We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson
Book – We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson
Pages – 158 pages, Paperback
Genre – Horror, Mystery, Suspense
Publisher – Penguin Classics
Rating – 2.5/5 sarts
About the Book
This is Merricat and Constance’s story narrated by Merricat, one of the most unreliable narrator I’ve ever read. Living in the Blackwood family home with only her sister Constance and her Uncle Julian, all Merricat wants is for her sister to be safe. But ever since Constance was acquitted of murdering the rest of the family, the town isn’t leaving the Blackwoods alone.
So, what’s next for the Blackwoods?
Book Review
The book where you find no answers 🙂
Reading this book was laborious. Not because the writing is hard to read, but because nothing in particular happens here. I kept reading this book to find answers, but then I realized it is not a confessional book. I thoroughly liked how Shirley Jackson highlighted society’s herd/mob mentality in this book.
I found the sisters very annoying. Constance is too good to be true. Mary has lost her mind trying to protect her sister. I look at her as a childish sociopath who is fascinated with dark things. To me, Merricat is an example of how bad people or unstable people do awful, horrific, unethical things and they’re not caught or charged for it.
158 pages of how two girls, away from the town, spend their days, what they eat and how they clean their house. And a little about how one of them poisoned everyone in the family. There absolutely is no plot line or character development. People just hate each other for no apparent reason. Well, that’s life maybe.
One reason I kept reading was the hope of finding answers. Now that I have none, I have my own theories which I’d like to believe are true for my own sanity’s sake. The only haunting thing about the book is the societal representation on how townspeople hated two little girls for absolutely no reasons (or maybe because they were different/distant/did not fit into the definition of ideal person?) and how they wished death upon them.
Do I Recommend this Book?
Debatable. I think not. I’d rather borrow the book or watch the movie than buy a copy for myself. I’ve been told the short stories by Shirley Jackson are much better. I might read them soon.
This was Garima’s Book Club pick and I had a better time discussing this book than reading it. You might want to select this as a book club read for a fun book discussion session haha.
Also Read – Book Review: Mornings in Jenin by Susan Abulhawa
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