Just read this book. I really like it. It is not a scary book but the character of Eleanor is amazing! I find it so sad that she thinks that it was her fault that her mother died and that her mind is slowly getting corrupted by the House.
I just closed the book and needed to hear someone talk about it - I still have the chills. Poor Nell.. having seen the show first I didn’t expect her to make it out, but I grew so attached to her character. She just wanted somewhere to belong so badly
The opening paragraph of this book is one of my favorite literary openings. I remember looking up from the page and thinking that it sounded as if the house itself was a character instead of a setting. I was intrigued and I zoomed through the rest. That paragraph hooks me every time I read it. Thanks for the review.
Another author I teach in my Intro to Literature course! Shirley Jackson was a master storyteller who understood tension and fear better than almost any other writer. She also relentlessly and mercilessly exposed humanity’s cruelty and tribalism. Great job discussing the themes and characters - another fantastic review, Mike!
@@megansreadingrevelations Excellent question! Many people know “The Lottery” from high school, but few have read much else by her. Jackson wrote around six novels and probably hundreds of short stories. A few of her celebrated and haunting short stories, besides “The Lottery,” are “Charles,” “The Missing Girl,” “One Ordinary Day, With Peanuts,” and “The Possibility of Evil.”
@@PhilipChaseTheBestofFantasy thank you! I actually read “Charles” with my 8th graders when we study irony and perspective. I personally prefer creepy and disturbing stories haha, so I was looking for some more to read on my own.
@@megansreadingrevelations Got it! I haven’t read much beyond those (I’m a medievalist), but I’m confident you’d find some creepy stuff among all her stories.
Shirley Jackson's writing is so good. The repetition between the first and last paragraphs was such a cool idea. She wrote such a good gradual slide into insanity. I was never really scared but i was sitting there on the edge of my seat just waiting for something to happen.
Hill House is one of my all-time favorite horror novels and solidified my love of Jackson. She's honestly one of the greats and I respect her so much as a writer.
Yes definitely! Since you really enjoyed the horror of social interactions and human emotions, I definitely recommend The Lottery and Other Stories, it's a great short story collection.
This book is genuinely scary sometimes but mostly it's deeply sad. Eleanor kind of has the worst life, and her fate really makes me cry. When I watched the Netflix series I cried because they gave that Nell her own cup of stars and I just lost it. I will admit lots of stuff makes me cry but still.
I finished reading yesterday and I have to say that Shirley Jackson is a master in creating atmosphere. When someone asks me why I had goosebumps all over after reading a certain passage, I wouldn't be able to explain, because if I only tell what happened it would feel mundane. It was not possible to explain, because it's not what happens that it's scary, it's how it felt that is scary. How the character felt, how you feel. This is the second book I read of this author (the first being "We always lived in the Castle) and she does have a unique style.
Just finished reading and really enjoyed it. I didn’t find it scary at all, but found it to be more of a character piece. I absolutely love Shirley Jackson’s writing style and look forward to reading more of her work.
Who wrote on the wall with blood? Where could the blood possibly come from? Chalk is mentioned before the discovery of Nell's name on the wall. Who wrote it? There is a hidden layer of horror when you question some of the events. I love this book!!
Just finished this book and I loved it. Nell’s vulnerability really made me feel uncomfortable for her. That house consumed her mind and it was really disturbing. Loved the characters; each one had such and individual and distinct voice 🎉
So good! Thanks for making a video on this! I just read this and haven’t seen much about it. I took away more than expected by the time I finished it! Already recommended to others.
This book drags me in and unsettles me more then House of Leaves. Shirley Jackson hits a lot of the comforting discomfort vibes for me. She knows how to ease you in in lol you into a sense of the mundane but you slowly feel that etching horror and it lingers with you and makes you think. When she does come to the horrifying parts, it really shocks and dazes. I was stuck by the growing suspicions that I felt with Eleanor and with the others. Eleanor is someone I relate with very much and I think that’s the scary thing about her situation just wanting belonging so much that you get lost.
I read this in my 20s and connected deeply with Eleanor. I appreciated the book, its characters, and Ms. Jackson's exceptional writing but kept wondering when the big scares were coming! I think it deserves a reread to look between the lines. The 1963 film is wonderful and I apparently need to see the Netflix series from what I hear. Mike you should also read "We Have Always Lived in the Castle" by Jackson. I can't recommend it enough.
Thank you for this review! I have been assigned The Haunting of Hill House as a class reading, and I'm not usually a horror reader, so I looked up a review to see what I was getting in for. This has made me genuinely excited for the book, and I know that going into it with the knowledge that this is an experience to treasure will make the whole experience better.
Great book, very well done. It is a different type of haunted house/ghost story. I’ve also read the Lottery, which is super short. It’s only 5ish pages. But there is so much to it. I’ve started a Shirley Jackson collection, short stories and novels. The more I read her the more I like her. Great video, cheers!
