Subtlety isn’t really what I’m looking for when it comes to books about possessed buildings trying to drive their occupants crazy.  But that’s exactly what Shirley Jackson offers in the psychological horror classic The Haunting of Hill House. The book, which is the basis of a recent Netflix series, follows four strangers brought together by a strange, old mansion. Dr. John Montague has been looking for an opportunity to conduct serious research into unexplained phenomena for a long time. He hires young bohemian Theodora and […]

The two characters at the heart of Shirley Jackson’s We Have Always Lived in the Castle, sisters Mary Katharine and Constance Blackwood, live alone with their doddering Uncle Julian in the aftermath of the deaths of the rest of their family. It’s a limited existence but for the fact that the outside world can’t let them alone. Though the older sister Constance was acquitted at trial, the town is convinced she killed her relatives and that, along with lingering class resentment for the wealthy Blackwoods, […]