The Haunting of Hill House

I almost wish I had read this in school. This would have been lovely to read against [b:The Turn of the Screw 12948 The Turn of the Screw Henry James https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1327909344s/12948.jpg 990886], with its supposed repressed male homoerotic subtext, in contrast to Shirley Jackson's far more blatant lesbian anguish. I mean, if you didn't raise an eyebrow at the first mention of Theo's “flatmate” then you're missing a good chunk of the book.Much like Hill House, this book won't behave as you might expect. Depending on what you expect. It will scare you, I can tell you that much. It's always impressive indulging in a horror classic that actually gives you chills, despite being exposed to decades worth of material that's come afterward. The way Jackson goes about it is still unique, and the way she paces out a good scare. I think it may be because we are so in Eleanor's head, especially towards the end of the book, that its hard to tell what's real. And at first you're afraid because Eleanor's confused and afraid herself, and then you're afraid because Eleanor is no longer confused, and in fact she feels pretty good about the figure pacing and singing in the corner of the room that no one else can see. That gave me goosebumps just typing that out.But no, The Haunting of Hill House won't straighten out into a story that's more familiar. The characters won't settle down or develop into attractive character arcs that make them seem like better people than they are. You won't even find out what is haunting Hill House, whether something happened there, or if it was just born awful. Or even if it was the house at all.Classic horror, the real classic stuff like the aforementioned Henry Conrad, lives and breathes on subtext. The characters speak in riddles and rhymes because their very characters are part of the mystery. Four people without a home or anywhere to belong, one of which who suffers in this far more than the others, go to a haunted house and try not to go crazy. They huddle so tight to each other in the darkness that they start to bleed into one another. Children trying to escape punishment, trying to be brave, trying to be rational and not only finding that it's not possible, it just doesn't really suit them.