Chris Ghidoni Oh, gosh. The Lottery! I’d forgotten about that but the moment I read your comment, it came flooding back from decades ago when I read it in high school. 😱
Personally, I am fascinated by books from earlier time periods. They are windows into an earlier time. We should be so grateful to still be afforded these glimpses into the past. With all the blemishes of society intact.
This is one of my favorite books of all time. The immersion and the atmosphere of it is really amazing, and like you said, you want those characters to be okay and to go through this unscaved.
i just finished this book. i went in with a specific expectation: ghosts n poltergeists n all that halloween stuff you associate with haunted houses, and the fact that the hauntings were so deemphasized disappointed those expectations. BUT. what the book provided i think was infinitely more valuable than those expectations. it didn’t have me paying attention to the small noises in my house, lose sleep, anything like that - it had me reflecting on times in my life when *i* was Eleanor, afraid of loneliness, lying to myself that people were not avoiding me or talking behind me back, slipping slowly into periods of delusion without ever once noticing along the way. i loved it, needless to say
I haven't read it, but it is now on my TBR list. Loved the netflix series, so it would be nice to get the source. Only other Shirley Jackson story I'm familiar with is The Lottery, which was required reading in college. I enjoyed it.
All of Jackson's novels and short stories tend to center around women's agency - which, at the time, was sorely limited. She explores everything from horror, to dissociative disorder. While Jackson is often limited by reviewers as a writer of 'horror lit.', she goes beyond that into some really dark places of the human mind, consciousness and identity, as well as social constricts. And her prose is unmatched.
I am reading it for the first time ever, now, and I am loving it. I have seen the Netflix adaptation, and I am wondering how they compare, because 50 pages in, it seems completely different. Can’t wait to experience the whole story!
I’m so glad you posted this. My review is going up tomorrow and I’ve been looking at tons of other reviews online to see what other people thought. I agree with a lot of what you said, especially the house being a character in the story 👻
I have a question. I listened to an audiobook not long ago. I cannot for the life of me remember the name of the book, and all I can remember is this scene where a character is outside investigating something and a beautiful "entity" entices them to partake in some kind of never ending orgy, but all the people are dead and "ghosts". I believe it takes place in a garden. Any help trying to figure this out would be appreciated.
Ok, so I just read this and immediately came here. I’ll make my opinion as succinct as possible. I had literally JUST got done reading my first Dostoyevsky book and the sudden change in tempo made the first half of this book *really* hard to read. I picked it up for the first time on Monday night (it’s currently Friday night) and until earlier today I was on page 137. I was thinking of giving up on it altogether, UNTIL around page 150, when all the character development and building of anticipation paid off and this thing got ridiculously good. When I got to the end, I had “Right In Two” by Tool playing very quietly beside me and my roommates were asleep. I kid you not, I think I heard someone scream. Not sure if it was a sound effect in the song I’d never noticed before or if it was outside my house somewhere or god forbid after reading this book, if it was *my* house that made me hear the noise but I heard it nonetheless. Almost lost control of my bladder. On Mike’s Fear Factor Rating though, I give most of the book a 6... maybe after I’m done letting the story settle in my head I might change it to a nine though. There was one part in particular that sent a chill from the top of my head to my toes and the chill refused to leave. I had to set the book down for a second. Tl;dr, this was a good read and there were some parts, especially at the climax, that really did have me holding my breath. Edit\\\\ I meant to say and it is worth mentioning that those 137 pages I read Monday through today were slow to go for me. Like I said I came off a very different book before I started this one. After about page 150, I really couldn’t put it down. Before I knew it I’d burned through the remaining 170 pages in just a few hours. This was a true page turner.
Just finished it this evening. I knew Nell was in trouble from the start. Luke was boring until the end and Theo was charming but I never trusted her. Luke and Theo sounded like they had just stepped out of "Catcher in the Rye."
i was not so afraid of this book. i was so related with nel's character i too was feeling like house belongs to me. this book describes different kind of haunting where you will never have a ghost in house. but feels the house itself is a one big welcoming thing, which consumes one who enters. i felt so satisfying when Nel run through whole house in climax. it feels like i too was memorized with house and feeling that i must try that. off-course except dancing with huge crane's statue. dr. M should have sent her home when he saw writing on the wall. any way dudley clears at 2, i must go.
