Walked Alone

 The Haunting of Hill House (5 Points)

The sheer promise of terror was what propelled me to read this book, alongside watching the Netflix adaptation that loosely followed the book and being relentlessly recommended the tale throughout my college career, and it did not disappoint. At first, I thought the book tended to drag on in its introductions, but I appreciated the character building and establishment of the setting. I also really enjoyed the introductions and descriptions of each character at the beginning of the novel, as it made each of the characters more notable and set me up to root for the protagonist, Eleanor.

As the book progressed, I felt the tone of the story was very normal and almost cheerful and Eleanor put behind her life of caretaking for her late mother for a new prospect in Hill House with Dr. Montague's invitation. The characters also had a lot of amusing chemistry upon socializing with one another. I was also fascinated that although Luke, Theodora, and Eleanor were within their thirties; they constantly took on the mannerisms of young children who flew about the house and ground in explorations of a youthful nature.

I really thought Theo and Nell's relationship, in the beginning, would be able to last the constant battering of supernatural events and really enjoyed their juxtaposition. Theodora was a superficial, confident, jovial companion to the self-doubting, timid, and imaginative Eleanor. While I was deeply saddened by the later withdrawal and rejection by Theo to Nell, their drifting apart was very palpable after the house destroyed all of Theodora's things.

Coming to those events I also noticed that Nell was some kind of telekinetic, who cause her environment to mimic her emotional state (as I interpreted this by the rocks that were thrown at their house window when she was younger) which seemed to connect her to the Hill House's energy or spiritual inhabitants. I also interpreted this from when she, towards the end of the book, began to beat on the doors of her companions to wake them from her sleep which paralleled the earlier occurrences that happened to Theo and Nell during the night. Nell also mentioned in her narration that she could hear things happening anywhere in the house, which made her connect more strongly to the house even though the laws of that connection were left obscure otherwise. Either way, I was both pleased and horrified the Nell was written to almost become intertwined with the house as it was a cool story mechanic but honestly a terrifying concept of the loss of self and identity.

Still, not all the supernatural phenomena were explained, and I honestly enjoy the Gothic stories that focus more relying that the audience will believe the supernatural events are occurring rather than always trying to create logos by scientific appeals. What could be more haunting to the reader then wondering who was actually holding Eleanor's hand in the night? Where did all the supposed red paint come from? Why did Theodora never say what she and Eleanor were running from in the woods after stumbling upon a sunny picnic during the evening? None of these aspects were entirely explained, but I never felt they needed to be as it helped enhance the mood of the storytelling. It also would have just ruined the fun to learn how the events may have actually had occurred, and I like to leave mysteries as they are.

To wrap things up, this was honest to god a terrifying book that nearly kept me up for the rest of the night after I finished reading it. It greatly defers from the much older texts of Dracula and Frankenstein that grappled with the concepts of monsters and humanity and underlining scientific logic. The Haunting of Hill House instead lets the viewers peer into an unlit corridor and leave them in the dark as they journeyed through it, without any complete explanation as to how the events occurred, and I love horror that can leave the supernatural as an unknown catalyst, especially when it was so well written of a novel as this one was. This text also deferred from Dracula and Frankenstein simply by the language from the 1950s compared to the significantly older techniques and linguistics used.

I really enjoyed the writing style and the language used even though it was a bit of a curveball. (Thank goodness audiotapes were available so I could get a feel for how to read the story.) I will mention that it was cool that Nell foreshadowed how the house was becoming its own entity when she observed that Luke and Theodora always referred to the house by its name, which personified it in such a way that I felt the inhabitants of the house seemed to give it power based on their beliefs. I'm glad the narration remained with Nell and didn't switch between the many characters, and how we were able to keep up with Nell's thoughts despite her becoming an unreliable narrator as she became more and more haunted by Hill House.

A terribly sad and tragic ending, where I genuinely felt pity and frustration for Eleanor being ridiculed more and more by her companions, but I found it very fitting for the horror genre and honestly couldn't have imagined any better way to close the door of Hill House's story.

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I didn't want to clutter my thoughts on the book with how I compared it to the Netflix series as they truly are different stories, but I feel the series was well done so I'd love to discuss it here. Though they share the names of characters and the setting itself, the television series focuses on a family of seven in the modern-day experiencing horrifying events in the house rather than four companions simply investigating the house during the 1950s. Many of the concepts within the novel also appeared in the show, referencing iconic objects such as the "cup of stars," the writing on the wall beckoning for Eleanor to return home, the appearance of the Dudley's, or the general mechanics of the house that seem to connect with its inhabitants. The general fate of Eleanor also follows a similar path in both the show and book, but they ultimately meet different ends contextually. In short, I felt the show was an artfully done echo of the novel and managed to put a unique, modern spin on the frighting tale of Hill House.