Reviews with content warning for Child death - The Haunting of Hill House

Reviews tagging 'Child death'

The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson

23 reviews

the_wistful_word_witch's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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

2.5

After everything I'd heard about this book, I expected it to be much scarier. Instead, it's just sad and left me disliking most of the characters.

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euhfubeuh's review against another edition

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dark funny mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

The Haunting of Hill House is a classic of the modern gothic horror genre. In my opinion, it seems to take loose inspiration from the best parts of Dracula and turn them into a chilling, yet entertaining, short story that provides a new experience with every reread.

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abicaro17's review against another edition

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challenging dark funny mysterious tense slow-paced

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

3.75

As four characters come together to investigate the psychological effects of a haunted house, Eleanor narrates the effect on both her and the others. As the lively aspects of the house become increasingly creepier, Eleanor and the house mates begin to devolve. The set up of this book is incredibly interesting and I actually really enjoyed the slow burn. I think my issues stem from two parts. Part 1: no one in the house ever really addresses any haunted occurrences unless it's during or immediately after. Part 2: The last third of the book was incredibly confusing. I think if I was actually reading it and not listening to the audiobook, it might be different. Overall it was an interesting book and i'm intrigued to see how the show modernized it.

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madelinequinnee's review against another edition

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emotional mysterious medium-paced

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

3.5

I picked this up because i’m a huge fan of the Mike Flanagan TV adaptation, but i knew this wasn’t really going to be much like the show. I did enjoy noticing little things that were included in the show, such as the cup of stars, the Grattan poem and the quotes that were used throughout.

I did find this slightly boring but i think that’s more because i’m not a huge fan of classics. The writing, however, was beautiful.

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mattyvreads's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

I’m obsessed with this book. Shirley Jackson’s writing is impeccable. I love that the book feels so modern, despite being written in the late 50s. It is an impressive and utterly horrifying piece of literature.

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charleyyyyy's review against another edition

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5.0

🩶I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I was always entertained while reading, and always excited to pick it up again.
🩶I LOVE personified houses!! I love it when the house itself is a charicter in the story, and Hill House had such a personality! I love the descriptions on how the house was built, with everything being slightly out of proportion, and the spiral like structure, it gave the house such a unique and vivid feel. The way the house sucks in the charicters, to the point where there is no sense of the outside world anymore, and a feeling of not being able to escape, realy added to the spooky atmosphere.
🩶And what a spooky atmosphere it was! There is a constant sense of immanent doom, from the very begining, you know that something bad is coming, and I love that in books.
🩶However, it was never scary. Plenty spooky, but not frightening. I wanted it to give more in that regard, especially with where the story went at the end. I feel like it could have gotten so much scarier and delved so much deeper into the creepy elements of the story, but it just didn't. I found that a little unsatisfying.
🩶The charicters were great. Each of them had such a strong, distinct voice and personality. It was interesting to see how their relationships to each other changed during their stay at Hill House because of the creepy things going on.
🩶Eleanore's charicter development was great but, again, with where the story went towards the end, I feel like it could have been taken so much farther than it was.
🩶The plot built slowly, with tension being added with every page, you could always feel that it was creeping towards the climax. It was very charicter based, with the main focus being on the charicters feelings and mentality towards the situation. There is alot more time spent with the charicters having converstsions about the creepy things going on, than actual creepy things happening. I enjoyed that though, as I prefer charicter based story's.
🩶I have never seen any TV adaptations of this book, so I have nothing to compare the book to. From what I've heard they're quite different so I'm glad I've read the book first.
🩶I would recommend this book if you want a ghost story that's not too scary, and don't mind a slow, charicter based plot.
🩶I gave this book 5 stars just bc of how much I enjoyed reading it.

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