Reader’s Note
Not my genre. Eight anyway.
by@grimdarkgarethWritten 20 July 2026Read 18 July 2026
I don't do quiet horror. I want a body. This one hasn't really got one and it still had me putting the lamp back on.
It's all in Eleanor's head, or it isn't, and Jackson never lets you settle on which. The banging in the corridor is fine. The bit that got me is the hand. She's holding somebody's hand in the dark and then the light goes on and there's nobody there. I read that at half eleven and put the book down for a while, which I never do!
What I actually rate here is how cruel the setup is. Four people, one of them desperate to belong, and the house works out what she needs faster than any of the others do. They aren't monsters. They're just a bit careless with her, and being a bit careless is what finishes her off.
Eight. Docked because Luke and the doctor are furniture, and because the ending everybody quotes is a shade neater than the eighty pages in front of it. Still. First ghost story that's got me in years and I'd have told you I was immune.
About this book
The Haunting of Hill HouseShirley JacksonIn the Margins
The Haunting of Hill House reviewed by @verity_lane
The first paragraph is the best in the genre and I won't quote past the second line of it. Read with the landing light on, aged 41, no shame whatsoever.9 out of 10@verity_lane
The Haunting of Hill House reviewed by @margaretreads
That opening paragraph! Nothing else in it reaches that pitch again, and I say so as somebody who lent it out constantly. Eleanor is superb; the house is a bit of a set. I'd take Jackson's short stories over it, honestly.7 out of 10@margaretreads
The Haunting of Hill House reviewed by @bleakhouse_bex
"No live organism can continue for long to exist sanely under conditions of absolute reality." That is the FIRST paragraph. She's already won. I have read it aloud to three people who did not ask me to.10 out of 10@bleakhouse_bex
The Reading Room
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