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grave_liminal's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Moderate: Suicide, Blood, Car accident, Death of parent, and Alcohol
haileyhardcover's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
Moderate: Death, Emotional abuse, Car accident, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, and Alcohol
Minor: Cancer, Suicide, Terminal illness, Blood, and Grief
hookerkitty's review against another edition
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
2.0
And don’t know if it’s my ADHD or what, but so many of the sentences were sooo long (one even had two semicolons!) that I had no idea what was happening by the time I got to the end of it. I had to keep re-reading sections bc I kept zoning out of boredom.
I also wish that Eleanor and Theodora had more dissimilar names, bc I could not keep track of who was who for way too long. Mrs. Dudley felt like an NPC who’d only been programmed with a few set lines and very rarely deviated from them.
I was left with WAY more questions than answers. Many say this is done on purpose to be creepier - there are times where that works, but it just feels like lazy (or unskilled) writing to me. I don’t care how many awards it’s received. I love a good psychological horror/thriller/mystery, and while there were a couple times I actually got really into it, it’s disappointing that they were such short sections of the book. No good payoff in the end. While this isn’t even that old, it further cements my previous belief that older books are not for me.
Graphic: Death, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Suicide, Blood, and Toxic friendship
Moderate: Bullying, Emotional abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Grief, Car accident, Death of parent, and Alcohol
Minor: Misogyny, Sexism, and Fire/Fire injury
tottles's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.75
Graphic: Suicide
Moderate: Suicidal thoughts and Alcohol
Minor: Car accident and Death of parent
amelody's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Graphic: Chronic illness, Death, Infidelity, Mental illness, Suicide, Car accident, Death of parent, Gaslighting, Alcohol, and Classism
abicaro17's review against another edition
- 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
Graphic: Child death, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Mental illness, Sexism, Suicide, Violence, Blood, Grief, Car accident, Suicide attempt, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail
wickedgrumpy's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
2.5
Minor: Bullying, Confinement, Death, Gore, Infertility, Mental illness, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Stalking, Car accident, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism
herelieshenry's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
It’s always interesting to see the literary DNA of a genre through its classics. In particular, I think it’s fascinating to look at the characters as early iterations of different horror archetypes in this book; for example, Mr. Dudley stuck out to me as a prototype of the “Crazy Ralph” character.
Graphic: Mental illness, Suicide, and Car accident
Moderate: Death, Emotional abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, Death of parent, and Alcohol
Minor: Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, Blood, Suicide attempt, Gaslighting, and Abandonment
Unrealityeerie_iri's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.75
Graphic: Death, Suicide, Blood, Death of parent, and Alcohol
Moderate: Car accident
Minor: Confinement
kingcrookback's review against another edition
- 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? Yes
Peace, Eleanor thought concretely; what I want in all this world is peace, a quiet spot to lie and think, a quiet spot up among the flowers where I can dream and tell myself sweet stories.
About 70% into this book, I suddenly had the thought, "It feels like this book is reading me"--which I realize is melodramatic, but it's the most precise way I can phrase the way Shirley Jackson constructs Eleanor's train of thought and the description of the happenings in Hill House. The descriptions are vague, which to me amplifies the atmosphere of dread and pressing anxiety because Jackson leaves quite a bit to one's imagination. The reader is complicit in the hauntings; it's a back-and-forth engagement between audience and text. (I actually had some very strange dreams while I was reading this book, tried to finish it as fast as I could partially because of this.) I kept thinking of this book in film terms, for some reason--"zoomed out," "just offscreen," "soft focus," etc. It might be because while it isn't told in excruciating detail, I still found Jackson's writing to be very evocative in the sense that it's impressionistic. We feel Eleanor's loneliness not merely in the sense that she longs to belong to something but largely through her habit of concocting narratives to try to fit herself into--and the failure of these narratives to come to fruition.
As far as the type of horror goes, I think it's apt to say YMMV. I don't think it'll do what people looking for a "haunted house" story might want it to do. If what you're looking for is something more creeping, psychological, and character-focused, I think this might satisfy.
Graphic: Mental illness and Suicide
Moderate: Death, Blood, Car accident, and Death of parent
Minor: Alcohol