The Haunting of Hill House

The Haunting of Hill House is a Gothic horror novel by the American writer Shirley Jackson, published in 1959. It was shortlisted for the National Book Award, and it has been adapted for film, stage and television, including a Netflix series in 2018.

Hill House is a mansion whose exact location is never given, standing among the hills and, by reputation, unfit to live in. Dr John Montague, a scholar of the supernatural, rents it for a summer and invites people with a history of paranormal experience to stay and record whatever takes place.

Only two of the invited guests accept: Eleanor Vance, a shy young woman with nowhere to go after years of nursing her difficult mother, and Theodora, an artist. They are joined by the house's heir, Luke Sanderson, who is there to watch over the property.

The novel stays with those four rather than digging into the house's past, and the suspicion that builds is that Hill House is not simply haunting its visitors but choosing among them. Jackson keeps the events ambiguous enough that the reader can never be sure how much belongs to the house and how much to Eleanor.