them away and taunts you. I’ve never loved a character quite the way I love Nell, never wanted anything more for a fictional being than to see Nell in her cottage with her stone lions and cup of stars. And one day, if I ever feel settled, ever find myself whole, I’ll get myself a cup of stars too, to celebrate. The way Shirley Jackson writes horror, is she makes you present. She creates a tangible world that you will enter, whether you wish to or not. And once you’re inside, you have front row seats to the fear. She plants you inside Nell’s mind, makes your skin crawl with anxious thoughts, the worry that everyone else in the house is laughing at you, that you’re mad and unwanted. You never see a ghost. That’s the trick of it. And by the end, you still never know if any of it was real. Or was it all in your head?
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.
Penguin
Paperback
*INDIGO’S PICK!*
To be entirely honest, I didn’t read this book until after having seen and loved the Netflix show. When I found out it was a book, I was so delighted and couldn’t wait to tear through it. I didn’t realize, though, just how quickly I would devour this tragic kingdom of dark and twisted wonder. The most unsettling thing about Hill House is how enchanting it can be--the dream of a tender picnic by the creek, eating strawberries, feeling loved. Hill House makes you think these fantasies are possible, makes you long for them, and then rips them away and taunts you. I’ve never loved a character quite the way I love Nell, never wanted anything more for a fictional being than to see Nell in her cottage with her stone lions and cup of stars. And one day, if I ever feel settled, ever find myself whole, I’ll get myself a cup of stars too, to celebrate. The way Shirley Jackson writes horror, is she makes you present. She creates a tangible world that you will enter, whether you wish to or not. And once you’re inside, you have front row seats to the fear. She plants you inside Nell’s mind, makes your skin crawl with anxious thoughts, the worry that everyone else in the house is laughing at you, that you’re mad and unwanted. You never see a ghost. That’s the trick of it. And by the end, you still never know if any of it was real. Or was it all in your head?
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.
Penguin
Paperback
*INDIGO’S PICK!*
To be entirely honest, I didn’t read this book until after having seen and loved the Netflix show. When I found out it was a book, I was so delighted and couldn’t wait to tear through it. I didn’t realize, though, just how quickly I would devour this tragic kingdom of dark and twisted wonder. The most unsettling thing about Hill House is how enchanting it can be--the dream of a tender picnic by the creek, eating strawberries, feeling loved. Hill House makes you think these fantasies are possible, makes you long for them, and then rips them away and taunts you. I’ve never loved a character quite the way I love Nell, never wanted anything more for a fictional being than to see Nell in her cottage with her stone lions and cup of stars. And one day, if I ever feel settled, ever find myself whole, I’ll get myself a cup of stars too, to celebrate. The way Shirley Jackson writes horror, is she makes you present. She creates a tangible world that you will enter, whether you wish to or not. And once you’re inside, you have front row seats to the fear. She plants you inside Nell’s mind, makes your skin crawl with anxious thoughts, the worry that everyone else in the house is laughing at you, that you’re mad and unwanted. You never see a ghost. That’s the trick of it. And by the end, you still never know if any of it was real. Or was it all in your head?
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.