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It took me way too long to tick this one off my TBR list, having weened my horror teeth on Stephen King and maybe Anne Rice instead. My earliest introduction to Jackson was in high school, with her short story The Lottery, and that one stuck with me enough to know I would have to get to her greater work. So... here we are.
Shirley Jackson's genre defining work sets the stage for most Gothic horror novels to come after it, so if haunted house stories are your go to read, this one is a must in terms of foundational classics. It's that simple, without laying out the details of the story. It’s a short and easy read, and no—you can’t watch the Mike Flanagan series on Netflix and say you've "read it." The series isn’t an adaptation. It's more like a sequel. This book is more like the backstory.
I also believe that the title is a bit of a play on words. Hill House might not necessarily be a haunted house in as much as it is a house searching for a lonely spirit to haunt it. And that’s where our main character Eleanor steps in. I'm not going to explain the plot. You might generally say it's about a group of the first paranormal investigators, sans infrared cameras and detection meters, but it's also about more. It's about the young woman Eleanor looking for where she fits in life. The story can feel a bit meandering at times, but it makes sense by the end because we are not supposed to focus on the house as much as we are on Eleanor.
Anyway, it's a renowned read for a reason, so if you haven’t read it, go check it out. Or refresh. Then go enjoy the Netflix series, because Flanagan did a great job with broadening the scope of the book's tone and ideas.
