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The Haunting of Hill House

Written by: Shirley Jackson
Narrated by: Bernadette Dunne
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Publisher's Summary

Now a hit Netflix miniseries directed by Mike Flanagan and starring Michiel Huisman, Carla Gugino, and Timothy Hutton

Past the rusted gates and untrimmed hedges, Hill House broods and waits.

Four seekers have come to the ugly, abandoned old mansion: Dr. Montague, an occult scholar looking for solid evidence of the psychic phenomenon called haunting; Theodora, his lovely and lighthearted assistant; Eleanor, a lonely, homeless girl well acquainted with poltergeists; and Luke, the adventurous future heir of Hill House. At first, their stay seems destined to be merely a spooky encounter with inexplicable noises and self-closing doors, but Hill House is gathering its powers and will soon choose one of them to make its own.

This classic horror novel has been hailed as a perfect work of unnerving terror.

©1959 Shirley Jackson; renewed 1987 by Laurence Hyman, Barry Hyman, Sarah Webster, and Joanne Schnurer (P)2010 Blackstone Audio, Inc.
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What the critics say

“Makes your blood chill and your scalp prickle…Shirley Jackson is the master of the haunted tale.” (New York Times Book Review)

“Now widely regarded as the greatest haunted-house story ever written.” (Wall Street Journal)

“Shirley Jackson is unparalleled as a leader in the field of beautifully written, quiet, cumulative shudders.” (Dorothy Parker, Esquire)

Featured Article: Outstanding Female Authors Everyone Ought to Listen to


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What listeners say about The Haunting of Hill House

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  • Overall
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Delightfully Horrifying

An enticingly scary story of madness that keeps you on edge the whole 7 or so hours. It can only be described as a hauntological masterpiece of it's own kind.

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2 people found this helpful

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The Book is Better Than Any Film or Television Adaptation

The book is a psychological thriller more than anything else. It is very subtle. The “haunting” itself is very suspect. It begs the question if it is the house’s influence that’s creating these strange occurrences, or if it’s just all in the mind of Eleanor and she is responsible for some of this.

So we are not very sure about what’s truly happening. The book walks a fine line between the supernatural and the all too natural but taboo subject of mental illness. I greatly enjoyed it.

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Masterpiece

Terrifying, mysterious.... we are taken inside the mind of a fragile soul who slowly gets ravaged by the evil energy of both a possessed house and the demons that live in her.
Steven King and others have praised it as a masterpiece. You can see the ectoplasmic DNA of this brilliant little book all over works like the Shining....
And the reading brings it to life, or, I should say, to the dark corners haunting all our minds.

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3 people found this helpful

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Treat it as it's own thing.

It's an interesting story, if you can treat it as it's own thing. The Haunting of Hill House was adapted by a master of suspense and horror (in my opinion). The show had so much drama that I sometime forgot that it was a horror story and I loved it. It borrows next to nothing out of the book, it was modernized and added tons of character drama.

The narration was great, really made you feel like a part of the story.

The story was good, each characters were very unique and felt very human. The ending was kind of lackluster so I was expecting a sequel...

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  • Overall
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Pretty Good

The book is not scary but it does have a few tense moments. The story is slow but once you get into it does get much faster and more exciting. The characters are likeable but I feel Luke is pretty under used.

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Classic

One of the great classics that everyone should read at least once. One of the original haunted houses.

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Captivating Writing and Truly Immerssive

Loved the narration and writing style, Shirley Jackson is a truly incredible horror writer and there are several lines from this book that have forever stuck with me. The narration was excellent and I found it very clear and easy to follow (I have audio issues so it's often a struggle to try and just listen to an audio book on standard speed). I really enjoyed the psychological horror of this story rather than the standard gore and violence of the genre, which is something I think Shirley Jackson excels at writing and balancing, it's a very compelling and complex story!

Note: if you are coming to this after the Netflix show, it's very different but still incredible and some of the best lines in the show were taken directly from the book. I enjoy both and keep coming back to them!

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    4 out of 5 stars
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it's..ahh ok

it made me more appreciate how amazing the writers for the Netflix show were to be able to adapt such a deep story from this. It's very dated as far as the dialogue goes and the scares are very very tame and more on the psychological side of horror. It's ok.

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One of my two most influential books

I hear this haunting, beautiful story differently when read aloud. Would prefer a male reader.

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2 people found this helpful

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    3 out of 5 stars
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A good haunted house story

Consider me mildly thrilled and lightly chilled! I liked it just fine, and would probably recommend it if you like more psychological horror.

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