My Turn of the Screw review, without solving it

Yes, The Turn of the Screw is worth reading, and no, it won't hand you a neat answer by the end; it isn't supposed to, quite. Henry James published the novella in 1898, and people have been arguing over what actually happens in it ever since.

I first read it on the sofa, under the chunkiest blanket I own, with a coffee going cold beside me because I forgot it existed. That is the highest compliment I can pay a book, and I'll explain why below, without spoiling it.

What is The Turn of the Screw about?

The setup is simple. A young woman takes a job as a governess. She is put in charge of two children, Miles and Flora, at a large country house called Bly. Their uncle is their guardian, and he makes it very clear he does not want to be bothered about them. Not ever. A housekeeper, Mrs Grose, keeps the household going and becomes the governess's only real confidante.

Then the governess starts to see people who shouldn't be there. A figure on a tower. Another by the water. She becomes convinced that they are the ghosts of two former members of the household, and that they have their eyes on the children.

That's the whole engine of the thing. Nothing gets much bigger than that, and it doesn't need to. The horror comes from a very ordinary situation going wrong slowly: a big house, an absent grown-up, a woman alone with a responsibility she can't share.

It is also framed as a story told at a gathering on Christmas Eve, with a group of people around a fire swapping ghost stories. One of them has an old manuscript to read out. I'm a sucker for that. It's the original cosy night in with something creepy attached, and it's why this book keeps turning up in December lists.

Is it scary? Yes, but not in the jump-scare way. It's the sort of scary where you put the book down, look at the dark window, and decide you'll finish the chapter in the morning. Then you don't, because you want to know.

Is it hard going? A bit. James writes long, winding sentences, and I will admit that on my first go I read one three times and still lost the plot of it. It's a short book, though, and it gets easier once your ear tunes in. Think of it as a slow film where you have to lean forward.

Are the ghosts in The Turn of the Screw real?

Here is the thing nobody warns you about. The book is famous partly for a fight. Some readers say the ghosts are real, and the governess is the brave one trying to protect the children. Other readers say the ghosts are in her head, and the danger is the governess herself. Both camps can point at actual lines on the page.

I'm not going to tell you which one is right, partly because it would be a spoiler of a sort, and partly because I don't think there is a winner. The text keeps the door open on purpose. Every time you think you've caught it out, another sentence turns up and shrugs.

The governess is the one telling us everything, and we only ever see the house through her. That's the trick. If she's reliable, it's a ghost story. If she isn't, it's something colder and much sadder. And the book never quite lets you check her homework.

Now, I'm a horror fan, not a literature professor. I love a proper ghost, and I love an ambiguous ending less when it feels like the writer ran out of ideas. This one doesn't feel like that. It feels like a very deliberate refusal to hand you a tidy answer. The uncertainty is what the book is made of.

So my advice is to stop hunting for a solution. I know that sounds like a cop-out. It isn't. If you read it as a puzzle to be cracked, you'll spend the whole book with a magnifying glass, and you'll miss the mood. If you read it as an atmosphere, it works on you much better.

How I'd read it, if I were starting again

Here's what I'd do, and what I did second time round, which was a much better experience than the first.

1. Read it in the evening, in a couple of sittings. It's short enough to finish in a night or two, and the tension builds better when you don't keep leaving it for a week.

2. Don't read a summary first. Spoilers matter here more than usual, because the pleasure is in not knowing what's really going on.

3. Don't skim the opening frame with the fireside gathering. It's short, and it sets the tone: the story is being told, handed over, passed along. That's part of why it feels like a rumour you're not sure you should believe.

4. Keep a pencil handy, or don't. If you like noticing things, mark the moments where you're told something and the moments where you're only told what the governess thinks it means. They are not always the same, and that gap is where the fun is.

5. Let yourself change your mind. I flipped at least twice in one reading. The book seems to expect it.

6. When you finish, sit with it for a bit before you go looking at what anyone else thinks. Then, if you want the argument, go and have it. It's a great one to have with a friend and a bottle of something red.

One small warning about editions. Some come with a long introduction, and some of those give away more than you want before you begin. If yours does, do what I do and save it for afterwards.

Is The Turn of the Screw worth reading?

This is for you if you like your horror creeping rather than shouting. If you liked a slow haunting that leaves you unsettled and a little bit suspicious of your own thoughts, you'll be happy here. If you need a clear monster and a clear ending, you may find it frustrating, and that's fair. I'd still say give it the first few chapters.

It's also a very good winter read. It's short, it's spooky, and it has that fireside setup. If you're building a Christmas ghost story pile this year, it belongs on it.

If you'd like a copy, the complete Henry James book is one I've picked out, and I'd say it's a fair pick for a dark evening. Choose an edition that suits you, and check the listing yourself to make sure it's the complete story you're after.

If you finish it and want more of the same feeling, there's a 1961 film adaptation called The Innocents, which people often talk about alongside the book. I'd watch it after reading, not before, for the same reason I said above: you want your own version of Bly in your head first. I'll do a proper night on that one another time.

For now, my verdict is this. It's a strange, slippery, beautifully unsettling little book, and it's better when you stop trying to win. Read it with a warm drink and a light left on. Then tell me which camp you ended up in, because I'm honestly still deciding.