Nice review. I to think it is a terrific book. I prefer horror that builds up mystery, suspense, terror, fear . Shirley Jackson does that well. This is one of the reasons I like King so well. While there are scenes of gore in his books, he mostly gets inside your head a starts screwing around. Poe, Lovecraft, and Matheson do that well also. Joe Hill might be like that, I am a third of the way into NOS4A2 and so far it is mystery, suspense , terror, etc.
i kept going from page to page feeling like i was waiting for something to happen and nothing actually scary happened. i guess nell's mental deterioration due to the house/spirits is scary but other than that idk
If you liked Hill House, you must check out We Have Always Lived In the Castle by the same author. It's somehow even better. This isn't horror though. But gothic as heck. The protagonist's voice is quite unique
I read this year's ago between books in The Dark Tower. I must say it left no impression on me but after your 9 rating I guess I need to try again. A 9!!! I wonder if I read the same book lol
I didn’t find it very scary at all. I found parts of it confusing but I really really liked reading the relationships between the characters. The character relationships stuck out to me more after reading that anything scary. There were maybe 2-3 spooky parts and it was all just door rattling and stuff. I liked the book but for reasons that aren’t horror.
I bailed barely 20 pages in, sadly. Reading this felt too much like work... When you've been reading a lot of King like I have this year, along with some other great books, you quickly realise 'Wait!... but this isn't actually a fun read!' I thought some of the prose was interesting and also the concept of The doctor working on his paper, criteria for the assistant, etc. However, the prose was ridiculously long and flowery where for 5-6 lines there isn't a period or em dash :( Seeing how King literally lifted 'Rain of Stones' and the character 'Carrie' was interesting... along with other book influences
i almost bailed like you but pushed through and was glad i did. whem everyone gets settled in the hiuse after Nels long drive She really lightens up the prose and i get now. The prose is basically how Nell thinks. And some stuff i understood and some things i didnt and when you finally finish the book you will see why Nell thinks the way she does. Trust me go back and read it!
Didn't find this book scary at all, was seriously so disappointed, only time I liked the screen adaptation better. Almost didn't finish it, was so bad I'm sorry Shirley
Right? I keep seeing this book on lists of the scariest books of all time and it was no where near what I expected. The banter was cute but it was not scary
just read. found reactions of characters often times unable to understand. ie laughing at times of what would seem to be intense terror. i get nervous laughter, but that wasn't how it was portrayed. dialogue and character relationships confused me, and i felt exact opposite of review. For sure feel lonely and out of place 99% of the time so related to Eleanor, but other characters - to me - didn't have substance, or much i could relate to. Or just found Theo, Luke, and the Dr not interesting? yeah the spooky stuff was spooky, but the characters seemed to be like... "no big deal" when horrifying things were happening
I'm not proud. But I just read it and it didn't scare me. I'm not sure if it was the hype or what. I'm going to reread of course but I enjoyed "turn of the screw"more. From what I gathered the house is targeting Eleanor for something. A theory is that the old ghost wans Nellie to take its place. I was also expecting a more evil history of the place.
I just finished this and was pretty disappointed with it. I don't mind some ambiguity in my books, but this was way too much for me. I wanted some answers that I didn't get
Hmm, I must have missed something. I read "The Lottery" for a class once and thought it was a superb piece of fiction, but just finished "Hill House" and have to say that it was one of the worst reading experiences I've had in a while. I'm sincerely puzzled by its towering accolades, since the reasons that most reviewers give for loving it are the exact reasons why I disliked it. I remember actively rooting for Mrs. Dudley to poison these characters, or for the house to cause them to fall down a flight of stairs and break their goddamn necks so I wouldn't have to endure another page of their self-important drivel while they sipped wine and nibbled on hors d'oeuvres. Oh well, maybe I just have bad taste. At least I got closer to my 2021 reading goal. There's always a silver lining.
You didn’t miss anything. I totally agree with your summary. This is one of the most overrated books I have ever read. Not scary at all and lacking in plot and excitement. It's basically a couple of hundred pages of tedious waffle where very little happens. There are a couple of moments of suspense, but they aren't really developed or expanded upon. The characters are ok, and the setting and backstory are decent enough but it's so much work to plod through this book and there's very little to get excited about. The ending however was good but this novel had the potential to be so much more. I'm glad I read it as now I can put a counter-argument to anyone who tells me how good it is. I like to think that we're not all sheep, and it's ok to not like something, (even if it's an established 'classic') as long as you can make a convincing argument, which I think you have done Mr red vitamin blue. Stand your ground! You don't have to enjoy this rambling, boring and not-scary-at-all novel. I certainly didn't. However, I did enjoy 'The Lottery'. It was a very well-crafted short story.
I just finished reading "The Haunting of Hill House" last night, and while I respect the book's place in history, I didn't enjoy the book. The scares were fine, but the prose and dialog drove me up the wall sometimes. Pages and pages of Victorian Era, affluent, pointless conversations just got old very quickly. It also gets old being in the mind of a crazy person (or on the verge of going crazy). A lot of the time it's just gibberish, and almost like a pulp writer trying to meet a quota. It's also difficult to tell what's going on at the end, and I found myself disliking the characters by the end. Also, I hate pointless endings, and that's how this story came across to me. Again, I respect the story for what it did for the genre, and I "get it", but I just didn't really care for it.
