Welcome to Booking Through Thursday, a weekly bookish meme about books and reading for everyone who loves both. Booking Through Thursday was first hosted by Deb. With permission, I’ve restarted it in 2026.
This week’s prompt:
What house would you pass by no matter how late (or early) it was? House of Usher? Manderley? Hill House? I’m sure there are others we should avoid. Let us know where not to go this week.
What fictional house would you absolutely not spend the night in?
How to play:
- On your blog: Copy the question/image for your blog, answer it there, and post a quick comment here with a link or trackback to your post so we can read it.
- On social media: Copy the image, answer the prompt, and post a quick comment here with a link.
- Right here: Answer in the comments and start the discussion here. No need to have a blog to play.
Note: If it’s your first time here, your comment may end up in moderation. (My spam filter is aggressive.) I’ll be in after my writing sprints to set it free.
P.S. The prompt is always open, and you don’t have to play on Thursday. Comment whenever you like!
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I’ve decided I’m not going to the version of Hill House in the (authorized) return to Hill House in A Haunting on the Hill by Elizabeth Hand. I felt the house really had it in for everyone in this novel, not that the Shirley Jackson house was all sweetness and light.
There was always the question in the Shirley Jackson book of: maybe it’s all in her head. Not so much for Hand’s version.
Also What Moves the Dead by T. Kingfisher is another version of a house I don’t want to spend the night in. Was it worse than the original house in The Fall of the House of Usher? I don’t know. But again. I don’t want to visit for ten minutes, never mind spend the night.
Shirley Jackson’s Hill House was plenty scary enough for me (and I only know it through the movie version starring Nicole Kidman). I definitely would not want to visit there; nor would I want to spend a single minute at the Hotel featured in The Shining. That was the only movie I’ve ever watched where my usual tricks for getting through scary/suspenseful moments — analyzing the devices the director is using to unnerve me — did not work. At all.
I haven’t dared to read or watch The Shining. And I’m keeping it that way.