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Last night my husband and I finished "The Haunting of Hill House," the Netflix original series that was inspired by Shirley Jackson's novel of the same name. Earlier that day, I had also finished the novel.

Having finished both the novel and the TV miniseries, I could see connections between the two. However there were also many major points where the miniseries was not faithful to the novel (said it was an inspiration, remember?) but for this age and time, made wonderful additions to the story.

Here there be SPOILER ALERTS for both the novel as well as the miniseries!!

My biggest question when comparing a novel and a miniseries or a movie based on the same is are they faithful to the main aspect of the novel. In this case, it was obviously Hill House.

"No live organism can continue for long to exist sanely under conditions of absolute reality; even larks and katydids are supposed by some, to dream. Hill House, not sane, stood by itself against its hills, holding darkness within; it had stood so for eighty years and might stand for eighty more. Within, it's walls continued upright, bricks met neatly, floors were firm, and doors were sensibly shut; silence lay steadily against the wood and stone of Hill House, and whatever walked there, walked alone."

First paragraph of the novel by Shirley Jackson

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Hill House is quite clearly insane, according to the book. In fact, in reading the book, for me, it wasn't until almost halfway through the book that I realized what exactly was going on. I had told a friend that it was... a little boring, actually. He made some comment as to how different eras of writers wrote differently. Of course they did -- I was quite aware of that, but when I finally really started reading the book instead of skimming it, I realized that Hill House itself was driving Eleanor insane. It starts slowly and subtly -- which is most likely why I didn't pick it up until about the middle.

This is one of those books you have to read carefully and not just skim through the words. Personally, I find these books more challenging because it's not just images in my head that I'm seeing such as when I'm reading someone with talents like Stephen King. You have to take the book apart, piece by piece, until it's all stored in your head and you finally get what's going on. I will have to reread this book to see what I overlooked, what I missed in the first half of the book.

The book starts with letters sent to different people to participate in a parapsychological study of Hill House by a Doctor Montague: Eleanor, Theodora and Luke--and honestly, I'm not quite sure of their last names or even why Eleanor and Theodora were chosen. Luke is the inheritor of the house and his presence was required in order to have this little "experiment."

Eleanor arrives first--and I would almost supposed that's exactly when the House went to work on her. She is unstable at the start, having stolen her sister's car and run away to Hill House already. Theodora arrives and Eleanor comes to admire Theodora--you might even say she fell in love with her. The book was written at the end of 1959, so a lesbian being portrayed openly in a novel probably wouldn't have been received as well as it would be today.

I think to read this novel, I really had to go back to the tv shows I'd seen from that era and think of how the characters would act, how the characters would be dressed.

At the end of the novel, I realized why the novel was on so many lists as one of the top ghost stories ever. So much so that I will have to revisit it and take it apart to see exactly how Jackson accomplished the masterpiece she accomplished.

The miniseries is definitely different than the novel. It's still set in Hill House with the Dudleys as the caretakers (they have a larger role), but the Crains (Hugh and his wife) and their five children have moved in to fix up the house and flip it, moving on to what they hope will be their "forever" home.

Eleanor, Theodora, and Luke are now siblings with Steve and Shirley thrown in for good measure. I guessing Shirley was probably named after the novelist, Shirley Jackson, but Steve just shows up as the oldest brother who wrote the book, "The Haunting of Hill House."

Each of them have their own problems: Steve is the famous author who has to be the big brother of the house and take care of things. We learn quickly that he does not believe in the paranormal although he's written a stack of books about people with paranormal experiences.

Shirley and her husband run a funeral home while she pretends that nothing is wrong and that she is perfect. Theodora is a lesbian psychologist with the power to touch people and experience what they've experienced. Luke and Nell are twins, but Luke is a junkie who's been in and out of rehab like a revolving door.

Nell is, well, Nell. We don't know much about her at the beginning but we learn that she's always been haunted by a "Bent-Neck Lady" and that her parents don't believe her. We learn she gets married to a young counselor who helps her through bouts of sleep paralysis and then he dies of an aneurism on night, leaving her alone.

We also find out that their mother committed suicide in Hill House under mysterious circumstances and their father, Hugh, rushed them to a motel that night, then went back to the hotel, never telling the kids what actually happens. This forms a bitterness between the children and Hugh and that bitterness creates a growing distance between them.

Just like in the novel, Nell is the one who is haunted by the house. She's the one who starts therapy after her husband dies. She tries to help Luke, but at this point in the story, he can't be helped, so she buys heroin for her because he convinces her it's best to go into a rehab high than not.

When the siblings find out that Steve has written a book about their time and experiences in HIll House, he offers each of them a part of the money he earned from the book. Shirley, on her high horse, of course, says no. Each of them are upset that Steve would use their sorrow and grief to gain money, regardless of how he does it.

At the end of the first episode, Nell goes to Hill House and commits suicide. The rest of the story centers around this event.

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While watching the show, I discovered that the name of the director is Mike Flanagan -- and that he was also the director of another movie I loved: Oculus about a college student, her research partner, and a haunted mirror. It also hit all the fight chords with me.

This was a nice modern-day interpretation of Hill House, but there was the giant revelation to me that, "Holy SHIT! The book is better by far."

So it all depends on what you want to focus on. The Hill House in the book drives Nell insane and the Hill House in the miniseries uses ghosts to haunt the Crain family for decades.