The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson

Synopsis:

This is a fiction story set at Hill House, an old, isolated, mansion surrounded by hills. Dr. John Montague, an investigator of the supernatural, has rented Hill House for the summer and invited Eleanor Vance and Theodora as his guests because of their previous experience with paranormal events. Luke Sanderson, the young heir to the estate, is also there staying. The house’s caretakers, Mr. and Mrs. Dudley, refuse to stay near the house at night.

The four inhabitants bond with each other and become friends, and while staying there, experience strange and mysterious events including odd noises, ghostly presences roaming the house at nighttime, and writing on the walls. Eleanor, in particular, tends to experience paranormal activity that the others are not aware of. The other visitors of the house believe that Eleanor is the cause of these paranormal events and are worried for her safety and try and get her to leave, but Eleanor doesn’t want to leave because she considers the house to be her home. Eventually, Eleanor is forced to leave, but before leaving, because of being controlled by the house, her car drives into a large oak tree and she dies.

Review:

I enjoyed this story and loved all the twists and turns and found it to be mysterious and spooky.

“Hill House, not sane, stood by itself against its hills, holding darkness within; it had stood so for eighty years and might stand for eighty more. Within, walls continued upright, bricks met neatly, floors were firm, and doors were sensibly shut; silence lay steadily against the wood and stone of Hill House, and whatever walked there walked alone.”

“It was a house without kindness, never meant to be lived in, not a fit place for people or for love or for hope. Exorcism cannot alter the countenance of a house. Hill House would stay as it was until it was destroyed.”