I think you're meant to dislike them by the end because we see the whole story through Eleanor's viewpoint despite it being 3rd person, as she grows more insane she starts to distrust them and dislike them, I think towards the syat rhe doctor suggests the house is trying to separate them.
@@katieking8145 I get that part, but I'm talking more about the actual ending of the book. Everyone just became a jerk and idiot, and I overall just really disliked the characters and the book.
I agree. While I enjoyed the ending, and the setting, the rest of the novel was a hugely overrated pile of tedious waffle that went on, and on, and on with almost nothing interesting happening. It is probably the least-scary ghost story that I have ever read...
Not a scary book, and Stephen King is always nice to people and says their book, or x,y,z author is one of the scariest ever. It's overused especially for this book.
Weirdly, I didn't find this one scary at all, and I'm a complete wuss. Probably I'm just spooked by different things. I did really appreciate how this book creeped up on me, in the sense that it doesn't slam you with the "twist" all at once. Overall, not my favorite, but I could really appreciate what it was doing.
That was the most boring book I've ever read! Horror story?? More like a book for relaxation cause all I did was doze off the entire book. And I'm not kidding! I could only read a chapter at a time or I would wake up a hour later slumped over in my chair with the book in the floor and spilt coffee on my nice blanket. This book never even one time had my lift an eyebrow.
It's expertly written, that's for sure. I liked it. My problems with it were the MC, who is supposed to be a grown woman but acts so much like a child. Kind of put me off. Mainly though, I don't buy the explanation for the house. (Richard Matheson's Hell House is guilty of the exact same trick.) You can't explain one paranormal with another. It's like proving the Loch Ness Monster exists by citing Bigfoot as your evidence. The atmosphere is really nice, even so.
I mean that is the point, there's emphasis from the jump that Eleanor is stunted because all she's known for years is being shuffled into taking care of others never having her own agency, she cannot imagine a world of her having agency even after stealing the car since no one has shown her she has agency to be a human being, she quite literally never got to grow up in her mind because no one gave her the breathing room to do so, I think this is a disconnect from not liking people like that rather than the character being poorly written, because the story does everything to tell you how fragile Eleanor is from a lifetime of confinement and having everything dictated for her she has no mature experiences of her own because she was denied them by circumstance, so she's always been in mental stasis which made her vulnerable
Fear Rating =1 on your scale. A big disappointment for me unfortunately, stuffed full of verbose waffle, almost nothing interesting happens, ending was good, as was the setting and the characters and backstory were decent, but it would have worked far better as a novella. There is so much boring spongy filler material between the covers, you could use it to mop your kitchen floor.
if u wrote random words/thoughts on a paper, then squeezed it into a ball and hit me in the forehead, i would understand more about the paper than i did about this book!!! not once was i afraid, total waste of time for me!
Just read this book. I really like it. It is not a scary book but the character of Eleanor is amazing! I find it so sad that she thinks that it was her fault that her mother died and that her mind is slowly getting corrupted by the House.
I just closed the book and needed to hear someone talk about it - I still have the chills. Poor Nell.. having seen the show first I didn’t expect her to make it out, but I grew so attached to her character. She just wanted somewhere to belong so badly
The opening paragraph of this book is one of my favorite literary openings. I remember looking up from the page and thinking that it sounded as if the house itself was a character instead of a setting. I was intrigued and I zoomed through the rest. That paragraph hooks me every time I read it. Thanks for the review.
Yes, the house is very much a character.
Another author I teach in my Intro to Literature course! Shirley Jackson was a master storyteller who understood tension and fear better than almost any other writer. She also relentlessly and mercilessly exposed humanity’s cruelty and tribalism. Great job discussing the themes and characters - another fantastic review, Mike!
She has written so many short stories and I don’t know where to start! Other than The Lottery, what do you recommend?
@@megansreadingrevelations Excellent question! Many people know “The Lottery” from high school, but few have read much else by her. Jackson wrote around six novels and probably hundreds of short stories. A few of her celebrated and haunting short stories, besides “The Lottery,” are “Charles,” “The Missing Girl,” “One Ordinary Day, With Peanuts,” and “The Possibility of Evil.”
@@PhilipChaseTheBestofFantasy thank you! I actually read “Charles” with my 8th graders when we study irony and perspective. I personally prefer creepy and disturbing stories haha, so I was looking for some more to read on my own.
@@megansreadingrevelations Got it! I haven’t read much beyond those (I’m a medievalist), but I’m confident you’d find some creepy stuff among all her stories.
You keep confirming my desire to audit one of your lessons.
When Elenor and Theo go walking into the night, it was actually unsettling. Love love love this book so much.
Shirley Jackson's writing is so good. The repetition between the first and last paragraphs was such a cool idea. She wrote such a good gradual slide into insanity. I was never really scared but i was sitting there on the edge of my seat just waiting for something to happen.
