A Haunting on the Hill

A Novel

By: Elizabeth Hand

Narrated by: Carol Monda

Length: 10 hrs and 19 mins

Publisher's summary

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 . . .

"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

"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

©2023 Elizabeth Hand (P)2023 Mulholland Books

Critic reviews

“Scary and beautifully written, imbued with the same sense of dread and inevitability as Jackson’s original, A Haunting on the Hill is quite extraordinary. It's not pastiche, not ventriloquism. It puts me strongly in mind of a singer you love covering a song by another artist. It's that song but now it's being done by someone else. Remarkable.”—Neil Gaiman

"The lines of paranoia, art, and reality are terrifyingly blurred for our group of hungry and damaged actors cloistered within the moldering walls of Hill House. Only the brilliant Elizabeth Hand could so expertly honor Jackson's rage, wit, and vision with a twenty-first century twist. The old place is as creepy, disorienting, and menacing as ever."—Paul Tremblay, author of A Head Full of Ghosts and The Cabin at the End of the World

“Hill House is back and haunting as ever in this vividly imagined return to Shirley Jackson’s iconic setting. Elizabeth Hand weaves eerie beauty into the genuine terror lurking in her pages, crafting some of the most striking scares I’ve read in years. This book gave me the best kind of nightmares."—Ana Reyes, New York Times bestselling author of The House in the Pines

A “Hare”-Raising Read

The perfect pairing of Elizabeth Hand and Carol Monda is something sought whenever the itch for terrifying tales takes hold.

A Haunting on the Hill feeds this need, with its sublime soundscape that more often than not lurks, almost imperceptibly, in the darker corners of this work.

Hand pitches toward the poetic in many of her descriptive passages and Monda lends her signature sultry purr to this nod to Jackson. A treat is to be found among the tricks as Monda performs the songs woven through the architecture of this “hare”-raising read.

Unnecessary, but competent

The fundamental issue with this book is that it doesn't need to exist. It adds nothing to Shirley Jackson's text and looks worse than it is by comparison. As a haunted house novel, it's fine! it's fun and has some spooky things going on. I think the theatrical aspect is great. (I do love the inclusion of the Child ballads, which I'm kind of obsessed with, particularly the murder ballads.) But Shirley Jackson did it first and did it better, so why would you want to draw the comparisons?

The characters are pretty unlikeable--petty and jealous and self-centered. That can be fine, but it would be nice if they'd been a little more likeable before the house got ahold of them, so we could get a bigger progression. The bi characters are cheaters, which isn't a great look. There are plot threads that kind of go nowhere and actions that aren't explained. (Why would someone who doesn't want anyone near Hill House seemingly chase someone up there? If the cook needs the money so badly, why is he willing to risk being openly hostile to people who are providing his only source of income? And why the multiple rounds of speculation on whether he's beating his wife when we never get any closer to an answer? Etc.)

Also, a quibble, but one that annoys me to no end: Elizabeth Sawyer wasn't burned, though they said it SEVERAL times in the novel. She was hanged.

Solid 4 stars, CUT THE SINGING

The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson is my favorite book, so I knew going into this book that my standards were high. Other books have tried to latch onto the Hill House narrative (such as Hell House) and have failed. While I enjoyed the story of this book, I have to admit that the characters left a lot to be desired. On top of that, the narration was, I feel, not the best fit. I probably would’ve enjoyed it more without the singing. The singing just took me out, as did the gratuitous sound effects. Just let the words do what they do; they don’t need bells and whistles. Anyway, it was decent and I’m not upset that I listened to it, but it fell short for me. Better than a lot of supernatural horror novels though, I will give it that!

Zero relationship with Shirley Jackson

It’s like saying my life is a retelling of Shirley Jackson’s as I am also a woman. That’s how flimsy the connection is. This writing is not nearly as inventive or lively and the story is average. Did not enjoy.

Atmospheric and Terrifying in the BEST Way

Taking on the world of Shirley Jackson’s beloved Hill House is quite a bold move, but Elizabeth Hand pulls it off. Hand manages to honor the house Jackson created while spinning her own terrifying story

Loved this!

A really great take on the hill house, enjoyable and detailed! I've been anticipating this one and it didn't disappoint.

I enjoyed it a lot, but for different reasons than the original.

So, yes; the characters aren’t quite as deep as in the original. But, I hate Nel so much. I love the original story, but Nel just gets so upset when its not about her. Like when luke tries to open up about his issues. She’s just thinking ‘omg, why is this guy not talking about me.’

But I found it creepy and I really liked the strange three female characters that tries to warn them.
It has a ‘waking the moon’ vibe that I enjoyed. So while Elizabeth Hand did use her own artistic voice, I didn’t find it off putting in the slightest.

I would fully recommend. I’ve listened to is a couple of times since it came out on the 3rd.

Not Hill House

I love this author, and probably would have loved the book if it were not for the overwhelming ghost of the original Shirley Jackson classic. It could not compare.
The performance in the audio was spectacular.

Overwritten and underwhelming

Was excited to “return” to Hill House, but the experience disappointed me. I found the characters shallow and unlikeable in a way that was uninteresting rather than provocative.

Rather than letting Hill House prey on the soft, dark subconscious of its guests until they collapse in on themselves, the author brought in far too many disparate side plots and backstories. This distracted from the heart of what made Hill House so chilling in Jackson’s version… it’s demented nature was both singular and it’s own, while also serving as a mirror and activator to the violent threads of evil in our own psyches.

Fantastic but -- wraps up too quickly

First -- Carol Monda is incredible as a narrator. I've loved her for the Elizabeth Hand Generation Loss series and she's so so so good here. I thought the concept & character-building here was terrific -- I especially love the device of the group gathered at Hill House to rehearse a play based on Witch of Edmonton (there needs to be more Jacobean drama everywhere, all the time) -- but felt that I definitely could have spent a much longer time in the world Hand built; I wanted more! The narrative wraps up a bit abruptly, too, I thought. I could have done with another few hours of development including more fleshing out of the Hill House backstory. WELL WELL worth it, though, despite this quibble, although be forewarned -- the sound design here is more immersive than the typical audiobook and the extra background sounds UNNERVED ME at times.