The Haunting Of Hill House by Shirley Jackson

 

Rating 4⭐ 

206 pages

You can buy The Haunting Of Hill House...here

• The Blurb...

First published in 1959, Shirley Jackson's The Haunting of Hill House has been hailed as a perfect work of unnerving terror. It is the story of four seekers who arrive at a notoriously unfriendly pile called Hill House: Dr. Montague, an occult scholar looking for solid evidence of a 'haunting'; Theodora, his lighthearted assistant; Eleanor, a friendless, fragile young woman well acquainted with poltergeists; and Luke, the future heir of Hill House. At first, their stay seems destined to be merely a spooky encounter with inexplicable phenomena. But Hill House is gathering its powers - and soon it will choose one of them to make its own.

• Our Review...

THOHH is considered to be one of the cornerstones or horror writing and you can see why. Seen through the eyes of Eleanor a young, vulnerable, innocent soul. The story shows how such a naïve, blank canvas of a person can be targeted by more powerful and dark influences. If this scenario is true with people in life, perhaps it can be true with otherwordly spirits interacting with the human world.

While reading this novel you may think to yourself that the tropes here are well worn and have become a bit of a cliché. That may be true but this is the tale that began a lot of the tropes as this was written in the 1950s, way before the Overlook hotel drove Jack Torrence bonkers in The Shining. As the novel was written in the 50s some of the interaction between the characters, especially Eleanor and Theodora, must seem a little dated to our ears.

The four guests settle in to the house and initially Eleanor and Theodora hit it ,off right away becoming firm friends. I have seen other reviews suggest there is an air of lesbian romance between the two. Personally I didn't pick that up but I'm a grumpy old man so not my area really. As the house sets its sights on Eleanor their friendship unravels under the intensity.

Despite being given the history of the house we are never quite sure whether the house is haunted by dead spirits or if the house itself is an evil entity. Eleanor herself drawn to the only place she has felt wanted. At the shocking conclusion we are left wondering whether the things that occur are the result of paranormal activity or mental illness. Or in the thin line between the two, could paranormal activity induce mental illness. Indeed which is more terrifying is a question the reader will inadvertently ask themselves subconsciously. It will certainly make you think.   

• Selected Quotes...

the gate was so clearly locked—locked and double-locked and chained and barred; who, she wondered, wants so badly to get in?—she made no attempt to get out of her car, but pressed the horn, and the trees and the gate shuddered and withdrew slightly from the sound.

I am like a small creature swallowed whole by a monster, she thought, and the monster feels my tiny little movements inside.

She watched them, seeing their apprehensive faces, wondering at the uneasiness which lay so close below the surface in all of them, so that each of them seemed always waiting for a cry for help from one of the others; intelligence and understanding are really no protection at all,

‘Nothing in this house moves,’ Eleanor said, ‘until you look away, and then you just catch something from the corner of your eye.

• If You Liked This Then You May Like...

The Exorcist by William Peter Blatty

The Turn Of The Screw by Henry James

The Shining by Steven King

• About The Author

Shirley Jackson was an influential American author. A popular writer in her time, her work has received increasing attention from literary critics in recent years. She has influenced such writers as Stephen King, Nigel Kneale, and Richard Matheson.

She is best known for her dystopian short story, "The Lottery" (1948), which suggests there is a deeply unsettling underside to bucolic, smalltown America. In her critical biography of Shirley Jackson, Lenemaja Friedman notes that when Shirley Jackson's story "The Lottery" was published in the June 28, 1948, issue of The New Yorker, it received a response that "no New Yorker story had ever received." Hundreds of letters poured in that were characterized by, as Jackson put it, "bewilderment, speculation and old-fashioned abuse."

Jackson's husband, the literary critic Stanley Edgar Hyman, wrote in his preface to a posthumous anthology of her work that "she consistently refused to be interviewed, to explain or promote her work in any fashion, or to take public stands and be the pundit of the Sunday supplements. She believed that her books would speak for her clearly enough over the years." Hyman insisted the darker aspects of Jackson's works were not, as some critics claimed, the product of "personal, even neurotic, fantasies", but that Jackson intended, as "a sensitive and faithful anatomy of our times, fitting symbols for our distressing world of the concentration camp and the Bomb", to mirror humanity's Cold War-era fears. Jackson may even have taken pleasure in the subversive impact of her work, as revealed by Hyman's statement that she "was always proud that the Union of South Africa banned The Lottery', and she felt that they at least understood the story".

