I came to Hill House armed with the foreknowledge of the terrible 1999 film 'The Haunting' and the not-so terrible Netflix series by the title's name. Both were loose adaptations, but more so the Netflix series, which only seems to use character names and little else. As such, I was not so worried about being spoiled, and spoiled I was not. The premise of the book is an inherently evil house with an eighty year history of tragic accidents and ruined lives. Professor Montague, a paranormal enthusiast, decides to study the haunting and assembles a team of unrelated people to stay in the house with him. There is Luke Sanderson, heir to the estate, Theodora, an artist with psychic ability, and Eleonara Vance, a timid woman who has wasted most of her youth being carer to an ill mother. None of the characters are particularly likeable.
Eleonor is the central protagonist, and whilst the reader is initially made to warm to her, we later discover she is perhaps not quite all there upstairs. As the hauntings in the house progress, the line between reality and fantasy becomes increasingly blurred, with more than enough evidence to suggest that it is either Eleonor's disturbed state of mind manifesting the supernatural occurences, or she is wholly imagining them. Later in the novel, two comic characters arrive, the doctor's wife, Mrs Montague and her companion, Arthur Parker. The intrusion of these even more unlikable people shifts the tone of the novel quite abruptly, but also serves as a foil to the original frightened team. The book ends in tragedy, leaving things inconclusive about what was causing the haunting. I enjoyed the story a lot, but might have liked it more if the characters weren't so gratingly annoying.
Rating: 3/5
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