SOURCE: "Recommended: Susan Hill," in English Journal, Vol. 72, No. 4, April, 1983, pp. 75-6.

In the essay below, Reed compares The Bird of Night, In the Springtime of the Year, and Strange Meeting, emphasizing the humanity of the main character of each novel.

Susan Hill's novels were not best-sellers when they were published in the early 1970s, nor would they be today, for they are short, have no complex plots, and do not exploit the sensual or bizarre. But each novel is a masterful probe into human emotions and needs. Her characters come alive not because of what they do but how they feel and react to others and to their environment. Hill's style is clear and the structure of her work is simple. Her novels are a paradox, easy to read yet profound in exploring our complex behavior and the universal problems we encounter—death, war, seclusion, even madness...