A review by zsabella
The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson

challenging dark mysterious sad 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? Yes

2.5

I fell somewhere in the middle on this horror classic. I knew going in it wouldn’t have a fast-paced plot about the strange happenings in Hill house, but it was so repetitive and took too long to reach the climax. 

Shirley Jackson is a great writer, but the character relationships in this really brought it down for me. Other than Theodora, the rest of the characters felt too distant for me to care. I get why Eleanor feels flat because she’s trying to find any way to be likable and interesting, but I didn’t personally enjoy reading SO much about this dynamic with the other characters. 

I don’t regret reading it, but I think I like Jackson’s dreamy, surreal type of dialogue and plotting better in her short stories because ~200 pages was stretching the limits of my attention. The off-balance, unsettling atmosphere was there, but I wanted more perspective from Hill House itself to get an equal blend of real spookiness and character study. 
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