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CraftyRole4567 t1_ixutedk wrote

I’m so glad you found it! I read it in middle school first because Stephen King said it was the most frightening book ever written and I completely missed that Theo is bisexual/lesbian. I missed all the sexual stuff, all the tension. I reread it maybe every 10 years and each time I understand it differently – it’s like Turn of the Screw that way. 10 years ago when I read it I thought it was actually a horror novel, and she joins the house at the end, and then someone online pointed out to me that the beginning (and end) of the book actually points away from that… so I had to re-read it again, last month! And… It feels different again. There’s just so much subtlety to it, it’s one of those books that feels different every time you go to it.

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AxidentalMe OP t1_ixuu2e9 wrote

The tension between Eleanor and Theo was superb. What a fascinating dynamic, especially that chapter when Eleanor describes how much she hates her. Marvellous!

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Tayreads608 t1_ixuulxh wrote

Okay, now I need to hear the reading of it where she doesn’t end up with the house and how the beginning and end tie into that.

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CraftyRole4567 t1_ixuvmpr wrote

I don’t know how to do a spoiler alert! I keep seeing them but I don’t know how to do that… Then again, it’s the first paragraph. “whatever walked there, walked alone” certainly implies that whatever is haunting Hill House may seduce Eleanor to thinking she’s joining it but that she hasn’t at the end of it, that there are no trapped spirits and Hill House, there’s just the malevolence of the house itself. It actually makes for a much bleaker ending.

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Tayreads608 t1_ixuyxke wrote

Yeah, I pretty much agree with that I just haven’t seen it put that way. I’ve recently been reading it as a sort of exploration of the beginning of a bad marriage. The house spends most of its time isolating Eleanor and making her feel wanted/needed (hence using her mothers voice), but even when she joins the house it will only be the same isolation and loneliness she felt when she was with her mother.

I just so genuinely love that you really never read the book the same way and it doesn’t matter how many times I read it or how many times I talk to people about it there’s always some new layer to be revealed.

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CraftyRole4567 t1_ixwqepr wrote

Oh I LOVE that take on the story! I’ll think about it next time I read it :)

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