The Haunting of Hill House
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The Haunting of Hill House 〰️
I'm not one for classics, but I thought I'd give a modern classic a try. After reading this, I don't think I'm cut out for classics of any era. This book was not for me.
Eleanor's mood is all over the place. She loved Theodora at the start, then she hated her and wanted to watch her die, then she became obsessed with her and never wanted to leave her side.
People keep interrupting people and never let them finish answering the question they asked, and everyone behaves as though they didn't interrupt anyone and ignores the other person talking entirely.
Mrs. Dudley sounds like a German (or foreign, at least) butler. The characters sound like posh British people, always speaking so properly. I know it's the 50s, but they sound like they are in Victorian England to me. And in my head canon, I heard them all speaking with British accents because I thought they were in England, only to find out later from a friend that they were in America. They don't sound American or from the 50s. They speak too properly and use British terms a lot.
Also, spooky things only start happening around 50%, and even then, it's mostly off-screen. They spent most of the book being super afraid and being told the house is evil, but like nothing happened??? And after any "big" spooky thing happens, everyone acts like nothing at all happened in the next scene. Like, y'all aren't gonna talk about the spooky things? Is Eleanor not gonna mention to anyone that she was holding possibly a child's bony hand instead of Theodora's? Or ignore the whole ass house shaking? (Seriously, when anything does happen, the next chapter, they're like having tea or something and don't even discuss the previous night).
(Also, the doctor's wife is kinda a bitch to her husband, and I don't like her. Actually, none of the characters resonated with me. I really hated reading Eleanor's thoughts).
Why did the doctor ask them there if they were going to do absolutely nothing? They just explored the house most of the time doing jackshit. What was the doctor's purpose? Like, yeah, he's doing research and writing a book, but Eleanor, Theodora and even Luke haven't really done anything noteworthy.
Also, I don't get the ending. It just kinda fell flat. Eleanor gets super childish, and I'm not sure what her goal is. Was she possessed? Mental health declining? Who knows. But yeah. They decide to send her away, and in the next chapter, they are all gone, and the book is done. Super anti-climactic for a book that didn't have much going on to begin with. I kept waiting for spooky things to happen, but nothing ever really did.
Maybe if I were into classics, or even modern classics (or born at the time this was published), then maybe I might have liked it. I wouldn't have been spooked by it, but I may have at least enjoyed it.