In 1965, Jackson died of heart failure in her sleep, at her home in North Bennington Vermont, at the age of 48.

The Island Of Apples by Glyn Jones

 

You can buy Island of Apples...Here

316 pages

• The Blurb...

The Island of Apples is a brilliant study of a pre-adolescent boy's romantic imagination and dangerous enthralment, set vividly in the south Wales of Methyr Tydfil and Carmarthen in the early twentieth century

• Our Review...

I read The Island of Apples as part of the 52 books in 52 weeks challenge. see link.

The prompt for this week's book was magical realism. This is not a favourite genre of mine. I DNF'd 100 Years Of Solitude which is often held aloft as the pinnacle of the genre. To counter my feelings about the genre I chose a book set close to home, in the hope that this would encourage me to finish. Hooray I made it!

IOA is a coming of age tale, set in Merthyr (Ystrad) in the early 20th Century where a young boy Dewi is on the cusp of leaving childhood behind and entering the world of adults. Into his life comes a young boy of the same age with masses of confidence and experience. He is an adventurer with tales of derring-do among the crowned heads of Europe. He becomes the nemesis of the overbearing headmaster and Dewi hero worships him. But is he real or a figment of Dewi's imagination? All could be as it says on the tin, or Dewi having a breakdown or real magic. The ending is a Henry Ford. By that I mean it's like Ford's famous quote "If you think you can or if you think you cant, you're probably right. 

Thrillers with a twisty plot should, I feel, be read in a distinct pace. Breathless and accelerating to the climax. However this sort of writing allows the reader to meander and occasionally wallow in the succulent language.

I enjoyed the language and writing style but the narrative was just OK if you know what I mean. The ingredients were great but the meal was a little less than the sum of it's parts. Nonetheless a fascinating insight into the era. The author was a friend of Dylan Thomas and you can feel the influence of Under Milk Wood.

• Selected Quotes...

Her veins showed through her white skin, they were blue, but faint, like words scrawled on the other side of writing paper.

There was a lovely smell of frying coming from out there, and the bacon was making a nice sizzling noise like bike tyres on a sopping road.

And as soon as our train moved off up the valley towards Pencwm I saw the slope of the first raindrop falling like a fencing-scar across the glass of our window.

a mouth so wide you expected it to join up at the back of his neck when he grinned: and deep winy skin the colour of a purple apple, pitted all over with holes as though he slept every night on knitting.

We saw the lights on in the bedrooms where people were ill and dying; we stood at the door of the dark and cosy bakehouse and watched Mr Protheroe the night baker kneading the bread by the dim light of the bat’s-wing burner, up to his elbows in dough; we looked in over the frosted glass at the back of the post office and saw the yawning men getting the letters ready for the next morning. We stood silent and motionless under the hoarse or blub-blubbing street lamps, and saw the colliers going to the pits in groups with white faces, or coming home pitch-black; we saw the policemen, the bad women, the News and Banner printers, Herbert the milk meeting the morning train. Ystrad was alive every night with silent people, while above our heads, under the moonlight and the moon-sheeted blue on the slates, thousands slept and knew nothing of it, nothing of the darkness and the silence and the solitary lights on in town, and the soft whir and pounding of machinery behind closed doors, and the night creatures wandering the streets, the rats, the stray cats and dogs, the sheep and the little mountain ponies.

• If You Liked This Then You May Like...

Under Milk Wood by Dylan Thomas

Cider With Rosie by Laurie Lee

100 Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

• About The Author...

Glyn Jones was a Welsh poet, novelist and literary historian. He served as Chairman and President of the Welsh Academy's English language section. A friend and contemporary of Dylan Thomas. click link for very interesting Wikipedia atricle on his life and career.

Chasing Shadows by Matthew J Evans

 

322 pages

You can buy Chasing Shadows...Here

You can follow Matthew J Evans...Here

• The Blurb...

