Don't be turned off by the terrible movie that was made a few years ago. This is a genuinely scary little tale. It's a ghost story without gore or overt violence that left me unable to sleep. ( )

Excellent book, although not quite as creepy and scary as I wanted it to be. ( )

My first book by Ms. Jackson and I really liked her style - elegant prose without wasted words, yet very evocative. A scientist and a group of hand-picked assistants comes to stay in Hill House, to investigate the phenomena in 'haunted houses.' We experience Hill House through the point of view of one of the assistants, Eleanor Vance. She is a vulnerable lonely woman whose mind is slowly being sucked into the evil at Hill House.

I thought the perspective from Eleanor's troubled and haunted mind was quite well-done. You can feel her losing her grip as the story contiues and the narration becomes more unfocused and fragmented. My biggest disappointment however is that this brief novel just does not turn out to be as chillling as one would hope. I kept expecting the level of horror to escalate - not necessarily in a gruesome manner - but just get more scary. In particular, the backstory on the house was lackluster -- the "why" behind the haunting was undeveloped, leaving one a bit unsatisfied despite quite good writing and a solid ending. In my very humble opinion, this could have been even more successful as a longer book.

Overall, a great little Halloween read, and a talented author - whose other works I will for sure seek out. I just wanted more from this story, I guess. ( )

Eleanor Vance has no life. After the death of her mother, whom she physically cared for the last few years, she moves in with her sister, brother-in-law, and niece. She owns nothing, has no job, and desperately wants to belong somewhere. When a letter from a Dr. John Montague arrives in the mail inviting her to spend the summer at Hill House, she readily accepts thinking this is her chance at a new life. Her sister balks at the idea and tries to stop her by telling her that she cannot borrow the car. Eleanor decides to defy her sister and herself. She takes the car and goes to Hill House not understanding or prepared for what she is about to face.

Dr. Montague is studying the paranormal and plans to write a book documenting the events at Hill House which is widely reported to be haunted. The individuals he invites to spend the summer at the house have all experienced some sort of paranormal activity and he hopes to tap into their collective abilities. With the arrival of Theodora and Luke Sanderson, the experiment begins and quickly takes a strange and frightening turn. Over the next few days, Eleanor gets pulled in deeper and begins to lose her grip on reality. When the others try to help, the experiment takes a tragic turn.

As the reader, you hear Eleanor's thoughts and they are sad, scary, and deluded. She is always imaging the happy life she thinks she should be living but she’s so incredibly unstable that you feel uncomfortable knowing her thoughts. It's these same thoughts that keep you hooked though. There's something so very wrong about the house but also Eleanor that the two become almost one in the book. When the paranormal activity picks up, you do wonder if it's all in Eleanor’s head.

When reality takes over, you feel bad for Eleanor because what happens to her is almost inevitable. There is no way out and no escape from her depressing life. She exercises the only option she can see and while she does, for one brief moment, question her choice, it's already too late for her.

I didn't find The Haunting of Hill House scary for the paranormal activity but Eleanor's thoughts and life which give the book a tragic and creepy feel. The backdrop of the haunted house only adds to the effect and brings to life the raving thoughts of a person so depressed and scared of life that she has to imagine a new one every second of the day.

A must-read for fans of horror, The Haunting of Hill House is one of Shiley Jackson's greatest novels and one of the scariest stories I've read in a long time. Set in a house built with evil intents, the story follows four individuals who are investigating the claim that this is a haunted house. They've bitten off far more than they can chew, however, as the house begins to awaken each night and torment them. Best read with your back to a door during a dark evening, with the lights off and the wind lashing at your windows. ( )

Rereading this classic haunted house story does not disappoint. I found it just as chilling and engrossing as the first time around. Who can forget the subtle but unmistakably horrific images: the writing on the walls, the doors bulging inward, clasping hands with some unknown thing in the dark? And the ambiguity of it all – was Hill House truly haunted, or was it only the product of a fragile mind thinking that, at long last, it had finally found a home? Do yourself a favor. Visit Hill House again – or for the first time – sometime soon. ( )

I will leave it to others to provide detailed reviews of this extraordinary book, but I did want to point out that it has one of the great opening sentences in the history of American literature - right up there with Poe's "The Fall of the House of Usher". ( )

An absolutely classic haunted house story that is also an interesting psychological study.