Hill House is one of my all-time favorite horror novels and solidified my love of Jackson. She's honestly one of the greats and I respect her so much as a writer.
A much as I love this one, I should really read more of her books.
Yes definitely! Since you really enjoyed the horror of social interactions and human emotions, I definitely recommend The Lottery and Other Stories, it's a great short story collection.
This book is genuinely scary sometimes but mostly it's deeply sad. Eleanor kind of has the worst life, and her fate really makes me cry. When I watched the Netflix series I cried because they gave that Nell her own cup of stars and I just lost it. I will admit lots of stuff makes me cry but still.
I finished reading yesterday and I have to say that Shirley Jackson is a master in creating atmosphere. When someone asks me why I had goosebumps all over after reading a certain passage, I wouldn't be able to explain, because if I only tell what happened it would feel mundane. It was not possible to explain, because it's not what happens that it's scary, it's how it felt that is scary. How the character felt, how you feel. This is the second book I read of this author (the first being "We always lived in the Castle) and she does have a unique style.
Just finished reading and really enjoyed it. I didn’t find it scary at all, but found it to be more of a character piece. I absolutely love Shirley Jackson’s writing style and look forward to reading more of her work.
Who wrote on the wall with blood? Where could the blood possibly come from?
Chalk is mentioned before the discovery of Nell's name on the wall. Who wrote it?
There is a hidden layer of horror when you question some of the events. I love this book!!
Even with the random family having a picnic that Nelly and Theodore run into.. also the clothes became clean at the end ??
Just finished this book and I loved it. Nell’s vulnerability really made me feel uncomfortable for her. That house consumed her mind and it was really disturbing. Loved the characters; each one had such and individual and distinct voice 🎉
So good! Thanks for making a video on this! I just read this and haven’t seen much about it. I took away more than expected by the time I finished it! Already recommended to others.
Glad it resonated with you!
Ms. Jackson's prose is magnificent
100%.
I'm halfway through this book right now, and I don't think I've ever read a book that is so atmospheric as this one.
This book drags me in and unsettles me more then House of Leaves. Shirley Jackson hits a lot of the comforting discomfort vibes for me. She knows how to ease you in in lol you into a sense of the mundane but you slowly feel that etching horror and it lingers with you and makes you think. When she does come to the horrifying parts, it really shocks and dazes. I was stuck by the growing suspicions that I felt with Eleanor and with the others. Eleanor is someone I relate with very much and I think that’s the scary thing about her situation just wanting belonging so much that you get lost.
I read this in my 20s and connected deeply with Eleanor. I appreciated the book, its characters, and Ms. Jackson's exceptional writing but kept wondering when the big scares were coming! I think it deserves a reread to look between the lines. The 1963 film is wonderful and I apparently need to see the Netflix series from what I hear. Mike you should also read "We Have Always Lived in the Castle" by Jackson. I can't recommend it enough.
Thank you for this review! I have been assigned The Haunting of Hill House as a class reading, and I'm not usually a horror reader, so I looked up a review to see what I was getting in for. This has made me genuinely excited for the book, and I know that going into it with the knowledge that this is an experience to treasure will make the whole experience better.
Mike you're a master of book reviews man, please keep them coming!
Gracias!
I just finished the book today and have watched several reviews. This is by FAR the best one!
Ah, thank you. I appreciate that.
Great book, very well done. It is a different type of haunted house/ghost story. I’ve also read the Lottery, which is super short. It’s only 5ish pages. But there is so much to it. I’ve started a Shirley Jackson collection, short stories and novels. The more I read her the more I like her.
Great video, cheers!
Chris Ghidoni Oh, gosh. The Lottery! I’d forgotten about that but the moment I read your comment, it came flooding back from decades ago when I read it in high school. 😱
She's just amazing. I need to read more of her stuff.
Personally, I am fascinated by books from earlier time periods. They are windows into an earlier time. We should be so grateful to still be afforded these glimpses into the past. With all the blemishes of society intact.
I've been meaning to read The Haunting of Hill House for a while now, thanks for the added push!
Any time!
This is one of my favorite books of all time. The immersion and the atmosphere of it is really amazing, and like you said, you want those characters to be okay and to go through this unscaved.
i just finished this book. i went in with a specific expectation: ghosts n poltergeists n all that halloween stuff you associate with haunted houses, and the fact that the hauntings were so deemphasized disappointed those expectations. BUT. what the book provided i think was infinitely more valuable than those expectations. it didn’t have me paying attention to the small noises in my house, lose sleep, anything like that - it had me reflecting on times in my life when *i* was Eleanor, afraid of loneliness, lying to myself that people were not avoiding me or talking behind me back, slipping slowly into periods of delusion without ever once noticing along the way. i loved it, needless to say
The Netflix season was a masterpiece. This book is definitely on my TBR list.