You've never met a detective like DI Angelis before. Where The Police Procedural meets The Supernatural

Detective Inspector David Angelis investigates the gruesome murder of a friend and neighbour and uncovers a conspiracy in which he is at the centre. But they’ve got something very wrong about him, and his newfound abilities are not what they seem to be. Angelis exposes the dark world of designer drugs and the deadly psychopath they have created.

Chasing Shadows is the first in a police procedural crime thriller series with a supernatural twist like no other.

• Our Review..

Stepping out of my comfort zone of bog standard real-life type crime thrillers we have Chasing Shadows. Where our protagonist David Angelis after being horrifically injured in the line of duty as a police officer is in a coma when in a last throw of the dice he becomes a candidate for a new radical drug trial. Cue two years later and David is now back on the job with a promotion but he is now blessed with "special powers" including, but not limited to, mind control and being able to tell when someone is lying. When people connected to the unethical drug company begin dying David is drawn into the investigation and is on the trail to find how he developed his powers. 

Should someone with his powers be allowed to live? After all he could, if so wished, rule or even destroy the world. Why would someone with such incredible power be happy being a copper in Chichester of all places. Is David the only one? To this end a shadowy-Governmenty-Agenty woman is tracking his every move.

The story is told partly in first person (David) with the remainder told in third person.

Initially I struggled to track the large number of characters introduced early on but by halfway I got hold of it. One point that came to my mind was that if David has all the powers then it is a bit of a mismatch when catching the crims in this novel, even the ones jacked up on rage inducing, strength enhancing meds, It would be like Man City v Boreham Wood. He needs someone his equal to battle. There are more books in the series so the Magneto to David's Professor X may yet emerge. 

Its the sort of story I would have loved as a youngster. It has lots of special powers,  Marvel hero type stuff. I think I would describe the tale as YA with a hard, adult, religious,  battle between good and evil spine through it. And who doesn't love the eternal battle between good and evil, darkness and light. From Moses and the Pharoh, Gandalf and Sauron, King Arthur and Mordred through to Skywalker and Darth Vader it is literally a tale as old as time.  

It is a very unusual and interesting book, unusual to me at least. I dont know if the author has perfected it but he is definitely onto something with this Prime Suspect/Constantine type mash up. It will leave you pondering this world (and the next.)

Oh and the twist is a little rip-snorter!

• Selected Quotes...

"I sense people are hurting everywhere I go. It’s background noise, like the rumble of traffic. I’ve learned to push it away, but sometimes I can’t. I just wish the gift or curse I received had the power to take that hurt away."

"I didn’t think I was a religious man, but I’ve seen such darkness today. I need to step into the light again. I look around, and I’m struck by the silence. This is one of those thin places. I’m wondering if the people praying over the centuries have punctured a million holes between heaven and Earth. Is that how it works?"

"I’m looking at Martina now, and I’m getting the darkness, the violence and anger. It’s exuding from every pore of her skin."

• If You Like This Then You May Like...

Constantine by John Shirley

Later by Stephen King

Lucifer by Mike Carey/Neil Gaiman

Midwinter of the Spirit by Phil Rickman

• About The Author...

I’m a crime author living near Chichester, West Sussex, UK. My novels are usually set in locations close to my home, and this is an area of Sussex that I love and know well. I’ve served many years here as a police officer, and I now use this experience to help me write crime fiction.

I have so far published three crime thriller books in the DI Angelis Crime Thriller series: Chasing Shadows, Hide Her Away, and Take You Home. All are available on Amazon Kindle and in paperback. These novels are dark police procedurals with a strong supernatural element that distinguishes them from other police crime thrillers.

I first tried my hand at crime writing during the COVID pandemic. As a result, in 2021, I published my first novel, Chasing Shadows. My policing experience helped me write true-to-life police procedures in my novels, with a fictional balance to keep the action moving. (from matthewjevans.co.uk)

(photo is Matthew with his son Zac)

A Shadow On The Lens by Sam Hurcom

 

231 Pages

You can buy A Shadow On The Lens...Here

You can follow Sam Hurcon...Here

You can follow the publishers, Orion Books...Here

• The Blurb...

