Reviews tagging 'Alcohol'

The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson

57 reviews

grave_liminal's review

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dark funny mysterious slow-paced
  • 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


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haileyhardcover's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced
  • 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

Ever since the Netflix series was released in 2018, The Haunting of Hill House has been an annual re-watch for me. Hill House is warm and comfortable. Hill House is home. I knew that the series was only inspired by the book and the stories would be very different, but I still felt like I needed to read the book that started it all. I’ve put it off for years, though, because I’ve never been a fan of the classics. I’ve always found them terribly dull, terribly disinteresting… I will die on the hill that many “classics” truly are not good, there just wasn’t anything better at the time. I’m happy to report, though, that the Hill House portrayed on page is as familiar as that on screen. I knew this house, and, somehow, I even knew these characters. The origins of Hill House are as familiar as ever.

A surprise for me was the not at all subtle sapphic undertones. BOLD for 1959. Had Hill House been written today, I can only imagine how much more I might’ve enjoyed it lol 

On a more personal note - My birthday is the 21st of June. That date being mentioned twice - the only date specifically mentioned in the whole book - made me feel, in a small way, like Hill House calls to me too. 

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hookerkitty's review against another edition

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tense slow-paced
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No

2.0

Well this was incredibly disappointing. I think I fell asleep just about every time I tried reading this, regardless of how tired I felt beforehand.

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. 

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tottles's review

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challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced
  • 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


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amelody's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious reflective sad fast-paced
  • 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


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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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wickedgrumpy's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character

2.5

If I based everything purely on vibes, this book would have rated higher but it kind of got to the point where I was having trouble picturing what was going on and so I got confused about what was actually happening..

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herelieshenry's review against another edition

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emotional mysterious reflective sad fast-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? Yes

5.0

The writing is stellar and the story is unnerving, very good at creating an atmosphere of dread. I saw myself in Nell and the ending feels abrupt but impactful—it’s very fascinating how nuanced and accurate
suicide
is portrayed in this book considering the cultural climate
around mental health
in the 1950s.

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.

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eerie_iri's review against another edition

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dark emotional funny mysterious reflective tense medium-paced
  • 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


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kingcrookback's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense 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? 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.
Even by the end, when Eleanor falls victim to Hill House and becomes subsumed by it, she will not belong. Whatever walks in Hill House walks alone.
I think I'm going to be thinking about this book for a long while.

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.

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