Yeah, Mike expanded on the book greatly, but he kept the heart of what made it special.
@@mikesbookreviews more like started from scratch but keeping some references and themes.
I haven't read it, but it is now on my TBR list. Loved the netflix series, so it would be nice to get the source. Only other Shirley Jackson story I'm familiar with is The Lottery, which was required reading in college. I enjoyed it.
I really need to read some of her other books since I love this one so much.
The original film in 1963, scared me to death at 12 years old. Seen all movies and series👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼
Reading it now for the first time. So far, so good.
Great to hear!
Another one on my TBR. Thanks for sharing the great review!
All of Jackson's novels and short stories tend to center around women's agency - which, at the time, was sorely limited. She explores everything from horror, to dissociative disorder. While Jackson is often limited by reviewers as a writer of 'horror lit.', she goes beyond that into some really dark places of the human mind, consciousness and identity, as well as social constricts. And her prose is unmatched.
I'm not so much into horror but you really made me want to pickup this one!!!!! Thanks for the review Mike :)
I lived in one when I was a kid. It was a converted funeral home that was made into two apartments. We lived on the top and things were not normal.
One of my all time favourites! I also love We Have Always Lived in the Castle, another one full of unique characters
I'd really like to read that one.
Oh definitely getting this book. Great video man.
Hope you enjoy it!
Nice video!
I love this book :)
It's so good!
I have to read this book for next semester and not I'm looking forward to it!!
I listened to the audiobook in one day. I was home alone with my 2 young boys and I slept with all the lights on 😂
I am reading it for the first time ever, now, and I am loving it. I have seen the Netflix adaptation, and I am wondering how they compare, because 50 pages in, it seems completely different. Can’t wait to experience the whole story!
I’m so glad you posted this. My review is going up tomorrow and I’ve been looking at tons of other reviews online to see what other people thought. I agree with a lot of what you said, especially the house being a character in the story 👻
Beat you by a day? Ha ha, glad you liked it. I'll try and watch sometime today.
I have a first edition of this book!
Wow! That's a treasure.
THAT BOOK SEEMS AWESOME
Cracking review! I find that people are overly harsh on this book, but I personally loved it!
This one is quite high on my tbr!
I have a question.
I listened to an audiobook not long ago. I cannot for the life of me remember the name of the book, and all I can remember is this scene where a character is outside investigating something and a beautiful "entity" entices them to partake in some kind of never ending orgy, but all the people are dead and "ghosts". I believe it takes place in a garden.
Any help trying to figure this out would be appreciated.
A fantastic book.
It really is!
This is definitely on my list to read! 🙂
Ok, so I just read this and immediately came here. I’ll make my opinion as succinct as possible. I had literally JUST got done reading my first Dostoyevsky book and the sudden change in tempo made the first half of this book *really* hard to read. I picked it up for the first time on Monday night (it’s currently Friday night) and until earlier today I was on page 137. I was thinking of giving up on it altogether, UNTIL around page 150, when all the character development and building of anticipation paid off and this thing got ridiculously good. When I got to the end, I had “Right In Two” by Tool playing very quietly beside me and my roommates were asleep. I kid you not, I think I heard someone scream. Not sure if it was a sound effect in the song I’d never noticed before or if it was outside my house somewhere or god forbid after reading this book, if it was *my* house that made me hear the noise but I heard it nonetheless. Almost lost control of my bladder.
On Mike’s Fear Factor Rating though, I give most of the book a 6... maybe after I’m done letting the story settle in my head I might change it to a nine though. There was one part in particular that sent a chill from the top of my head to my toes and the chill refused to leave. I had to set the book down for a second.
Tl;dr, this was a good read and there were some parts, especially at the climax, that really did have me holding my breath. Edit\\\\ I meant to say and it is worth mentioning that those 137 pages I read Monday through today were slow to go for me. Like I said I came off a very different book before I started this one. After about page 150, I really couldn’t put it down. Before I knew it I’d burned through the remaining 170 pages in just a few hours. This was a true page turner.
Just finished it this evening. I knew Nell was in trouble from the start. Luke was boring until the end and Theo was charming but I never trusted her. Luke and Theo sounded like they had just stepped out of "Catcher in the Rye."
i was not so afraid of this book.
i was so related with nel's character i too was feeling like house belongs to me.
this book describes different kind of haunting where you will never have a ghost in house. but feels the house itself is a one big welcoming thing, which consumes one who enters.
i felt so satisfying when Nel run through whole house in climax. it feels like i too was memorized with house and feeling that i must try that. off-course except dancing with huge crane's statue.
dr. M should have sent her home when he saw writing on the wall.
any way dudley clears at 2, i must go.