1904. Thomas Bexley, one of the first forensic photographers, is called to the sleepy Welsh village of Dinas Powys. A yound girl by the name of Betsan Tilny has been found murdered in the woodland. But the crime scene appears staged and worse still: the locals are reluctant to help.

One night, he develops the crime scene photographs in the cellar of his lodgings. There, he finds a face dimly visible in the photographs - the shadowed spectre of Betsan Tilny.

In the days that follow, Thomas senses a growing presence watching him as he tries to uncover what the villagers of Dinas Powys are so intent on keeping secret...

• My Review...

A very well plotted and crafted debut from Sam Hurcom, boasts the best of both worlds. It is simultaneously an engaging murder mystery and creepy supernatural nerve tingler.

Its 1904 and a gruesome murder takes place in the sleepy hinterland village of Dinas Powys. Hard to think of it as a sparsely populated rural idyll as it is only 5 miles west of Cardiff and today it has a population of 9000. So it's intriguing to see it stripped back to it's historical bare bones. The newly appointed Forensic Photographer is dispatched from the London, the beating heart of the Empire to this rural backwater. He is an outsider and this is very much a "local village for local people."  There is a whiff of The Wicker Man about the place.

Upon arrival Thomas Bexley begins to feel watched, hallucinations haunt him and even the weather seems to have dark intentions towards him. Coupled with this are the strange mother of the victim who lives in a hovel in swampland outside the village and the reluctance of the locals to actively engage in finding the killer as tales persist of a demon spirit abroad in the words. It all makes for a difficult and creepy investigation for our hero.

The author's prose hits the sweet spot too. It's rhythm and syntax is ever so slightly archaic, so as to point to it's Edwardian time frame, without being obtrusive. This added a bit of seasoning to the brew.

This is well balanced book. Both the investigative and the supernatural aspects are intriguing and intertwine seamlessly together. You'll find yourself thinking is it supernatural or some other plausible explanation and your deduction will swing with every chapter. I found myself desperate to read on in the latter stages racing to the conclusion. I think this sort of engagement in a novel is the gold standard. When the book catalyses this emotion, you know its a good 'un.

I think I would have liked to have known a little more about Thomas Bexley's background but no doubt this may be further explored in the sequel "Letters From The Dead," which I'm just off to order now. Can't wait. 

• Selected Quotes...

"For years I could not speak of what is written in these pages. It marked the change in my life, the death of the man I once was. Only now, as an ever- deepening fear of what is to come plagues me, do I feel compelled to write of all that I have seen."

"Promiscuous girls are asking for trouble,’ Cummings said boldly. The man’s ignorance became clear to me then. ‘You would blame the shopkeeper who has his produce taken by the thief?"

 "In a sleepy shire such as this, it is all too easy in the bright light of day, with the songbirds whistling and the mediocrity of life being played out around you, to dismiss such fears as old wives’ tales for children who have not done all their mother’s chores. At this late hour though, with the heavy black of night as company, with the whispering of draughts through crooked rafters and the hollow, unnatural hoot of the night owl unseen, the mind wanders to its darkest corners and thinks of all too dreadful things."

"We don’t talk about it because we know it’s there. We know it’s real, feel its presence every day.’ He glared at me with his red, bloodshot eyes. ‘Don’t tell me since you’ve been here you haven’t felt it too."

• If You Liked This, You May Like...

An Inspector Calls by J.B. Priestly

Mists and Megaliths by Catherine McCarthy (see our review...Here)

Fatal Solution by Leslie Scase (see our review... Here)

• About The Author...

Sam Hurcom was born in Dinas Powys, South Wales in 1991. He studied Philosophy at Cardiff University, attaining both an undergraduate and master’s degree. He has since had several short stories published, and has written and illustrated a number of children’s books. Sam currently lives in the village he was raised in, close to the woodlands that have always inspired his writing. A SHADOW ON THE LENS is Sam’s debut novel.

The Man In The Seventh Row by Brian Pendreigh

 

⭐⭐⭐⭐

You can buy "The Man in the Seventh Row"...here

Overview...

