The Haunting of Hill House

Rating:
Summary: Very very spooky
Review: Shirley Jackson was such a great and mysterious lady! This and "The Lottery" are her best stuff. The opening sentance is the best one in horror history right up there with the opening line from John Irving's "A Prayer For Owen Meany" which is like the total opposite of this book. I'm thirteen and read this book over the summer...outstanding! But I must say that the movie was no where near as good as the book. It was built up too much (the movie). I like Stephen King but I'm glad I took a break from him to read some of Shirley Jackson's stuff. She never lets you see exactly what's going on and that is very creepy.

Rating:
Summary: Brilliant prose
Review: Shirley Jackson's elegant, balanced prose does one heck of a job at creating the most spooky atmosphere I have ever encountered. A masterpiece of the English language. Jackson has created a terrifying malevolent presence in Hill House, a character whose gleeful evil still makes my skin crawl. At one point in the novel, the house starts making noise, and only some occupants of the house hear it. Insidious! Make the group turn on itself! Brilliant! I can do this book no justice. Please read it. Stephen King finds Eleanor's primary trait to be narcissism; while she is narcissistic, look for alienation and a profound yearning for acceptance. Eleanor doesn't necessarily know what she wants, but she doesn't have it. Jackson's account of Eleanor's journey to Hill House firmly establishes that character, and is, I think, even more effective than the oft-quoted and incredibly promising first paragraph of the book.

Rating:
Summary: I was disappointed
Review: Having read Jackson's The Lottery and Other Stories prior to reading this book, I was hoping for another fine example of Jackson's ability to make the ordinary horrifying. Instead, I found the prose to be obscure and somewhat precious, especially the characters' dialogue. I kept reading to see what happened (or didn't) but I'm afraid I put this book in my "give away" stack. Check out a much better expression of this kind of approach to domestic horror by reading Charlotte Perkins Gilman's The Yellow Wallpaper.

Rating:
Summary: Quite possibly the best horror novel by an American author
Review: Shirley Jackson has no peer in her genre. Hill house is a classic and it still scares me silly. Jackson's story is relentless slowly pulling the reader into the night, in the dark, where no one will hear you scream....in the night, in the dark, argghhhh! did it again! Brrrr! Anna, who will sleep with the light on tonight.

Rating:
Summary: TERRIFIC!
Review: Surely, the finest tale of horror and suspense this century. Also a painful examination into the alienation of a young woman. A book I'll read at least once each year as a reminder to what outstanding creative writing is about.

Rating:
Summary: A GREAT BOOK!!!
Review: This is A GREAT BOOK! It invokes both atmosphere and slight touches of humor to make a short, scary read

Rating:
Summary: Don't read this book last thing at night!
Review: Having wasted my money on Stephen King's latest efforts, I decided to reread THE HAUNTING OF HILL HOUSE to remind myself what real atmospheric, believable horror is like. I was not disappointed. It was even better than I remembered and still sends shivers down my spine. If your taste is for gore and mindless gross-out - don't buy this book - you will be disappointed. If, however, you appreciate subtle and intelligent horror-writing don't hesitate - I assure you you're in for a real treat

Rating:
Summary: Subtle, brilliantly-crafted, transcendental gothic novel
Review: Shirley Jackson's incredible 1959 novel is that rare creature: a "genre" piece that transcends genre to take its place among the greatest works of American literature. The hyperbole of its critical acclaim is earned; her subtle prose and precise, witty dialogue and imagery demonstrate a rare command of the English-language narrative. Her portrait of the central characters-- brooding, mysterious Hill House and of course Eleanor, the caged bird that finds freedom too much to bear-- is unforgettable for the reader. And, as Stephen King has pointed out, the novel leaves a tantalizing mystery for the reader to decide: Is the haunter Hill House? Or is telekinetic Eleanor bringing on the events happening in that fateful week? Jackson also earns points for the teasing, slightly erotically charged relationship between Eleanor and Theodora. A masterpiece of American literature (and not just horror fiction)

Rating:
Summary: This is the most frightening book I've ever read.
Review: I must have read this book fifty times. It is the best literary scare I know. Shirley Jackson was a genius. Somehow she was able to take simple things and, by magic, turn them into horror. The Haunting of Hill House is a great ghost story, but it even scarier as a comment on contemporary alienation, the search for love and belonging, the sadness of fitting in

Rating:
Summary: One of the best haunted-house tales; tops for Halloween
Review: This genuinely creepy novel in the classic ghost-story tradition earns its chills the old-fashioned way: subtly. Its horrors are suggested and largely unseen, yet the carefully crafted sentences cause mounting unease until the suprising and yet completely apt finale. Besides being one of the best haunted-house novels, it's also a memorable portrait of an emotionally stifled woman's mental breakdown, akin to Charlotte Perkins Gilman's "The Yellow Wallpaper." Jackson was one of our best prose stylists; read the opening paragraph of this one, and you'll see what I mean.