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A review by filipa_maia
The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
So... I was expecting a little bit more from this book. Being my favorite genre and so acclaimed (this book was the inspiration for the Netflix series) I was expecting pure, dark horror.
Don't get me wrong, the book is good: a haunted house and a bunch of people living in it is the perfect plot to a great book. We get all the classics: knocks on the doors, footsteps when nobody is around, people acting in a very weird way. But that was not enough. The dialogs are long, superficial and, sometimes, very confusing - almost as if it was written to be a script and not a actual book. The characters are annoying and you never, truly, understand if that's how they really are or if that's part of the house's influence. Maybe that's the intention, after all. But we will never find out.
For me, there is a lot of talking and not enough action. I hear very nice thing about the series so I'm going to give it a try.
Don't get me wrong, the book is good: a haunted house and a bunch of people living in it is the perfect plot to a great book. We get all the classics: knocks on the doors, footsteps when nobody is around, people acting in a very weird way. But that was not enough. The dialogs are long, superficial and, sometimes, very confusing - almost as if it was written to be a script and not a actual book. The characters are annoying and you never, truly, understand if that's how they really are or if that's part of the house's influence. Maybe that's the intention, after all. But we will never find out.
For me, there is a lot of talking and not enough action. I hear very nice thing about the series so I'm going to give it a try.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Abandonment, Grief, Gaslighting, Child abuse, Toxic friendship, Suicide, Suicidal thoughts, Confinement, Death, and Death of parent
Moderate: Car accident
Minor: Alcohol