Raising Demons

By: Shirley Jackson

Narrated by: Kirsten Potter

In the uproarious sequel to Life Among the Savages, the author of The Haunting of Hill House confronts the most vexing demons yet: her children

In the long out-of-print sequel to Life Among the Savages, Jackson’s four children have grown from savages into full-fledged demons. After bursting the seams of their first house, Jackson’s clan moves into a larger home. Of course, the chaos simply moves with them. A confrontation with the IRS, Little League, trumpet lessons, and enough clutter to bury her alive—Jackson spins them all into an indelible reminder that every bit as thrilling as a murderous family in a haunted house is a happy family in a new home.

Critic reviews

“Read today, [Shirley Jackson’s] pieces feel surprisingly modern—mainly because Jackson refuses to sentimentalize or idealize motherhood…. [Jackson’s] household stories take advantage of the same techniques she developed as a fiction writer: the gradual buildup of carefully chosen detail, the ironic understatement, the repetition of key phrases and the unerring instinct for just where to begin and end a story.”
-Ruth Franklin, New York Times Book Review

"Charming…you’ll see every parenting stance you’ve ever adopted, every parent-story trope you’ve ever told or heard, expressed more perfectly than you ever could have…Reading Shirley Jackson, one of the great memoirists of family life, makes sharp those feelings once more—while reminding us that, yes, thank god and curse time, we too will one day look back on them across a gulf of years.”
-Dan Kois, Slate

"When it comes to just sheer honest, wry, frustrated, finding-ways-to-appreciate-it writing about family life, we all sit at Shirley Jackson’s feet"
-New York Times Motherlode

“Hilarious, subversive, sharp without being legal, and loving without an ounce of sentiment, Shirley Jackson’s more-or-less autobiographical account of life as a mother of four and faculty wife (and brilliant writer) is an eternal, comic joy.”
-Amy Bloom

"A housewife-mother’s frustrations are transformed by a deft twist of the wrist into, not a grim account of disintegration and madness, still less the poisoning of her family, but light-hearted comedy."
–Joyce Carol Oates

"Very funny… Life Among the Savages and Raising Demons are each a good place to begin for those who have never read any Shirley Jackson.”
-The New Republic

"Jackson isn’t all eerie uncertainties and lonely housewives. Those who know her work only from “The Lottery” or Hill House may be surprised to discover that she could also be very funny...Jackson’s two lighthearted memoirs, are filled with droll observations and amusing mishaps."
–William Brennan, Slate

“Consistently delightful.”
-San Francisco Chronicle

“A very pleasant form of pandemonium and hugely entertaining.”
-Kirkus

First time

It happened that I was not sure to review the writer or the narrator first.
As Shirley Jackson said , “ I delight in what I fear!” I delight in this dilemma.

YES!! This sounds like Shirley is in my ears

I have loved Raising Demons and Life Among the Savages since I first picked up an omnibus copy in the mid-1970s at a library book sale as a teenager. Kirsten Potter GETS Shirley Jackson, and her life, and how much she loves her kids, and how ambivalent/ironic/sarcastic she is about many other things in her 1950's world. I've been anxiously waiting, since I learned this was coming, and downloaded this the INSTANT Audible let me at midnight. I have giggled my way thru the night, and will listen over and over. LOVE THIS SO MUCH!!!