Book Club Mondays: "The Haunting of Hill House"

While a great deal of the reading I do on a regular basis is new literature by younger writers, once and awhile I get the itch to read a classic. For horror fans, The Haunting of Hill House is definitely one of those books. It spurred two films - if you've seen The Haunting, this is the book it was based on. And yes, that scene where Owen Wilson gets his head taken off by the marble lion is still one of my favorite crappy horror moments.

The story centers around Dr. John Montague inviting four individuals to stay at Hill House, which is a haunted house Dr. Montague rents for the summer, and everything that happens caused by Hugh Crain, the original owner of the house. It is still hailed as one of the best literary ghost stories of the twentieth century, and for good reason. It explores fear in many different ways, including themes of possession, which aren't usually discussed in modern horror.

If you're one of the individuals that has only seen the films the book was based on, take a few hours of your life and read. The book, though old, has many characteristics that new horror doesn't - mostly, being one of the first explorations of psychological horror. As you read, you feel Eleanor, the main character, being pulled farther and farther away from the others, and very nearly possessed by the house itself.