The Haunting of Hill House has been hailed as one of the greatest ghost stories of all time, after reading it I can clearly see why.
Published in 1959, The Haunting of Hill House follows Eleanor, a young woman, as she is invited to observe the hauntings that are said to plague Hill House, along with Luke (the heir to the house), Theodora (a young woman with a psychic past) and Dr Montague (who is researching the hauntings). The house was built by Hugh Crain who is long since deceased by the start of the book.
The book is slow to start off, and if you're not particularly into long passages of description then this book may not be for you. However, it is a book that will leave you asking many questions despite some of the lengthy descriptions. We don't actually get the first glimpses of the hauntings of Hill House until about halfway through the book, which for me only piqued my interest further. When the hauntings do start to unfold, it is truly thrilling, especially as it particularly focuses on Eleanor, the main character.
Eleanor is a very unreliable narrator, first and foremost. She doesn't reveal much about her past, for example she is said to have had some experiences with the paranormal when she was younger, which is why Dr Montague invited her to the house, but we never find out the full extent of this. A lot of the hauntings look as if they are specifically directed at her, at least that's what we are led to believe. Especially when you look at the ending (which I won't reveal), you question whether if it was all a figment of Eleanor's imagination as the other characters are nowhere near as affected. Also, some of the finer details make you question whether the house made Eleanor go insane, or whether she was plagued by mental health issues. The character tends to not mention certain details, emphasising how troubled Eleanor is and again questioning what is fact and what is fiction.
It truly is a gripping read, especially in the last half of the book. Reading the last half of the book makes you question some of the events in the first half, completely changing the narrative. You soon come to question many aspects of Eleanor as a character and her relationships with the other characters in the house. I definitely recommend this book if you love a good ghost story, it is intriguing, thrilling and also not a long read!
This review was submitted as part of our society book club which runs monthly with a different book each month.
Comments
Post a Comment