Four disparate people are gathered together to study Hill House. They are Dr. Montague, a researcher; Theodora, a telepath - the pretty girl; Luke - the heir to Hill House; & Eleanora - a sheltered person who has spent most of her life caring for her dying mother. They will live in the house, sleep in the house, take meals in the house, & write about everything they experience there. The house is, of course, the fifth main character. Added into the mix are the house's single-minded caretakers, the Dudleys, Dr. Montague's wife & her sidekick, Arthur, & planchette - the spirit voice Mrs. Montague & Arthur commune with at length.

Much of the terror in the book is hidden, unexplained, minimally described. It is the movement out of the corner of your eye when no one should be near, the rapping on the walls, the slamming of doors, the sense someone might be waiting out there in the night. This is not an ornate, gothic horror - this is spare, minimalist. Events are suggested & implied allowing your imagination to fill in the blanks.

Jackson leaves most questions left unanswered & in its final scene you're left to wonder if anything happened at all. ( )

Wow that was good. Blythe mentioned this as being "SO SCARY" a few evenings ago so I had to read it. Reminded me of "The Yellow Wallpaper" in a fantastic way. ( )

I love this story by Shirley Jackson. It is almost as good as We Have Always Lived in the Castle. Almost. Still that opening paragraph is quite the hook.

"No live organism can continue for long to exist sanely under conditions of absolute reality; even larks and katydids are supposed, by some, to dream. Hill House, not sane, stood by itself against its hills, holding darkness within; it had stood so for eighty years and might stand for eighty more. Within, walls continued upright, bricks met neatly, floors were firm, and doors were sensibly shut; silence lay steadily against the wood and stone of Hill House, and whatever walked there, walked alone."
The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson

Older readers can appreciate the excellent writing style of Ms. Jackson. ( )

This very nerve-racking book was the basis of the 1963 movie, plus the 1999 remake, The Haunting. It’s the kind of book you’ll read on a windy night when the house is creaking, and you’re ready for a “good scare.” By the time you finish the book, you may regret ever picking it up. It’s that scary, but in a subtle way that can rattle you more than you expected. I’m not a huge fan of these type of scary stories but it is well written and will give you quite a scare. ( )

No gore here, but all the same this book is terrifying. ( )

O livro fala sobre a Casa da Colina,um lugar "doente", Todos que lá moraram,não permaneceram por muito tempo. O Doutor Montague decide fazer uma experiência na Casa da Colina para saber se há eventos sobrenaturais acontecendo por lá. Luke,o herdeiro da Casa da Colina,Theodora, e Eleanor também se hospedam na casa,para ajudar o Doutor em sua missão. É na mente de Eleanor(fútil,narcisista) que nós leitores entramos,e vemos o quanto a Casa da Colina afeta(contamina) sua vida. ( )

I've enjoyed some of her others stories much more. It wasn't nearly as haunting as I had expected.
I don't think I've ever read such a short book with so many semicolons in it; perhaps, the driving test I took when I was sixteen compares. I really like Jackson's writings, but this one just didn't sit well with me. ( )

One of those classic stories that everyone raves about, I found the story to be rather blah. The book was good, but the movies were better. Of course, soundtracks with just the right spooky music and the subtle shadows of film really brought the story to life for me, so I think the fact that I've seen both film adaptations might have ruined the written word just a little bit. I found myself comparing scenes from the book to scenes in the movie and found the book lacking that chill factor.

Overall, the writing was good, but I was expecting more. ( )

The Haunting by Shirley Jackson

I listened to this book narrated by David Warner as I read along on the page. The narration definitely added to my enjoyment of this novella, with Warner's voice keeping the tension high and a few notes of ominous music at the beginning of each chapter offering a few tingly feelings all their own.
The story is not 'horror' by modern standards but more an eerie character study of self confidence in mysterious circumstances. Throw a little insinuation into the mix and it's amazing where the human mind can take us.
Is the house haunted? Is it all a suggestive reaction by those who stay there?
Would you stay there overnight to find the answer?

