Reviews

The Haunting of Hill House, by Shirley Jackson

Only show reviews with written explanations

bethboo's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

Loved this book. I've been obsessed with the show since it's release and have probably watched it 4 times at this point. I knew that it didn't match up with the book, but I was still excited to see what it was based off. I thought this was a great psychological haunting and I really loved the imagery. The dialogue was fakey, like no one in real life would say anything like that, but Shirley Jackson gets a free pass because it was super entertaining and the dialogue made the characters 100% more interesting.

Spoiler

Points that are different from the show: 1. They're not a family in the book, just a group of people invited to a house by a horror writer. 2. The main character in the book was split into 2 different characters in the show, the Mom (I can never remember her name, maybe, Victoria?) and Eleanor. 3. I don't really understand why they made Eleanor and Luke from the book twins in the show. They weren't especially close and Theo was always fighting Nell for his attention. 4. I guess the older brother (Steve?) in the show was based off Dr. Montague, since he's like a writer and all, but the Dr. was pretty believing in the book and the brother refused to. 5. Theodora was definitely hinted at being queer in the book, so I'm glad that they made the choice to show it on screen in the show. Though, she kind of lost her eccentric character from the book, which I'm sad for. She very much liked to be the center of attention. 6. Shirley (the eldest sister in the show) was a complete fabricated character. Maybe she's based of Ms. Montague, because she's so uptight and unbelieving, but it's a stretch. 7. The house didn't have ghosts and it really only spoke in one voice, imitating Nellie's mother, in the book. But it did have the writing on the wall, the banging, the difficulty leaving, the opening of doors into the wrong rooms.8. The spiral staircase from the book was attached to a tower and the library. No body hung themselves in the book, but Eleanor drove her car into a tree.