How do you feel about shirley jackson

The Haunting of Hill House remains one of my favorite haunted-house books, hi224, better than either of the movie adaptations (yes, even the original!), in my opinion. I think that what makes it so effective is how easily Jackson breaks every haunted house cliche, setting the book in the real world, allowing the characters to leave the house proper, inserting a good deal of black comedy to punctuate the scares. Excellent book.

"The Lottery" is a great, shocking story that well deserves the title of "masterpiece" (although I probably would have disagreed with Miss Jackson's politics).

We Have Always Lived in the Castle is typical Jackson, very weird and off--almost the literary equivalent of a Gorey cartoon, in fact!--but I think I preferred Hill House, where the plot form was a bit more rigidified and kept its authoress a bit more grounded.

I haven't read any of her other novels and few of her other short stories, but, from what I have read of the form, I think she's a masterful writer.