Let's Bust a Recap : The Haunting of Hill House

This week's theme is *sPooKy sEasOn* and today we're talking about the definitive haunted house story. Shirley Jackson's 1959 Gothic horror classic The Haunting of Hill House is widely considered to be one of the best ghost stories ever written. Famous authors including Stephen King and Neil Gaiman have talked about how this book scared the pants off them and I'll be honest with you at the outset: I don't get it. At best, The Haunting of Hill House was mildly unsettling. 

But that's just one reader's opinion. 

Admittedly, I generally stay away from "horror" but I love a good Gothic classic, and for its place in that canon, I've had Shirley Jackson's famous haunted house story sitting on my shelf for a few years now. My husband expressed interest in reading it before watching the popular Netflix adaptation and so we eventually decided to read it aloud together. Maybe that took away from the creepiness of it? We still haven't watched the series which I understand is more inspired by the novel than an actual adaptation of the material. 

In The Haunting of Hill House, we're introduced to socially awkward Eleanor Vance who is on her way to Hill House to participate in a study being put on by one Dr. John Montague to investigate the claims of supernatural happenings at Hill House. The good doctor is hoping to find actual scientific evidence of the existence of the supernatural, and he has invited a list of people known to have had paranormal experiences to come and live with him there. Only Eleanor and one other young woman named Theodora have accepted this invitation, and they go to join Dr. Montague and the young heir to the estate, Luke Sanderson, to stay in Hill House for a few weeks. 

And weird stuff happens. But is it actually happening or is Eleanor imagining it? Or are the other inmates of the house tricking Eleanor? Maybe even drugging her? As Dr. Montague slowly unfolds to his guests the dark history of their abode, we the readers begin to wonder if Eleanor will meet a grisly fate similar to the predecessors of Hill House. And why won't the Dudleys—the husband and wife caretaker and housekeeper duo—stay anywhere near the house at night?

As Cody and I read through this short novel, it was interesting to speculate about what was going on in the spooky mansion. Many of the strange occurrences are described by Jackson only vaguely which I guess adds to the creep factor? My favorite part of the book was when Dr. Montague's ridiculous wife shows up with her companion, Arthur Parker, the headmaster of a boys' school, to take charge of the investigation and they basically do a bunch of séances to commune with the spirits at Hill House. They were a riot. I also enjoyed any time Mrs. Dudley graced the page. Unlike the sinister housekeeper Mrs. Danvers in Rebecca who sent shivers up and down my spine, I found Hill House's Mrs. Dudley and her insistent repetitions of her boundaries more comical than unnerving. 

All in all, it was fine. For me personally, the true value in The Haunting of Hill House lay in the many suppositions you could make about the vague happenings at Hill House. Conjecturing with Cody about the "reality" of what was happening to Eleanor or where we thought Jackson was going to take her novel was the best part of reading this book. Is it the greatest ghost story of all time? I can't say but I certainly didn't lose any sleep over it. 

What book scares the pants off you?