This installment of Songs About Books is inspired by Shirley Jackson’s supernatural/psychological thriller The Haunting of Hill House (1959). This classic novel follows scientist Dr. Montague’s investigation of supernatural goings-on at Hill House. Though all of the participants assembled to live at Hill House are affected by their stay there, many of the strange events that follow center around Eleanor, a childlike woman.

I wrote the song from Eleanor’s point of view. Throughout the book, Eleanor dwells on a phrase that she can’t place and which she figures is from a song she can’t remember. The phrase is “journeys end in lovers meeting,” and I used it in the refrain of the song. It’s actually a line from Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night, though Eleanor never figures that out in the book.

A new collection of Jackson’s writing, Let Me Tell You, was released this summer on Random House.

Lauren Kinney is a writer and musician in Los Angeles. She also teaches music to
children, which gives her an excuse to play the recorder and square dance. She is
working on her MFA in fiction at Antioch University. Find her on twitter
@lauren_kinney.