Book number 47 for 2024; 5/5 stars.
I discovered this book at the library (anyone surprised?) and when I saw that it was an “authorized” sequel to Shirely Jackson’s classic The Haunting of Hill House, I immediately checked it out.
In this book, we investigate what happens when a group of self-absorbed theater people spend a few nights at Hill House, in hopes of reading and rehearsing a new play that our main “hero” has written. Holly and her girlfriend, Nisa, have been working on a play called Witching Night. As Holly was out for a drive, one day, she was drawn to turn off of the main road onto a rarely used side road, where she eventually wound up at the gates of Hill House. She got out and looked around a little and decided that, creepy as it seemed, it would be a perfect place for them, along with Stevie, another friend, and Amanda Greer, a famous actress who was slightly past her prime, to read and rehearse.
They ignored everyone’s warnings. The realtor who now owns Hill House tried to talk Holly out of it, but went ahead and rented the house to her for two weeks. The first time Holly had driven up the road, a woman, who had been standing outside a double-wide trailer house, came toward her car with a raised knife and a somewhat wild, angry expression on her face. That woman, Evadne, turned out to be friends with Ainsley, the realtor, and aunt to Melissa, who was the woman who cleaned at Hill House every week. All of them sported the same ring on one of their fingers, made by Evadne.
Ms. Hand has done a marvelous job of continuing the legacy of Hill House. We learn in the acknowledgments that she had the blessing, encouragement, and suggestions from Laurence Jackson Hyman, Shirley’s son and “literary executor.” The psychological terror that ensues in this novel is equal to, and perhaps even surpasses that of the original book. As these four people spend time in this house, strange things happen. But they are things that makes the reader wonder, at first, is this house really haunted, or are these people just a little insane?
Time doesn’t seem to work the same at Hill House, either. In all, they don’t even spend two full nights in the house, but it doesn’t seem to flow that way. To me, the reader, it seemed like more nights, but that’s a trick that the house plays on people. And it has a way of making people not trust each other. As I said, these theater people were already self-absorbed, so it didn’t take much psychological pushing for them to begin bickering among themselves and having negative thoughts about one another.
One thing I really liked about the layout of the story is that all of Holly’s chapters were in first person, while everyone else’s chapters, Nisa, Stevie, and Amanda, were in third person. And we spent ample time in all of their heads.
The last third or so (around 100 pages) of the story is where things really begin to act like a snowball rolling down a mountain. The pace picks up and doesn’t slow down until the last chapter. The terror gets real, tempers flare, and the narcissism of each player comes to full fruition. One almost expected someone to crash into the tree at the turn in the road, again, but, you see, that tree had been cut down, as at least one other person had died from crashing into it. But then, how difficult would it have been for Hill House to grow it back?
One interesting detail . . . there is a large black hare that figures into this story, frequently. And every chapter in the book is headed by a simple drawing of a hare. Another interesting detail is that both Holly and Amanda have a strange death, from their past, in their immediate circle of influence.
I loved this book! I’m very glad that I read it, and even more glad that Elizabeth Hand was allowed to write it. I do believe Ms. Jackson would have been pleased.
TTFN, y’all!
The Constant Reader 