Nice review. I to think it is a terrific book. I prefer horror that builds up mystery, suspense, terror, fear . Shirley Jackson does that well. This is one of the reasons I like King so well. While there are scenes of gore in his books, he mostly gets inside your head a starts screwing around. Poe, Lovecraft, and Matheson do that well also. Joe Hill might be like that, I am a third of the way into NOS4A2 and so far it is mystery, suspense , terror, etc.
For sure, one can't read this and not see the influence on a young King.
Would you say it’s a good book for people who are just getting into reading (or an easy read)?
NO! I would strongly advise you not to bother. It's probably the most disappointing horror novel I have ever read...
I was supposed to read this this month 🙈
It’s short. You can still fit it in!
It really won't take you long.
i kept going from page to page feeling like i was waiting for something to happen and nothing actually scary happened. i guess nell's mental deterioration due to the house/spirits is scary but other than that idk
Nice video, have you read the woman in black by susan hill and watched the woman in black movie starring Daniel Redcliffe?
If you liked Hill House, you must check out We Have Always Lived In the Castle by the same author. It's somehow even better. This isn't horror though. But gothic as heck. The protagonist's voice is quite unique
i really want to read this
I read this year's ago between books in The Dark Tower. I must say it left no impression on me but after your 9 rating I guess I need to try again. A 9!!! I wonder if I read the same book lol
I didn’t find it very scary at all. I found parts of it confusing but I really really liked reading the relationships between the characters. The character relationships stuck out to me more after reading that anything scary. There were maybe 2-3 spooky parts and it was all just door rattling and stuff. I liked the book but for reasons that aren’t horror.
I saw The Haunting and loved it. That movie is supposed to be the closest to the novel as you can get. As always, Great review Mike!!!
I didn’t care about Luke to be honest 👀 he was…fine.
I’m about 80% through this book & so far, I’m giving it a 4 according to your rating scale.
I bailed barely 20 pages in, sadly. Reading this felt too much like work... When you've been reading a lot of King like I have this year, along with some other great books, you quickly realise 'Wait!... but this isn't actually a fun read!' I thought some of the prose was interesting and also the concept of The doctor working on his paper, criteria for the assistant, etc. However, the prose was ridiculously long and flowery where for 5-6 lines there isn't a period or em dash :(
Seeing how King literally lifted 'Rain of Stones' and the character 'Carrie' was interesting... along with other book influences
i almost bailed like you but pushed through and was glad i did. whem everyone gets settled in the hiuse after Nels long drive She really lightens up the prose and i get now. The prose is basically how Nell thinks. And some stuff i understood and some things i didnt and when you finally finish the book you will see why Nell thinks the way she does. Trust me go back and read it!
Didn't find this book scary at all, was seriously so disappointed, only time I liked the screen adaptation better. Almost didn't finish it, was so bad I'm sorry Shirley
Right? I keep seeing this book on lists of the scariest books of all time and it was no where near what I expected. The banter was cute but it was not scary
Ngl the ghost coulda killed the Dudley’s and mrs. montague and I’d have slept just as well at night 😇
just read. found reactions of characters often times unable to understand. ie laughing at times of what would seem to be intense terror. i get nervous laughter, but that wasn't how it was portrayed. dialogue and character relationships confused me, and i felt exact opposite of review. For sure feel lonely and out of place 99% of the time so related to Eleanor, but other characters - to me - didn't have substance, or much i could relate to. Or just found Theo, Luke, and the Dr not interesting? yeah the spooky stuff was spooky, but the characters seemed to be like... "no big deal" when horrifying things were happening
I'm not proud. But I just read it and it didn't scare me. I'm not sure if it was the hype or what. I'm going to reread of course but I enjoyed "turn of the screw"more.
From what I gathered the house is targeting Eleanor for something. A theory is that the old ghost wans Nellie to take its place. I was also expecting a more evil history of the place.
I just finished this and was pretty disappointed with it. I don't mind some ambiguity in my books, but this was way too much for me. I wanted some answers that I didn't get
Hmm, I must have missed something. I read "The Lottery" for a class once and thought it was a superb piece of fiction, but just finished "Hill House" and have to say that it was one of the worst reading experiences I've had in a while. I'm sincerely puzzled by its towering accolades, since the reasons that most reviewers give for loving it are the exact reasons why I disliked it. I remember actively rooting for Mrs. Dudley to poison these characters, or for the house to cause them to fall down a flight of stairs and break their goddamn necks so I wouldn't have to endure another page of their self-important drivel while they sipped wine and nibbled on hors d'oeuvres.
Oh well, maybe I just have bad taste. At least I got closer to my 2021 reading goal. There's always a silver lining.
