To me, Shirley Jackson is a bastion of the USA’s horror genre. As Octavia Butler is to the USA’s science fiction landscape, Jackson is to all dark and spooky Americana. I loved the slow creep of We Have Always Lived in the Castle. After enjoying Netflix’s adaptation of The Haunting of Hill House earlier this year, my bookish head turned back in Jackson’s direction. What do you know: this classic was available on library audiobook.

Dr. Montague is an anthropologist who believes equally in the scientific method and the occult. He’s determined to prove the supernatural exists and determined to do so under laboratory conditions. In pursuit of this lofty academic goal, he rents the haunted Hill House for a hot girl summer. He invites the mercurial Theo, the sensitive Nell, and the playboy Luke as corroborators, experts, and assistants. Possibly on the rocks with her live-in girlfriend, Theo is a lesbian artist and antique shop owner, who once predicted the order of a stack of playing cards. Dr. Montague hopes her possible paranormal abilities will “excite” the spirits of Hill House and/or she’ll help discern them. This reason is also why he invites Nell, who may (or may not) have caused rocks to fall from the sky when her father died. Luke is the heir to Hill House and present upon his aunt’s request—maybe ghosts will stop him from having a scandal every two minutes, haha. In any case, the moment the group sets foot upon the grounds, Hill House protests violently. Illusions, shakes, cold spots, knocking noises, phantom puppy dogs—we got it all.

Once the premise is set, the POV switches to Nell and stays there, for she is the real protagonist of the story. I felt so deeply for her and in her saw so much of myself. Though I enjoy a much healthier relationship with my family, I vividly remember when I first escaped their care and fumbled my way through social encounters with Nell’s same terrified anxiety. Her adolescent self-centeredness; her anxious quest to “be normal” and have somewhere to belong; her desire to be seen as not-a-child; her escape to the imagination, the parade of identity masks, and external observation/disassociation with her body—I was not expecting to be so seen by a haunted house novel. 

And that’s not even getting into the baby queer elements! From the get-go, Nell’s social anxiety and desire war with each other. On the one hand, Hill House is a strange place, populated by strange people. Set adrift, she craves the familiar. On the other hand, she’s desperate for acceptance, for a way to keep these wonderous strangers in her orbit. She scrambles for what her experience has taught her to be an inescapable tie, written in the blood—family. Nell’s narration refers to Dr. Montague as father, to Luke as a betrothed, and Theo as a sister. As the novel continues, this general want for deeper connection then solidifies and narrows onto Theo. Theodora transforms from “sister” to special friend (because we’re not ready for the lesbian word, haha). Luke is regulated to the role of cousin and rival. I had so many flashbacks to college, when I was figuring out my queerness and made family trees out of my friend group. Even the way Nell loves Theo pinged remembrances in my brain. By turns, Nell glorifies and casts down Theo with a corrupted sort of admiration. As much as I love a love story, this more bizarre and unstable relationship suited the situation. Nell doesn’t necessarily love Theo the individual. She loves the ideas Theo represents—living an independent, queer happiness and peaceful fulfillment.

Besides heavily identifying with Nell, the setting consumed me. I laughed so much in this book! An alternate title could be “The Roasting of Hill House." The narration and characters are so mean to the dark wood Victorian Manor aesthetic. They troop around the House insulting its décor, corners, and gall to exist. My “any horror is 3 to 5 sentences from a comedy” theory gained much fodder. The narration signaled that Nell was fully possessed by the House because she complimented it! More seriously, the setting descriptions were achingly beautiful and achingly creepy. The Haunting of Hill House is a beautiful, beautiful novel.

And uuuuuugh! The pacing! The suspense! The scares! The decadent indulgence in tropes! SO GOOD!

If there was a way to rate a novel over 5 stars, I would. Jackson weaves a gorgeous tale in her signature stark prose. Her characters, her themes, her plot, and her atmosphere grip you by the bones. Shirley Jackson is the Queen of Horror, and long may she reign.

My review of We Have Always Lived in the Castle: https://app.thestorygraph.com/reviews/6dbb7fb7-b494-4081-a7bf-d969b58df2e0