We Have Always Lived in the Castle

We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson 146 pages

It’s October, and if you are looking for a spooky read, forget Stephen King and grab a copy of any of Shirley Jackson’s books. I love how Jackson’s terror is so subtle.

In this, the last book she published, in 1962, the basis is family. Generation of Blackwoods have lived on their estate, but now a shroud has been draped over the family’s reputation.  One of the three remaining Blackwoods is guilty of poisoning the rest of the family.

The suspects are:

            *Eighteen-year-old Mary Katherine, known throughout the village and by the family as Merricat, has been acquitted of all wrongdoing.

            *Uncle Julian, who drank just enough of the poison wine to render him an invalid and confined to a wheelchair.

            *Merricat’s sister, Constance, who never leaves the estate and rarely ventures past her garden.

The answer to the crime seems obvious, but nothing is ever like it seems in a Shirley Jackson story.

Merricat goes into the village on Tuesdays and Fridays to get groceries and whatever else the family needs, but she hates it.  The villagers avoid her and the children make fun of her.

I gather that the estate and the house that looks like a castle is quite large. The three don’t live in the house’s entirety, but five rooms at the most.

One day, a cousin, Charles, appears at their door. He has heard the rumors of a fortune being stashed on the estate and is determined to find it.

Okay, I can’t say anymore without giving the plot away, so you’ll have to read this one for yourself.  I highly recommend it.  “We Have Always Lived in the Castle” receives 4 out of 5 stars in Julie’s world.