Shirley Jackson’s ‘The Haunting of Hill House’ is the stereotypical haunted house story: cold spots, ghostly children’s picnics and mysterious knocks, though I don’t believe it was by any means a first in the genre so doesn’t score many points in originality (that being said I did penalise ‘Treasure Island’ for how stereotypical that was and it was a first for the pirate genre so it doesn’t seem that I would give it any grace even if it was.) I did prefer ‘The Haunting of Hill House’ to ‘We Have Always Lived in the Castle’, even if that book is growing on me as it marinades. Eleanor Vance was a much less insufferable protagonist than Merricat.

Placing focus on the book I am supposed to be reviewing now, ‘The Haunting of Hill House’ focuses on Eleanor and Theodora, two women who have had past supernatural interactions, who are invited to Hill House for the summer to assist in Dr Montague’s research of the venue. It had all the elements you’d expect of a haunted house and posed the classical psychological questions related with the phenomenon. It was by no means bad, just nothing unexpected or remarkable.