Welcome to Litsy!

So far the book is as riveting as Jackson‘s work.

Very cool graphic adaptation of The Lottery done by Jackson‘s grandson. He shared a great anecdote about her in the preface, and I really appreciated the care he took in staying true to the tension and horror of the story.

A beautifully atmospheric novel. The stories of Holly, Nisa, Stevie, and Amanda are diverse but diverge together in a refreshingly realistic portrayal of intergenerational relationships in a community. These relationships are at the heart of the story, and are at constant risk of being devoured by their individual desires for success.

I am very happy with this follow up to one of my favorite books of all time. A playwright, her musician girlfriend, their sound engineer friend, and a washed-up actress get together to rehearse a play in Hill House. Hill House doesn‘t want them there… or maybe it really, really does. There‘s a number of highly satisfying callbacks to the original novel. It‘s not as subtle, but I think it‘s stronger for not trying to precisely emulate the master.

This queer horror novel is the first authorized return to Shirley Jackson‘s iconic queer horror The Haunting of Hill House from 1959. Same setting, new characters. I had high expectations and they were pretty much met (I wanted a bit less action pre-house and a little more buildup to the climax). But Hand does an amazing job creating a spooky atmosphere and I found the borderline unlikable characters and their relationships fascinating.

Stopped by the bookstore after dinner out today and picked this up on a whim - it‘s a little spooky already and so far a great fuzzy blanket/cat lap read 😸

3.5/5 🌟

An intriguing yet challenging exploration of a young mind wrestling with mental health and past traumas. Thought-provoking but admittedly frustrating towards the end. This is definitely not a book for everyone. 📚

Here I was about a week ago patting myself on the back because I didn‘t check out any library books. This is my stack from today. I only went in to pick up my hold for the tagged and the picture books. 🙂

Except for the picture books, I won‘t get to any of them before the new year! 🫣

Note: I have already read the first two Tearling books, but that was 8 years ago so I can‘t decide if I need to reread them before Fate.

So, I like this one, but it's not as good as Jackson's The Haunting of Hill House, which is one of my favorite scary books. This one veered into a kind of Amityville Horror realm that I find less compelling than the place where Jackson kept her Hill House. Still, it's scary and, I think, stays true to the ideas that animate Jackson's novel. And I do love the "haunted house as metaphor for the internal self" motif.