The Haunting of Hill House

By: Shirley Jackson

Narrated by: Bernadette Dunne

Length: 7 hrs and 27 mins

Publisher's summary

Now a hit Netflix miniseries directed by Mike Flanagan and starring Michiel Huisman, Carla Gugino, and Timothy Hutton

Past the rusted gates and untrimmed hedges, Hill House broods and waits.

Four seekers have come to the ugly, abandoned old mansion: Dr. Montague, an occult scholar looking for solid evidence of the psychic phenomenon called haunting; Theodora, his lovely and lighthearted assistant; Eleanor, a lonely, homeless girl well acquainted with poltergeists; and Luke, the adventurous future heir of Hill House. At first, their stay seems destined to be merely a spooky encounter with inexplicable noises and self-closing doors, but Hill House is gathering its powers and will soon choose one of them to make its own.

This classic horror novel has been hailed as a perfect work of unnerving terror.

©1959 Shirley Jackson; renewed 1987 by Laurence Hyman, Barry Hyman, Sarah Webster, and Joanne Schnurer (P)2010 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Disappointed.

I have seen the movie, and could have skipped the book, as it followed the book word for word. For some reason the narrator's voice was irritating.

The book that started the intrigue a Haunted House

If you understand that it was written in 1959 and that it is a classic Haunted House story, then you might thoroughly enjoy it. I thought that it was only o.k. One of the lead characters, Eleanor, was just too weird and awkward for me.

It was not a scary book for me except for a couple of the scenes. I will just call the story "ok" and would like to see the movies because I think it is possible that they did a much better job adapting the story. There are two movies available: the original 1963 version and the re-make from 1999.

Could have been so much better

The premise is really good. My son chose it from a reading list and we both thought that it would be fun jd spooky and while there are spooky parts, the way it's written is a bit confusing so you're left questioning what actually happened. I'm not going to spoil the ensign but I will say that it was a letdown.

A classic

An amazing book, great performance. My first favorite horror movie as a kid and my new favorite book as an adult.

A classic for a reason

I’d never read this before, but given the prose and ominous slow crawl towards insanity(?), I can see how it’s the classic I’ve heard so much about.

I can see it’s influence but it was slow for me

I enjoyed the voice actor, the story itself was not what I was expecting. It was a bit slow and not as frightening as I was lead to believe. Not poorly written though

Wow

Just wow. I did not see that coming.. I have no more words. Just wow

Thoroughly Enjoyed

Excellent narration and a story which surprised me, I was expecting to be unimpressed because of the stories age but I found it was unburdened by the cliches of modern horror.

I know it's a classic, but.......

Older books sometimes suffer from the information available at the time. This one does rather badly. The characters are so strange in this book. They go from being terrified of something quite unspecific to being jovially numb. It's quite unclear whether they are haunted or psychological unwell. In ways that don't make sense to any psychology I've studied. It neither ran true to the characters or the nature of hauntings. I found it very hard to finish and unsatisfying when I did.
Even when we have a book written in a time when we don't have a good idea clinically what is wrong with someone, I do expect good writing to supply a reasonable description. This rings sadly false.

Worthwhile and Compelling

I'm glad I finally got around to reading THOHH. The book is well-written (although the author's reliance on adverbs in dialogue attribution) and for the most part engaging, although it began to drag heavily toward the end.
Also, the novel is a half-century old, but somehow feels much older. Jackson's writing style does not feel particularly dated, but the dialogue and situations do.
The novel feels overlong and ultimately underwhelming, but Jackson's skillful writing and Bernadette Dunne's narration make it a worthwhile experience.