Reviews with content warning for Blood - Spuk in Hill House

Reviews tagging 'Blood'

Spuk in Hill House by Shirley Jackson

107 reviews

shaun_dh's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

The vibes are immaculate. The ending gave me chills. Women descending into madness is one of my favorite gothic tropes and Shirley Jackson is a master

Eleanor and Theodora are so lesbian-coded, but writers pre-21st century will do anything but make their characters openly gay (especially Theodora. She lives with a “friend?” Please, we all know what that means)

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kat42's review against another edition

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dark funny 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

4.5

I can see how this isn't for everyone, but I found it delightfully odd and unsettling. Definitely psychological horror as we watch Eleanor descend into madness, and I like the ambiguity of the ending.

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chaisquarelatte's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense fast-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

4.0

I really related to Nell, her worrying about fitting in and whether she had said the right thing. I do think she is an interesting character who has experienced a lot of stress prior to visiting the house. The thoughts she expresses on her journey suggested to me that her mental health was quite fragile to begin with, and while there is a clear paranormal possibility in the book- the psychological explanations are almost more interesting.

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kassandrik's review against another edition

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dark mysterious fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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sparrowhearted's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

Unmoored in life after the loss of her mother, Eleanor Vance follows the summon of psychologist Doctor John Montague to spend a summer in Hill House, a property mired in tragedy. Alongside Doctor Montague, the self-important, charming heir to the house Luke Sanderson, and the temperamental, lively artist Theodora, Eleanor embarks on a task to uncover the root of the supposed supernatural that haunts the halls of Hill House.

But Hill House is hostile to its very foundation, and soon Eleanor starts to find herself slipping as it feels like no one else quite experiences the things she does…

A disorienting, sad and occasionally chilling read. On technical merits alone I'm not sure this constitutes a five star read; but the lingering thougths and feelings left behind are enough for me to consider it one for myself. Would perhaps be careful recommending unless I know I'm talking to someone who shares very similar preferences in media, but I'm very glad I read it.

I should preface this review by making it very clear that I'm not the right audience for horror. I get easily scared and can't stomach that particularly well, and I only decided to read The Haunting of Hill House because I don't believe watching the Netflix series of the same name is going to do my mental health much good (as much as I'd love to; I've heard excellent things about it).
As such, I might also not really be receptive to the impact Jackson's work has had on the horror genre as a whole, though I'm aware of it on a theoretical level.

What struck me most about this book, however, was that I didn't find it particularly scary at all. There were chilling moments and there is one particular scene that I find really beautifully executed and terrifying, but for most of the part what Hill House is, that is a profoundly sad novel.

None of the protagonists are particularly likeable, we only know them for the brief amount of time we spend at Hill House with them, and even then only through Eleanor's lens, and Eleanor Vance, our only access to the events that unfold in Hill House, is nothing if not an unreliable narrator.
It's not hard to believe that even outside of her limited view neither Dr. Montague, Theodora nor Luke are pleasant people to deal with but burdened by her own fragile mental state the lines between what is real and what is Eleanor's perception of reality blur.

I didn't find it difficult to understand why Eleanor grew uncomfortably attached to Theodora so quickly, nor did I struggle to see why she felt about Luke and Dr. Montague the way she did even when I found her thought processes and actions worrisome or repulsive. Eleanor is sad, desperate and deeply lonely and never quite manages to fit in — it's always just a matter of time until she makes a fool of herself, as the book puts it, saying the wrong thing, not reacting the right way, letting her interpretations of what she's being told take her down paths that make it hard to parse whether she was right or unfair to do so.

Her sadness and desperation to belong are a central part of the book. Once she doesn't find this idealized sense of belonging she is chasing it's Hill House instead, 'not sane, […] holding darkness within' to quote the opening paragraph, that catches her instead, wearing her down until… well, something has to give.

Shirley Jackson's prose is lovely and whimsical and suits the not-quite-real setting of Hill House very well, but the pacing often drags and only really picks up in perhaps the last fifth of the book.
Not much happens throughout The Haunting of Hill House, either, and when there is tangible, lasting action it's often things happening to the characters rather than them exerting their agency.
A lot of these 'flaws' that made reading Hill House feel like a bit of a chore at times, even if I understand that they were purposefully placed there. That kind of makes me believe that the execution might not be quite as tight as it might have needed to be at times.

I understand why this book might feel empty or pretentious to some, but I personally found it a fascinating look into Eleanor's psyche and its deterioration and enjoyed it for that exact reason.
I also, and I understand that to someone who might be looking for a hair-raising read this will be a deterrent, really appreciated that it isn't a book that is going to make me lose sleep for a week after reading it.

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grave_liminal's review against another edition

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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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beccaand'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

4.0

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draven_deathcrush's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense medium-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

2.5

It was cool, but it wasn't super special to me. The characters really ended up annoying me by the end of the book, and I've never really been into haunted house stories.

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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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