BOOK PICKS.Byline: The Register-Guard "The Haunting of Hill House" By Shirley Jackson Penguin Books, 1959 Ages 13 and up When nothing except a hair-raising ghost story ghost story n. A story having supernatural or frightening elements, especially a story featuring ghosts or spirits of the dead. ghost story n → cuento de fantasmas will satisfy, get a-hold of Shirley Jackson's "The Haunting of Hill House." But make sure you are not alone when you read it. Although written in 1959, this book still has the power to provoke nightmares. Stephen King <noinclude></noinclude>
Stephen Edwin King (born September 21, 1947) is an American author of over 200 stories including over 50 bestselling horror and admires Jackson's writing and alluded to "The Haunting of Hill House" in both "Carrie" and "Salem's Lot." Jackson's genius lies in her ability to take the apparently normal and interject in·ter·ject tr.v. in·ter·ject·ed, in·ter·ject·ing, in·ter·jects To insert between other elements; interpose. See Synonyms at introduce. flashes of something from another world, something we don't quite understand that is just under the surface. She seems to suggest that there may be much we do not see or comprehend. In the story, Professor Montague has gathered a small group of people for the purpose of studying and documenting any evidence of paranormal paranormal, adj 1. outside the realm of normal experience or scientific explanation. n 2. collective term for anomalous phenomena. activity they may find in an old country house which is reputed to be haunted. The group consists of Luke Sanderson, the eventual heir to Hill House; Theodora, a beautiful and gregarious gre·gar·i·ous adj. 1. Seeking and enjoying the company of others; sociable. See Synonyms at social. 2. Tending to move in or form a group with others of the same kind: gregarious bird species. young woman with some abilities in the area of extrasensory perception extrasensory perception: see parapsychology. extrasensory perception (ESP) Perception that involves awareness of information about something (such as a person or event) not gained through the senses and not deducible from previous experience. ; and the shy and lonely Eleanor Vance, who seems to be drawn inexplicably to Hill House in spite of the horrible foreboding it projects. Soon after their arrival, the house starts communicating with them, particularly with Eleanor. Or is one of the research party in some way causing the manifestations? There are mysterious odors, freezing cold spots and banging on doors late at night - banging so forceful that it nearly rips the doors off the hinges, banging too strong to be human. There is writing on the walls, directed at Eleanor, first in chalk and then in blood. Why me? she wonders. And the reader wonders the same. There are more questions than answers in this character-driven horror tale. The story taps into something very deep in each of us. Everyone has had an uneasy feeling at one time or another - a sense that there is something out there that plays by rules we don't understand, that we are moving along on the surface of something much bigger and more complex than we can grasp, and that that unseen force could show itself at any time. - Kit Duchin, librarian, South Eugene High School South Eugene High School is a public high school located in Eugene, Oregon, United States. It was founded as Eugene High School around 1900, and was located at Willamette Street and West 11th Avenue in a brick building that later served as Eugene's city hall. |
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