You didn’t miss anything. I totally agree with your summary. This is one of the most overrated books I have ever read. Not scary at all and lacking in plot and excitement. It's basically a couple of hundred pages of tedious waffle where very little happens. There are a couple of moments of suspense, but they aren't really developed or expanded upon. The characters are ok, and the setting and backstory are decent enough but it's so much work to plod through this book and there's very little to get excited about. The ending however was good but this novel had the potential to be so much more. I'm glad I read it as now I can put a counter-argument to anyone who tells me how good it is. I like to think that we're not all sheep, and it's ok to not like something, (even if it's an established 'classic') as long as you can make a convincing argument, which I think you have done Mr red vitamin blue. Stand your ground! You don't have to enjoy this rambling, boring and not-scary-at-all novel. I certainly didn't.
However, I did enjoy 'The Lottery'. It was a very well-crafted short story.
I just finished reading "The Haunting of Hill House" last night, and while I respect the book's place in history, I didn't enjoy the book. The scares were fine, but the prose and dialog drove me up the wall sometimes. Pages and pages of Victorian Era, affluent, pointless conversations just got old very quickly. It also gets old being in the mind of a crazy person (or on the verge of going crazy). A lot of the time it's just gibberish, and almost like a pulp writer trying to meet a quota. It's also difficult to tell what's going on at the end, and I found myself disliking the characters by the end. Also, I hate pointless endings, and that's how this story came across to me. Again, I respect the story for what it did for the genre, and I "get it", but I just didn't really care for it.
I think you're meant to dislike them by the end because we see the whole story through Eleanor's viewpoint despite it being 3rd person, as she grows more insane she starts to distrust them and dislike them, I think towards the syat rhe doctor suggests the house is trying to separate them.
@@katieking8145 I get that part, but I'm talking more about the actual ending of the book. Everyone just became a jerk and idiot, and I overall just really disliked the characters and the book.
I agree. While I enjoyed the ending, and the setting, the rest of the novel was a hugely overrated pile of tedious waffle that went on, and on, and on with almost nothing interesting happening. It is probably the least-scary ghost story that I have ever read...
Not a scary book, and Stephen King is always nice to people and says their book, or x,y,z author is one of the scariest ever. It's overused especially for this book.
I read it for the first time this year. I did not like it, but I'll re-read it someday n.n
I liked it but I didn't get that scared
I hated Mrs Montague and Arthur. They were just obnoxious and distracting. Loved the rest of the book.
Weirdly, I didn't find this one scary at all, and I'm a complete wuss. Probably I'm just spooked by different things. I did really appreciate how this book creeped up on me, in the sense that it doesn't slam you with the "twist" all at once. Overall, not my favorite, but I could really appreciate what it was doing.
That was the most boring book I've ever read! Horror story?? More like a book for relaxation cause all I did was doze off the entire book. And I'm not kidding! I could only read a chapter at a time or I would wake up a hour later slumped over in my chair with the book in the floor and spilt coffee on my nice blanket. This book never even one time had my lift an eyebrow.
Wasn't a fan. It started out good for me but by the end I didn't like it.
Me either. Home Before Dark was a better haunted house story in my opinion. Hill House was underwhelming....
I tend to agree
It's expertly written, that's for sure. I liked it. My problems with it were the MC, who is supposed to be a grown woman but acts so much like a child. Kind of put me off. Mainly though, I don't buy the explanation for the house. (Richard Matheson's Hell House is guilty of the exact same trick.) You can't explain one paranormal with another. It's like proving the Loch Ness Monster exists by citing Bigfoot as your evidence. The atmosphere is really nice, even so.
I can see that. I think it's like what Poe dictated in that true fear brings us back to childlike state.
@@mikesbookreviews True. It is a good book, though. There's no denying it's a classic.
I mean that is the point, there's emphasis from the jump that Eleanor is stunted because all she's known for years is being shuffled into taking care of others never having her own agency, she cannot imagine a world of her having agency even after stealing the car since no one has shown her she has agency to be a human being, she quite literally never got to grow up in her mind because no one gave her the breathing room to do so, I think this is a disconnect from not liking people like that rather than the character being poorly written, because the story does everything to tell you how fragile Eleanor is from a lifetime of confinement and having everything dictated for her she has no mature experiences of her own because she was denied them by circumstance, so she's always been in mental stasis which made her vulnerable
Can I call you creepy eyes?
Sure. I love people who make fun of my face.
Fear Rating =1 on your scale.
A big disappointment for me unfortunately, stuffed full of verbose waffle, almost nothing interesting happens, ending was good, as was the setting and the characters and backstory were decent, but it would have worked far better as a novella. There is so much boring spongy filler material between the covers, you could use it to mop your kitchen floor.
if u wrote random words/thoughts on a paper, then squeezed it into a ball and hit me in the forehead, i would understand more about the paper than i did about this book!!! not once was i afraid, total waste of time for me!
Sent a message via FaceBook messenger.
This book is utter crap! So pissed off I wasted time reading it, it’s SO BORING and totally put me off reading any more of her work.
Sorry Shirley👻