The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson
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buy The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson at AmazonAuthor: Shirley Jackson
Release date: June, 1984
Media: Paperback
ISBN: 0140071083
mesmerizing . . . terrifying . . . beautiful
Ghost and horror stories today take the "blunt instrument" approach of trying to scare us with threats of physical violence, or trying to shock and disgust us with blood and guts. They're the "fast food" of the genre, mass-produced, lacking distinction, and bad for us. Anyone can write about chainsaw-wielding demons and other such things. But Shirley Jackson has written a masterpiece. This book gets you where you really live, in more ways than one. It shows that true terror lies in a threat not to the body, but to the sanity, will, mind, and soul. The characters in this book are fully human, the language poetic, the plot a work of art. Half of the chills come from the mounting tension of waiting for something to happen, and when it finally does, we, like Eleanor and the others, live through the terror, and then we (again, like Eleanor) have the further distress of not knowing quite what to make of it. The house catches not just her but us off-guard and then it keeps us there. I only regret that although Hollywood has made two movies out of this book, both of them miss the mark completely. Maybe the third time will be the charm. Be warned: Once you read this book, you'll find that nothing else in the genre, except for _The Turn of the Screw_, can possibly measure up to it. - an Amazon customer review
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