 Roy Batty grew up in Edinburgh, the son of a butcher. Roy became a film fanatic and saw many classic films of the 60s and 70s. Still a film buff as an adult, when he goes to the cinema he repeatedly finds himself watching himself playing the familiar characters on the big screen from his seat in the Seventh Row. His soul is slowly dissolving into the ethereal melting pot of cinema. Why? we flashback over Roy's life to see what led him here. Is it real? or is it a mental breakdown, or a dream? Roy meets a kindred spirit, a fellow film fan. Can she save Roy from being swallowed up? In addition to the main story, there are 3 additional short stories that are connected, albeit tenuously and tangentially, to the main story.

My Review..

This is a strange book in many ways. Often when doing a review I know exactly how many stars to give. In this I was torn between 3 and 5. Which is odd in itself, why the gap? why not 3 or 4 or 4 and 5? and it took me a while to work out why. 

It does not follow any set formula for a type of book. Large parts of the narrative are given to describing Roy's favourite movies. Most people spend their lives in reality with the occasional trip to distraction in the cinema. Roy seems to live his life in cinema with the occasional trip to distraction in reality I found that the plot  wasn't really important. The plot seems hazy and blurred. In most books the narrative is a device to move the plot along, yet in this book it feels, to me, as if the plot is an excuse to talk about the narrative. Which if you are as skilled as the author is (both in writing and his chosen subject) is no bad thing.This view may be down to me and my often idiosyncratic tendencies  and obviously others may will have a different take but personally I am not a huge fan of magical realism. I often prefer things to be like me, big and simple.

On the other hand the nuts and bolts of the writing are bang on for me. When I review a book, I underline interesting or unusual phrases possibly to use as a quote. My pen was working overtime in this book. In particular I found one large paragraph (too big to quote) about the hopes and dreams of the people who drift to LA in an attempt to find stardom quite moving.

The early part of the story reads like an autobiography. This was my favourite part of the book. Roy recounted his childhood including trips to the Cinema in Edinburgh and while on holiday in North Berwick. It was here sat in silence with his dad, enjoying a shared experience, that they bonded.  This and the films resonated with me. Substitute the Gwent Valleys and Porthcawl and he could have been describing me. 

We Welsh are known for introspection and melancholia and it struck me that the author writes like a Welshman. He writes "hiraeth" exceptionally well. Hiraeth does not really translate in English. In English it means home sickness but it is so much more. It is home sickness on steroids. It is a deep longing and pull in your soul to a place, time and people that may no longer be there, if they existed at all. It is the irresistible  pull back to the land of your fathers. Reading this part of the novel was like sticking a thumb in a week old bruise. The pain felt so sweet. 

This is not a book that you gallop through towards the crashing end. Luckily enough I am of an age and enough of a film fan to have seen all the movies Roy talks about, which I would imagine is a great help in reading this book. Barry Norman or Mark Kermode would love it. This book is like a conversation with an old friend in front of an open fire with a glass of whiskey talking about old films. It is a book that you wallow in and let the hiraeth seep in through your pores.

The 3 short stories at the end of the book are interesting but add little to the main narrative. Though the second story "hommage" does have a very clever spin.

So 3 or 5 stars. What the hell. I cant decide. We'll split the difference. It's a 4

Selected Quotes

"Cinema is a place where illusion and make believe are real."

"His father was never really the sort of man who would have ever been so presumptuous as take a starring part. He only really had a supporting role in life."

"He thought he had seen him up there on the screen, but it was difficult to be sure because his eyes had filled with tears. They ran down his face and he wiped them away. In the cinema, in the confessional darkness, no one can see you cry."

"but he had seen enough films from Oliver Twist to Lady and the Tramp to know that just because someone is dirty it did not necessarily mean they were dirt."

About the author...

Brian Pendreigh is an award-winning writer and journalist, whose regular outlets have included The Guardian (1999-2007), The Times and The Scotsman. He has written several film books and most recently was editor of The Times on Cinema (2018). He was twice Britain’s Film Journalist of the Year and his work has been picked by the Scottish Examination Board for English interpretation questions. He is a keen long-distance runner and pub quizzer (with wins on Mastermind, Eggheads, 15 to 1 and Only Connect). He lives in Portobello, Edinburgh. His lounge overlooks the Pentland Hills and his bedroom looks out to the sea and romance.