The House with the Golden Door
10.0
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Book
Amara has escaped her life as a slave in Pompeii's most notorious brothel. She now has a house, fine...
Historical fiction Roman Empire Pompei Feminism
Claire (89 KP) rated The Haunting of Hill House in TV
Oct 20, 2018
I was pleasantly surprised, however, & binge watched the series in 2 days.
It’s got some good scares, a great story and a fab cast. Worth a watch!
In Search of the Paranormal: The Hammer House Murder, Ghosts of the Clink, and Other Disturbing Investigations
Book
From exploring the Tower of London to investigating a haunted Colorado firehouse and a woman...
The Hound of Death
Book
A collection of macabre mysteries, including the superlative story The Witness for the...
Winchester (2018)
6.4
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The most haunted house in the world sits on an isolated stretch of land that's 50 miles outside of...
Swamp Thing, Vol. 4: A Murder of Crows
7.3
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Book
This fourth volume in the saga of the Swamp Thing finds the man-monster interacting with Deadman,...
North Woods
10.0
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FOUR CENTURIES. A SINGLE HOUSE DEEP IN THE WOODS OF NEW ENGLAND. A young Puritan couple on the...
Historical fiction
Jamie (131 KP) rated The Haunting of Hill House in Books
Jul 30, 2017
This book is absolutely brilliant in its ambiguity. I loved that things aren’t very direct, leaving the reader to decide how to interpret the story for themselves. A reader’s imagination is a writer’s best tool.
One of the first things that struck me was the unusual dialogue between characters, particularly Eleanor. At times it felt like characters were talking at the other person rather than with them. This behavior is a sign of a person that is unable to relate or empathize with other people.
It becomes clear not long after this that there’s something not quite right about Eleanor. She’s lonely and depressed, she lies constantly about her life and desperately seeks approval. She reassures herself constantly that she belongs at Hill House with the other people there and struggles with her attempts to make connections with the other guests. As the story goes on Eleanor perceives everyone else as being both loving and cruel. She sneers at Theo for trying to steal attention away from her out of some conceived notion of jealousy. Eleanor can only view relationships as being built on dependency, she is a textbook definition of an unreliable narrator.
I won’t go into too much more of my thoughts because I don’t want to spoil the plot. It’s definitely not an average ghost story and those looking for more visceral horror will probably be disappointed. The plot is thick with metaphor and the slow-burn while it worked for me may be too slow for others. Regardless, I loved this book and completely understand why it is held in such high regard and the more I think about it, the more my love for it grows. There were points where my gut was in knots with anxiety and anticipation and I just have to admire Jackson’s master craft with her prose.