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Summary: If You Loved The Lottery, You'll Love This Book
Review: Shirley Jackson is one of my fave writers, period. Never mind the genre, she knew how to write and how to write a true "horror" tale. This book is a delight; forget the recent film version, check out the 1963 Robert Wise version starring Julie Harris - that film is very faithful to the book. For extra fun, read late at night when you are ALONE...
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Summary: A real old-fashioned ghost story.
Review: This is one of the few books I have read more than once. The detail makes this a truly believable story. As with the original movie, style is the key to intrique and suspense. No need of chainsaw massacres, the author approaches this storytelling with the understanding that the reader is intelligent and imaginative. The characters are well developed and hold true to their personalities throughout. The dialogue is understated, as it should be. The twist at the end leaves the reader startled but satisfied. This is truly a can't-put-it-down kind of book.
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Summary: Disturbing psychological horror
Review: If you want blood and guts, stick with Stephen King. But for the more subtle and sophisticated reader, Shirley Jackson's book will provide the ticket for the "can't-put-this book-down" syndrome. I admit I had no idea what kind of story this would be. And yes, the beginning crept along at a snail's pace and who cares about Eleanor anyway? But, as the story developed, so did Eleanor's character. There's a definite interconnection between Eleanor's emotional state and the way Hill House seems to torment and then seduce Eleanor. The spirit of the house seems to be after Eleanor and we see Eleanor's initial terror of the house turn to a weird sense of belonging and neediness. Even stranger, even as you see Eleanor seduced by Hill House, the reader also falls under a strange spell as initially, the book starts off slow and alittle boring, and then you get caught up in it's weirdness, and when it ends suddenly and climactically, you wind up brooding about it for many days afterward.
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Summary: Not quite what I expected
Review: I found the modern version of the movie much more exciting than the book. This book is an excellent Psychological thriller. If you are looking to get scared fast and stay up all night, I'm afaid this book is not going to do the job. I myself need to have fast action in what I read and this book just seemed to drag on and on. If you can get "deep" into characters and try to get into their minds and what is going on with them, then this book is for you.
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Summary: Haunting, and it still keeps me up at night.
Review: Shirley Jackson's "The Haunting of Hill House" has been said, by some, to be disappointing and not scary. These ludicrous definitions are clearly given by those who read the book while the sun still shone, or by those who read it in a room filled with sounds that resemble a birthday party. "Disappointing," "not scary?" These definitions, which lack depth for the opinions of a Shirley Jackson novel, in all simple probability were given by those who couldn't handle the subtle structure of terror that stealthily creeps upon them, so they either threw the book down early, not giving it a chance in hell, or skimmed through it, calling it such things as boring, like idiots. Shirley Jackson is a master of structure and navigates her horrors with subtle attention and depth. The Haunting of Hill House is slight and terrifying. Those who say otherwise need time with the book in a dark room, alone, and at night.
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Summary: Very disappointing
Review: I read the book before I saw the movie and I must say that even before I saw the movie I thought this book sucked. It's not scary and even when it did start to get a little bit "creepy", it wasn't enough to make anybody really care. I do believe that the movie is great, but over all this book is not as great as everybody makes it out to be. Don't buy this book, borrow it from the library.
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Summary: Not as scary as I'd hoped, but interesting
Review: This one won't keep you up at night, but it might keep you thinking for a few days. There is a creepy spookiness, an uneasy strangeness that pervades the story, but nothing dramatically terrifying or shocking. In fact, even when the paranormal events start to become more and more overt, there is still a lazy disinterested nature to the narrative.This is one of those books that makes for a good rainy day read, but it isn't the dramatic, gripping horror story the title suggests.
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Summary: Masterpiece of subtle creepiness
Review: An absolute masterpiece of restrained horror. The author's ability to raise goosebumps through the implication of the supernatural via this tale of paranormal investigators/researchers investigating an "alleged" haunted house is unsurpassed. Highly recommended to fans of literate, restrained storytelling that relies more on hints of the supernatural than graphic depictions of gore and mayhem. The quintessential "Haunted House" novel.
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Summary: Read the book -- no need to bother with the movie
Review: Shirley Jackson's "The Haunting of Hill House" is one of the classic suspense novels of the twentieth century. Jackson's ability to make the domestic seem alien, dangerous, and insane gives this work in particular its chilling quality. Jackson is one of the few authors of this century who can stand up to the demanding standards set by E.A. Poe, H. P. Lovecraft et al. Don't bother with the 1998 movie unless you enjoy being smothered by special effects. The 1963 version comes much closer to capturing Jackson's subtle and psychologically intricate tale; it's scarier in the first ten minutes than the new film ever manages during its entire length. But Jackson's austere prose style and the ease with which she slips terror into the commonplace make her book the most rewarding experience of all.
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Summary: Subtly Disturbing
Review: This classic book revolves around a confused and emotionally vulnerable young woman named Eleanor Vance and her time spent in a Hill House, a mansion possessed with its own terrifying and unrelenting spirit. With no solid place in the world to call her own, Eleanor came to Hill House seeking adventure and a change in her stale, uneventful life. Although the others present experience the events of the haunting, it is Eleanor who receives its full wrath. At the same time, she is strangely attracted to the house and unable to leave, staying on until an irreversible tragedy occurs. This book is a classic haunting story which does not need to rely on gore or clearly visible demons. It is a psychological thriller which readers will find memorable and satisfying. I would call the story disturbing rather than frightening. Nonetheless, it is an excellent piece of classic horror genre.
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