We Have Always Lived in the Castle

Do you remember the story The Lottery? Written by Shirley Jackson in the fifties, it was thrust upon many of us by Classic-loving English teachers, or gobbled up by those of us with a delight in macabre literature.  One of my personal favourites, it is disgusting and horrible, and I highly recommend it, especially if you're fascinated by twisted tales of governance and utilitarianism. 

The Lottery is Jackson's best known story, followed by The Haunting at Hill House, which received wild attention a few years back due to the Netflix movie (I'm not brave enough to watch that!).

We Have Always Lived in the Castle is Jackson's last book before her death, and as her writing falls under Horror/Gothic, I thought it would be great fun to highlight this book for you as we head into the season of pumpkins.

When I think of Horror, I think of Stephen King's Carrie. This is NOT that. If I could make up my own genre, I would call it Psychologically Chilling. I LOVE psychologically chilling! But I'm not into freaked out, scared to be alone, terror. Okay? Just so we're clear. This is not that. 

It is, however, both a mystery and a story of family love. It is strange, sinister, foreboding, and a bit twisted. 
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My name is Mary Katherine Blackwood. I am eighteen years old, and I live with my sister Constance. I have often thought that with any luck at all I could have been born a werewolf, because the two middle fingers on both my hands are the same length, but I have had to be content with what I had. I dislike washing myself, and dogs, and noise, I like my sister Constance, and Richard Plantagenet, and Amanita phalloides, the death-cap mushroom. Everyone else in my family is dead.

And so begins the first chapter and our introduction to the Blackwood family, or what's left of them. 
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Six years ago, most of the family died after a family dinner because of arsenic in the sugar bowl. Who killed them? We have to read on, as Merricat's (Mary Katherine's nickname) deceptively childish voice fills us in on the details of their existence, including Constance's crippling agoraphobia and obsession with cooking, Uncle Julian's endless and senile loop of trying to figure out who committed the murders, and Merricat's hate and distrust of the gossiping villagers and any other outsiders. 

Merricat is now eighteen, but through the narration of the story it is obvious that she is stuck in a younger mind, perhaps a mind from six years ago. 

This remaining Blackwoods survive together, shut off from the outside world with only Merricat going to get groceries and library books. They are... happy? At least they've adapted to living under constant suspicion. But then... 

Change comes in the form of a distant gold-digging cousin, Charles, who is set on marrying Constance and inheriting the family money. His intrusion into their lives creates a rising panic in Merricat, as the carefully protected life she leads in her disturbingly structured world is threatened. 
This is a story about family relationships, oppression, jealousy and the decent into madness and isolation when things don't go as planned. If you enjoy excellent writing and darker psychological themes, it will fascinate you until the very end. 

Read on a dark night with a mug of tea to warm you. Maybe skip the sugar.

We Have Always Lived In the Castle is on the shelves now at Totally Book-ish.