Hangsaman is strange and a type of real that makes it scary in and of itself, a fictional world containing a disturbing inner reality. Jackson's writings are known for being elegant yet unsettling and this continues that pattern.

Narrator Natalie Waite starts off giving what seems to be a portrait of her middle-class family, with a worried mother, an arrogant father, and a somewhat present brother, but the narration style immediately pulls the reader deep into Natalie's personal world. Natalie's personal world is not a comfortable place to be. Narration progresses from observation to cruel occurrence, to matter of fact lies and the occasional aside of an imagined world that could possible be real? Natalie Waite is no reliable narrator.

Natalie attempts to reinvent herself when she leaves for college, but her habit of overthinking continues even until the uncertain climax. This entire novel is fractious and ambiguous, but all the more absorbing for those elements.

"I suppose any mind like mine, which is so close, actually, to the irrational and so tempted by it, is able easily to pass the dividing line between rational and irrational and communicate with someone drunk, or insane, or asleep."