CBR16 Bingo: Dun Dun – Both books play on your nerves, and just when you think the protagonists may be reaching safe harbor things only get worse for them.
The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson – 4 stars
Four people go to an allegedly haunted house to investigate – a scientist, a cheerful artist, a low down scoundrel, and a fragile, friendless young woman. All of them don’t return.
This is a short book and slips by almost without you noticing it. At first I found myself amused by Eleanor’s fantasies and vaguely irritated by all the twee chatter between the quartet, and as intrigued as they all are about what might be the case with Hill House.
But as I read on I began to see deeper into Eleanor, and gain greater glimpses of Jackson’s sleight-of-hand. The case of Hill House may not be solved in the end, but it becomes terribly clear that there’s more than one kind of haunting going on. And some of Eleanor’s fears struck me to the quick, more than one would really want to admit to themselves.
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Rose/House by Arkady Martine – 2 stars
The world’s first AI house has been sealed up so that it will only admit one person – the erstwhile protégé of its sinister, now deceased architect. But when the local precinct receives a call reporting a dead body within, police officer Maritza must take charge of the investigation.
It was immediately obvious how this book echoes and refracts Jackson’s The Haunting of Hill House. Like in the former, the central house is an eerie place with a mind of its own, though here it’s a science fiction take with the house having an AI mind of its own. The writing was beautiful and tense, creating that same sense of claustrophobia and impending doom.
However, the story was frustratingly obscure. I probably wouldn’t have minded if it weren’t for the jarringly different perspective set outside the house, which only serves to cast us some half-hearted red herrings and make dull jokes. That the two parts are so disparate only serves to weaken both. The big issue I had is that the mystery part of the book did not really work out, and without that central scaffolding we are left with vibes and not much else.
Disclaimer: I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley. This is my honest and voluntary review.