A Haunting on the Hill

By Elizabeth Hand

Book Overview

From award-winning author Elizabeth Hand comes the first-ever novel authorized to return to the world of Shirley Jackson's The Haunting of Hill House--a "scary and beautifully written" (Neil Gaiman) new story of isolation and longing perfect for our present time.

Open the door . . . .

Holly Sherwin has been a struggling playwright for years, but now, after receiving a grant to develop her play Witching Night, she may finally be close to her big break. All she needs is time and space to bring her vision to life. When she stumbles across Hill House on a weekend getaway upstate, she is immediately taken in by the mansion, nearly hidden outside a remote village. It's enormous, old, and ever-so eerie--the perfect place to develop and rehearse her play.

Despite her own hesitations, Holly's girlfriend, Nisa, agrees to join Holly in renting the house for a month, and soon a troupe of actors, each with ghosts of their own, arrive. Yet as they settle in, the house's peculiarities are made known: strange creatures stalk the grounds, disturbing sounds echo throughout the halls, and time itself seems to shift. All too soon, Holly and her friends find themselves at odds not just with one another, but with the house itself. It seems something has been waiting in Hill House all these years, and it no longer intends to walk alone . . .

"Hill House is back and haunting as ever." --Ana Reyes
"A fitting--and frightening--homage." --New York Times Book Review
"It's thrilling to find this is a true hybrid of these two ingenious women's work--a novel with all the chills of Jackson that also highlights the contemporary flavor and evocative writing of Hand." --Washington Post
"A timeless, gothic ode that serves up the stuff of nightmares." --Kirkus Reviews
"Only the brilliant Elizabeth Hand could so expertly honor Jackson's rage, wit, and vision." --Paul Tremblay
"Eerily beautiful, strangely seductive, and genuinely upsetting." --Alix E. Harrow
"Keeps the scares coming." --Minneapolis Star-Tribune

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0316527327
• ISBN13: 9780316527323
• Release Date: October 2023
• Publisher: Little Brown and Company
• Length: 336 Pages
• Weight: 1.22 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.2" x 6.4" x 9.6"

Customer Reviews

Disappointing

Very disappointing for a book that I had high hopes for following Haunting of Hill House. The writing seemed slow paced and amateurish, the characters were unlikeable and difficult to empathize with, and the reading overall was anticlimactic. Possibly good as a teen read.

4 stars for the AUDIOBOOK

A HAUNTING ON THE HILL by Elizabeth Hand This book goes back to the home where the horror classic, ‘The Haunting of Hill House’ by Shirley Jackson, takes place. Having read that book for the first time this year, I was looking forward to reading this one as it’s an authorized sequel. In this story we follow playwright Holly, her girlfriend/singer Nisa, their friend/actor Stevie, and actress Amanda, as they spend a week at the infamous Hill House to workshop a new play. The story is atmospheric from the start. The house feels alive and ominous. Each highly annoying and unlikeable character’s chapter/POV has a good amount of tension and dread. The supernatural elements occurred at just the right point and pace in the story. While I did win a physical ARC copy, I opted to listen to the audiobook. This turned out to be a great idea because the audio production was excellent! The narration, music, side effects and background noises helped make it a true immersive experience. More than once I was spooked by a thump or scratching sound as I was listening on my AirPods. Overall, I found it to be an engaging and enjoyable read. Definitely recommend listening to the audio book! Rating: 4/5 ⭐️