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.

From one of America's most under-rated authors

Any additional comments?

Shirley Jackson is one of my favorites. I love the way she stretches the imagination. This story remains frightening in such a delicate way. It's a tale woven of fear, but that deep type of fear, a child's fear. The kind that almost hurts. Excellent performance, told with a light touch, so when the evil comes it's all the more disturbing. Very good.

Decent Read

Nice plot. Use of characters got confusing towards the end. Giant question mark at the end, but overall, a decent read.

A brilliant classic .

Deft narration, masterful story. Food for fear AND thought. I'm definitely glad I bought it, because I know I will listen to it again.

wow

loved it rereading last chapter. again I want to make sure that I didn't miss anything

Haunted

A small group of people go to Hill house knowing it's supposed to be haunted. It ends up turning the main character Nell crazy. I was really enjoying it.. then it seemed to abruptly end. I wanted more hauntings.

Doesn't Stick the Landing

The ending just wasn't quite... satisfying to me. The buildup of this story was incredible, although the pacing suffered at times especially when focused solely on Eleanor's internal monologue. Miss Dunne's posh accent for Mrs. Montague had me seething in a way I haven't seethed since I was introduced to Dolores Umbridge. I felt there was so much potential in this novel but it just didn't hit the high note at the end.

Strange

very weird book, not a very enticing story and the main character is really weird it was hard for me to keep listening. if it wasnt a classic and so short i wouldn't have finished. i reccomend the exorcist instead

I think I found a new favorite author.

The Haunting has always been my favorite horror movie. when I found out it was based on a book I knew I had to read it. The ending was a little disappointing but overall the book was very good!

Mediocre Movie-Style Plot

I should have managed my expectations better before listening to this story. I was anticipating a genre-defining horror that inspired movies and television series over the years. Unfortunately, the plot never really piqued. This story is one of the rare occasions where I would say the movie is better than the book.

The haunted house story that started at all

The narrator was wonderfully able to portray the different characters uniquely and believably, I always knew who was talking. She was also able to convey the frightening parts of the story in a way that really did creep me out. Stephen King and so many other horror writers owe so much to this book. I imagine that his book The Shining was an homage to this book, there is so much that is similar and yet different enough for King to make it his own. I also recommend Shirley Jackson's book 'We Have Always Lived in the Castle,, another story that is deeply creepy.