Book Club #21 Recap: The Haunting of Hill House

Thoughts, quotes and further inspo on The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson

Apr 13, 2026

While the flowers are blooming and the days are getting longer, our book club turned to a spooky tale and made March into a horror month 👻! Our pick, The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson, has been a classic horror novel and inspiration for countless haunted house stories ever since its publication in 1959. Stephen King even described it as “as nearly perfect a haunted-house tale as I have ever read.”

In the book, we follow a group of three young people invited by Dr. Montague to a purportedly haunted mansion, where they set out to study the existence of supernatural activity. One of them is Eleanor, who leads us as the narrator through the unfolding horrors, both in the house and in her own mind. Having spent many years caring for her ill mother until her death, she arrives at the house as a deeply lonely, unhappy and self-conscious person. Very early into the novel, a question formed in my head: What is the actual horror story Jackson wants to tell us?

While Luke, Theodora and even Dr. Montague bring an unexpected lightness and humour to the eerie pyjama-party, Eleanor is clearly haunted by her own demons. Ghostly apparitions and the shocking message ‘Help Eleanor Come Home Eleanor’ written in shaky letters on the wall, open up the reader’s imagination: Is it Eleanor’s dead mom calling to her? Is it the house itself, that wants to possess her? One of the many (almost) residents who died in or near the house? Or is it even Eleanor herself, who has a history with poltergeist phenomena from her past?

In my opinion, the author masterfully interweaves supernatural elements with psychological horror. The story is so impactful because of its insidious ambiguity: there are some truly frightening scenes - several members of the book club described having nightmares after reading it - but in large part the terror is created by our own senses and psyche. Yet with all its menace and madness, the book is also at times hilariously funny. As I’m not (yet) a horror fan, the comedic dialogues and quirky characters like Mrs. Montague and even the strange Dudleys made the spookiness easier to digest.

Rating

During our book club meeting, opinions were divided: This time the German-speaking group were more enthusiastic, with a sub-group rating of 4.17, while the english group had some more sceptical discussants and landed at 3.7. That gives us an average group rating of 3.94 ⭐️ . My personal rating is 4.5 ⭐️. I really enjoyed Jackson’s precise language, the vivid imagery and peculiar characters.

Highlights from our discussion

These quotes capture some of the main themes we discussed:

Eleanor as the narrator:
It’s deliberately vague if she’s delusional or it’s the effect of the house.
She was excited to have any kind of life.
As the book progresses she’s more and more an unreliable narrator.
Potential queerness in the book:
As a queer I thought Theo is definitely queer.
Maybe she doesn’t register her desires but there was something between her and Theo.
There’s definitely flirtation between Theo and Eleanor but it wasn’t obviously romance-coded.
What is the actual horror?
What we’re really afraid of is being seen so clearly.
Is it haunted by a specific ghost? No but the way it was built was affecting people. Built by a man but who’s affected is a woman.
Would you go if you received an invitation to stay at the haunted house? (many would be enthusiastic). I would watch that reality show.
Writing Style
I read almost half of the book until I wanted to switch to the audio version but then suddenly it gripped me and it got so good!
I liked the style and how conversational it is.
The prose was interesting but felt very old-fashioned and I didn’t get into it.

Favorite quotes from the book

Here are a few quotes to give you a taste of what to expect:

⭐ No live organism can continue for long to exist sanely under conditions of absolute reality; even larks and katydids are supposed, by some, to dream.

⭐ During the whole underside of her life, ever since her first memory, Eleanor had been waiting for something like Hill House.

⭐ It was a house without kindness, never meant to be lived in, not a fit place for people or for love or for hope.

⭐ “Fellow babe in the wood” she said, “let’s go exploring.”

⭐ “Fear,” the doctor said, “is the relinquishment of logic, the willing relinquishing of reasonable patterns. We yield to it or we fight it, but we cannot meet it halfway.”

⭐ Hill House itself, not sane, stood against its hills, holding darkness within; it had stood so for eighty years and might stand for eighty more. Within, its 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.

Holistic Reading

For a deeper dive into horror, check out the music, movies, and books that came up in our discussion:

🎶 Listen to this month’s book club playlist here.
👻 Looking for more horror inspiration? Check out our March book club shortlist: The Eyes are the Best Part by Monika Kim, Slewfoot: A Tale of Bewitchery by Brom, What Moves the Dead by T. Kingfisher, The Vegetarian by Han Kang, Someone You Can Build a Nest in by John Wiswell.
📖 Shirley Jackson is also well-known for her book We Have Always Lived in the Castle and many chilling short stories, most notably The Lottery.
📚 Other horror and weird fiction books mentioned in our discussion: The King in Yellow by Robert W. Chambers and I’m Thinking of Ending Things by Iain Reid.
🎬 There are two very different film adaptions of The Haunting of Hill House: the atmospheric, black-and-white The Haunting (1963, Robert Wise) and a campy, unintentionally funny version (1999,Jan de Bont). There is also a recent Netflix mini-series retelling (2018, Mike Flanagan).
(PS: The Haunting from 1963 can be watched at the History of Horror Retrospective at Metro Kino on April 30 or May 4 2026.)
🎥 These are the highest-rated horror films on Letterboxd (excl. animation and with more than 15k views): The Thing (1982, John Carpenter), The Silence of Lambs (1991, Jonathan Demme), Twin Peaks. Fire Walk With Me (1992, David Lynch), Psycho (1960, Alfred Hitchcock).
Our bookclub members also loved these: Rosemary’s Baby, The Conjuring, Talk to me, Hereditary, The Babadook, and Scream.

Have you read The Haunting of Hill House? Share your thoughts in the comments - we would love to hear them!

Kanopi Literary Society

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