Rating: Good stuff! ( )

This is reminiscent of [[Henry James]]' [Turn of the Screw], the biggest difference being that this is actually good.

I distinguish terror (personal threat) and horror (vicarious terror). This story actually evoked both, which is really rare in my experience. This story accomplishes it by keeping you ignorant of what may happen until it does, and even then you don't know what it is. Sometimes oblique reference is made to things happening but you never learn what they are, which just adds to the scariness.

I thought the main-est character was treated with an extraordinary degree of sympathy, especially for a horror story, and I don't mean just of the "get out before it's too late" variety. I think it is this sympathy that makes the book remarkable. It also makes the ending horrible far out of proportion to the actual event (it may be important in this connection to know that I consider the dénouement to occur in the penultimate, or possibly antepenultimate {don't remember for sure}, paragraph — the three sentences that begin with "Why".)

I see that many reviewers consider the horror in this book to be psychological (deriving from the principal protagonist's state of mind), at least in part; but to my mind, it's at least as much sociological (deriving from the protagonists' behavior toward one another), particularly in the way that social norms can inflict subtle cruelties upon people on the margin, and expose them to manipulation by others. ( )

Enjoyed the characters and the little shifts of attitude between them. The house was really not that scary or haunting; it's Ms Jackson's words that are haunting. She's a master of creating subtle, uneasy tension between people and slightly twisting common occurrences. And a house built with no true right angles? Built to deceive? That's a house of interest to me. I would make a reservation to stay at Hill House.

Don't watch the 1999 movie The Haunting. It nearly ruined my reading of this book. ( )

This book was good but not quite what I expected. I'm not sure if it's because I read it around the busy Christmas holiday and didn't give it the attention it deserved or if it is because I saw the movie and kept comparing the two. ( )

Another great horror story. I loved how Jackson portrayed the slow unraveling of Eleanor's mind, with those little bursts of clarity. It's no surprise that this is considered a classic. Another interesting thing about reading these classics, is that the style of writing is so different. Maybe that's just part of what makes it a classic. ( )

Excellent horror story

I know that there are a couple of film adaptations about this, but I haven't seen either one of them. This book starts with Dr. Montague (his degree is in Anthropology, but his main interests lie in proving the paranormal) renting a supposed haunted house for the summer. He looks for a couple of assistants who have had run-ins with the paranormal, and two women accept: Eleanor and Theodora. In addition, Luke, who is a relative of the family who owns the house, stays with the group.

The book chronicles their stay in the dark Hill House, a mansion about six miles away from the nearest town, Hillside. Hill House is nestled in the mountains and forest and is taken care of by a couple by the name of Dudley (or was it Didley? oops, sorry). The house has a confusing design and the doors have a pesky habit of closing after they've been propped open. By day, the house is a hair bit creepy but the house guests are able to keep their humor about it all. But at night, things are a little different.

This was another quick read. Again, I got it at the library yesterday morning and finished it before I went to bed last night. It's fun if you like scary stories, but if you're worried, I don't think you'll have any problem falling asleep with the lights off. ( )

Now I'm curious to see the film.

I didn't find it all that terror filled or horrific, it was the story of edge of sight stuff and fairly scary but nothing exceptional for the genre. If there had been less reviewers saying things like keeping your nightlight burning if you read it in bed etc I might have enjoyed it better.

Yes the disintegration of a person because of a malicious feeling in a house, or perhaps it was that person disintegrating by their own, is pretty horrific. I'm sure the house was involved but still it's kinda questionable as to whether or not it was the only source of the disintegration.

Not really one of my favourite reads but interesting in it's own right. ( )

This is a creepy book in that it does NOT give you answers. Who or what is haunting Hill House? Is it imagination? The power of suggestion? If the locals advise you to stay away from a place after dark, they might know what they are talking about!

My review is here: http://moosplace.blogspot.com/2008/10... ( )