A review by diannastarr
We Have Always Lived in the Castle, by Shirley Jackson

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

Shirley Jackson's final novella is, in it's entirety, one of her best works.  It focuses on the Blackwood family after half of the family perished in a terrible poisoning - leaving Uncle Julian, the narrator's sister: Constance, and the narrator herself - Mary Katherine "Merricat" as the only survivors.  It is insidious not in the mythological monsters, the superstitious or the supernatural; We Have Always Lived in the Castle is terrifying in the way by which the narrator devolves into a state of paranoia and neurosis, and, consequently, drags its readers down with her.  Merricat is, by it's definition, an extremely unreliable narrator, a young woman trapped in a state of everlasting childhood which in turns, brings to light the question: what makes a ghost?  At just a hundred or so pages, every single word is chosen with care and Merricat's skewed perspective is simultaneously limited and limitless.  We Have Always Lived in the Castle is a phenomenal story about family, loneliness, childhood, and grief - and it is the perfect paperback to pick up when autumn rolls around, to reread late one night when you cannot sleep, or even to read for the very first time after having not read a single book in years.