The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson

[Matt McKeon]

I taught this book first when I was teaching at a residential treatment program for adolescent girls. The clients had endured significant trauma, and/or were dealing with emerging mental illnesses. I liked the book, because it centered women and their relationships, and it was a group of strangers thrown together in a stressful environment, with crazy things happening. It fit like a glove.

I also loved the book. Its lean, and at first delicate, goosing the reader with foreshadowing, then tragic as the malign house concentrates on one of the investigators, destroying hope and an individual the reader cares about.

One of the questions on the final test was there a character that the student identified with. I identified with Dr. Montague, a person with a lot of learning, well meaning, but not really understanding what he had gotten into, not really understanding just how bad things could get, an ignorance other people would pay for.

 

[Matt McKeon]

The book is creepy and sinister, but with flashes of humor, as the shocked investigators respond to Hill House's various attacks.

 

[Matt McKeon]

Yesterday I read "A Haunting on the Hill" by Elizabeth Hand, a sequel of sorts, authorized by the Jackson estate. Hill House stands with its patient arrogance as a group of actors each with a tortured past, met to rehearse a play about witchcraft.

The book is set in 2022, in a world emerging from the pandemic, skyrocketing real estate values, social media, and sexual fluidity. The house, a little worn in the sixty years since the first book, still stands, radiating evil. That's the best part of the book, a return to Jackson's setting.

I guess its not exactly Elizabeth Hand's fault she's not as good a writer as Jackson. Her characters are uninteresting and often cliches, she is strong on cliched horror tropes, that Jackson avoided. A dark and stormy night, monster rabbits, jump scares, wise women witches. Essentially Jackson's house prompted the characters to destroy themselves. The seduction of being made part of the house is a lie. Hand is more crude and heavy handed.

Its OK, I've read much, much worse, and I enjoyed a return to Hill House. But read Jackson's book first, to avoid spoilers. Its better anyway.

 

[Matt McKeon]

If Jackson's "Haunting of Hill House" is unique, then Hand's book is largely warmed over "The Shining"

 

[5fish]

If Jackson's "Haunting of Hill House" is unique, then Hand's book is largely warmed over "The Shining"

I watched the Netflix version of the story and I AI it too... The AI speak...

The Haunting of Hill House is based on Shirley Jackson's 1959 novel of the same name. The 2018 Netflix miniseries is a modern retelling of the classic gothic horror story.

Jackson was inspired to write the novel by a number of things, including:

Psychic researchers
Jackson was intrigued by what could be learned about the people who studied paranormal events in a haunted house.

The Winchester Mystery House
The mysterious estate built by Sarah Winchester, a firearms heiress, may have inspired Jackson.

A Harlem fire
Jackson was inspired to write the novel after visiting the scene of a 1957 Harlem apartment fire where three people died.

Nadar Fodor
Jackson was inspired by the writings of supernatural expert Nador Fodor, who believed that haunted houses were filled with the emotional trauma of their past residents.

The Jennings Music Building
The Jennings Music Building at Bennington College in Vermont, where Jackson's hu

 

[Matt McKeon]

I watched the Netflix version of the story and I AI it too... The AI speak...

The Haunting of Hill House is based on Shirley Jackson's 1959 novel of the same name. The 2018 Netflix miniseries is a modern retelling of the classic gothic horror story.

Jackson was inspired to write the novel by a number of things, including:

Psychic researchers
Jackson was intrigued by what could be learned about the people who studied paranormal events in a haunted house.

The Winchester Mystery House
The mysterious estate built by Sarah Winchester, a firearms heiress, may have inspired Jackson.

A Harlem fire
Jackson was inspired to write the novel after visiting the scene of a 1957 Harlem apartment fire where three people died.

Nadar Fodor
Jackson was inspired by the writings of supernatural expert Nador Fodor, who believed that haunted houses were filled with the emotional trauma of their past residents.

The Jennings Music Building
The Jennings Music Building at Bennington College in Vermont, where Jackson's hu

The Netflix series has its own virtures, but except for a haunted house and some of the names, it bears no resemblance to the novel.