Book Review - We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson

Title: We Have Always Lived in the Castle
Author: Shirley Jackson
Genre: Horror/ Classic
Published: 1962
 
Description: Living in the Blackwood family home with only her sister Constance and her Uncle Julian for company, Merricat just wants to preserve their delicate way of life. But ever since Constance was acquitted for murdering the rest of the family, the world isn’t leaving the Blackwoods alone. And when Cousin Charles arrives, armed with overtures of friendship and a desperate need to get into the safe, Merricat must do everything in her power to protect the remaining family.
 
Review: Shirley Jackson’s “We Have Always Lived in the Castle” is a masterful gothic novel. The story centers on eighteen-year-old Mary Katherine “Merricat” Blackwood, who lives in a large, secluded country house with her agoraphobic sister Constance and their ailing uncle Julian. Six years earlier, the rest of the Blackwood family was mysteriously poisoned with arsenic in the sugar bowl. Although Constance was acquitted, the nearby village still believes she is the culprit. The sisters live in total isolation, protected by Merricat’s magical rituals, until their money-hungry cousin Charles arrives and brutally shatters their fragile peace.
 
Jackson excels at creating an ominous, claustrophobic atmosphere. The psychological depth of Merricat as an unreliable narrator is fascinating; her childlike logic mixed with dark tendencies makes her both sympathetic and terrifying. The book is a sharp social critique of groupthink, exclusion, and the suffocating nature of family ties.
 
Without giving away exactly what happens, the plot twist is powerful. Jackson forces the reader to reevaluate everything that has been told up to that point. You realize how manipulative the build-up has been. It both feels like a shock yet like the only logical truth.  
 
It’s a bit of a slow burn, with a good pay-off.
 
Rating: 4/ 5