Why Shirley Jackson's Haunting of Hill House is Still Terrifying

“I am disappearing inch by inch into this house, I am going apart a little bit at a time because all this noise is breaking me; why are the others frightened?”

When it was published in 1959, Shirley Jackson’s The Haunting of Hill House brought new style and substance to the haunted house genre, making it more cerebral, more psychological. In doing so, Jackson created one of the creepiest haunted house stories on the market that still inspires that chill-down-your-spine feeling.

The story follows a group of people investigating the paranormal activity reported at Hill House. Led by Dr. John Montague, a supernatural researcher, the group embark on a retreat for the summer at Hill House with plans to report their findings. As the group dives deeper into the house, strange things begin to happen that set everyone, especially narrator, Eleanor Vance, on edge.

The remarkable thing about The Haunting of Hill House is that the ghosts never make a visible appearance. They are an invisible force throughout the book, always in the corner of your eye. Paranormal activity manifests itself with doors suddenly being open when you swear it was closed moments before or violent knocking in the early hours of the morning. In fact, the ghosts and paranormal activity kind of take a backseat to the characters in the novel, focusing on Eleanor’s relationship with everyone in the house.

By choosing to focus on the characters instead of the ghosts, Hill House is much scarier than your typical ghost story. As everything begins to unravel and you start to realize the madness the house can produce, that proves to be infinitely scarier than any ghostly vision. It’s by setting up a character that you root for and want to succeed and witnessing their spiral into madness and obsession that makes Hill House a tense, frightening ghost story.

Hill House is the kind of book that makes you feel anxious about whether you are truly home alone. It’s the kind of book that encourages your house to start settling, creating all kinds of creaks and groans that make the hairs on the back of your neck stand up. That is why The Haunting of Hill House is so successful to this day and continues to make an appearance on top horror novel lists. It instills that fear that a simple house could disrupt whatever sanity you cling to.

~ Kat

Lovecraft Country by Matt Ruff

Lovecraft Country | Author: Matt Ruff | Published: February 16, 2016

In a story filled with monsters, creepy cults, and other things that go bump in the night, Lovecraft Country’s focus on Jim Crow-era America elicits the most fear and tension.

Set in the 1950s, Lovecraft Country explores the many facets of being a black American during the reign of Jim Crow — a name that actually sounds very cultish and creepy. With an overarching plot that is divided up into separate chapters for each character, the book tells the story of a group of people trying to get by while being squashed down by laws affecting their race and other sinister forces at work.

Atticus, a young man who researches travel destinations for his uncle’s book, The Safe Negro Travel Guide, is pulled into a malevolent plot when his father, Montrose, goes missing. Atticus goes on a road trip to find his missing father and along for the ride are his uncle, George, and their friend, Leticia Dandridge. According to the map, they are heading straight into Lovecraft country.

As the name suggest, there are a lot of Lovecraftian elements in this book. From mysterious cults to otherworldly monsters and haunted houses, the book draws a lot from the acclaimed horror author. However, it doesn’t ignore Lovecraft’s own racism or idealize the author in any way. Matt Ruff took the bits he wanted, creating a tale that is creepy and nerve-wracking while also telling a great story about family and what makes people family.

After finishing the book, I was tempted to start over again because I couldn’t put the characters away just yet. All the characters are three dimensional and feel human. The villains aren’t the stereotype you usually get when authors try to utilize Lovecraftian style. Each main character gets their own chance to shine in their own chapter with most of the chapters hitting it out of the park. Some chapters are slower than the others which can drag the novel down a bit but it usually picks up in the next chapter.

Even though most of the creepy monster business isn’t very scary (aside from the haunted house chapter and yes, there is a creepy doll), the true horror lies in the racism exhibited by skeezy officers, detectives, and the wealthy members of the cult, Sons of Adam. There is a particular story that made me shiver about a researcher for the guide getting stuck in a strict Jim Crow county that will stick with me for some time.

Overall, I would highly recommend Lovecraft Country for anyone looking for a book that delivers a different kind of fear with characters that are smart and three dimensional and villains that aren’t cartoon caricatures. Lovecraft Country paints a truthful, un-idealized view of America during a dark period in its history and that is scarier than any of the creatures in the book.

~ Kat

Bird Box by Josh Malerman

Josh Malerman’s 2014 novel Bird Box sets up a world that is like a high stakes version of Blind Man’s Bluff (the game where you’re blindfolded and charged with tagging all the other players), only if you take the blindfold off, you go insane.

The novel sets up two stories running on contrasting timelines and telling vastly different stories with the same character in the middle of them both. The first timeline starts years after people start going insane and killing themselves. Malorie, a woman who lives in a house with all the windows covered, is preparing to leave her home to reach a new safe area. With her are two children only known as “boy” and “girl.” She has been preparing them to leave since they were infants and they are now old enough to safely make the journey. The only problem is: they have to traverse down a river — blindfolded.

The second timeline takes off at the beginning of the outbreak and begins with Malorie discovering she’s pregnant while her sister watches news reports about people becoming violent and suicidal in Russia. This report grows into many as a wave of insanity spreads across the world. The only thing people know is that the insane see something or someone before murdering whoever is around them, then swiftly killing themselves. Malorie, terrified of what is happening, finds a safe house for herself to stay at with a group of survivors who aim to wait out this mass insanity sweeping the globe.

Both timelines set up a different kind of story within the overarching plot of Bird Box. Timeline #1 is almost a road trip — albeit a harrowing one. It is about fighting back and no longer hiding from whatever is lurking out in the world, waiting to be seen vs. Timeline #2 which is a survival story about a group of people trying to get by and make it through a disaster and their own paranoia about what is happening.

I found the book a tense, nail biting read that had some terrifying moments — especially the moments where Malorie has her eyes closed or covered and can’t see what is happening. She describes what she hears and smells and feels and it felt worse than if she described what she was seeing. It developed a more visceral fear in me to not know what the character was seeing. The climax of both timelines had me on the edge of my seat which is impressive since I had a good idea of how Timeline #2 would shake out.

My main complaint would be that the prose is pretty sparse throughout which can be a detriment to the book in certain scenes where a bit more detail and fleshing out of the world would allow the novel to soar. However, it works in certain instances to heighten some of the creepier scenes and really showcases the emptiness of the world Malorie is navigating.

Overall, I would highly recommend Bird Box. It brings some seriously creepy scenes that managed to chill me to my core. It also introduced me to new things to be scared of: seeing something that makes me or somebody close to me go crazy and the monsters lurking within the comfort of a safe space.

~ Kat