Shirley Jackson; Horror of Isolation and Fear

Horror is a male dominated genre. If you search for the best horror novelists you will see a list of mostly male names. But that is not to say there aren’t great female horror writers. In fact, one of the best of all time (and Stephen King agrees) is Shirley Jackson.

If you have seen the excellent TV series The House on Haunted Hill then you have accessed at least a bit of what Jackson is. But the show isn’t a true telling of the book of the same name.

The Haunting of Hill House

Jackson’s horror is pure psychology. She steers clear of jumps, bumps and scares, instead sticking to the most terrifying thing, the human mind. In The Haunting of Hill House, Jackson tells us the tale of lonely Nell. A woman who has cared for her ailing mother for many years.

Nell has lost connection with society, and herself over the years. Growing resentful over what she has missed out on. So, she agrees to visit a ‘haunted’ house.

Hill House is notorious. It was built in a strange way and this has produced strange goings on. A paranormal investigator wants to determine whether or not the house is strange, or haunted. So, he invites a group of people with a history of psychic experiences to stay there with him to investigate.

Nell and another woman, Theodore, are the only guests who accept the invite and it doesn’t take long for them to start to see, hear and feel things in the house.

The true genius of Jackson is that you never really know whether or not any of it is real. If you seek out the 1963 film The Haunting you will see a great adaptation (and one of the best horror films ever made). Is Nell losing touch with reality? Or is she being haunted by the ghosts of Hill House?

We Have Always Lived in the Castle

The horror of this book does not lie within the walls of Hill House, but in the minds of the characters. This is something of a trope of Jackson, who follows a similar theme in We Have Always Lived in the Castle.

This book is about two sisters who live in their large family home with their ill Uncle. They are isolated from their nearby village and one of the sisters, Merricat, only visits the town for essential supplies.

The reason for their isolation is simple, years earlier, the sisters and their Uncle were the only survivors of a poisoning that killed the rest of the family. Merricat’s sister Constance was arrested for murder but was acquitted. The townsfolk never believed her innocence.

So they live in a bubble, slowly losing contact with society and reality. There are a lot of questions for the reader and nothing is really answered. Except one, who really killed the sisters’ family.

Like The Haunting of Hill House, the horror in this novel comes from the characters, their behaviour and the mystery surrounding them. I was never completely comfortable in the company of Merricat and Constance. Their relationship seems uneasy and complicated. Although, they clearly love each other dearly. The book is compelling, enchanting in a weird way and it’ll stick with you.

Jackson wrote a relatively small number of books but each one I have discovered has left an impression. Her writing is subtle, nuanced and powerful. A writer we should all experience at least once.

Charlotte Wood is a feminist and writer of the macabre and sinister. She reads horror, fantasy, classic literature and historical fiction (with a preference for history from a woman’s perspective).

Charlotte’s debut novel Heather available for preorder now!
A compelling, frightening and heart-breaking tale of desperation, Heather is a ghost story spanning 100 years that will keep you guessing till the end.