Mary Katherine and Constance Blackwood have spent the las...more <p style="margin-left: 80px; color: rgb(153, 0, 0);"><font size="4">Merricat, said Connie, would you like a cup of tea?
Oh no, said Merricat, you'll poison me.</font>

Mary Katherine and Constance Blackwood have spent the last six years living in near isolation from the outside world with their invalid Uncle Julian, only venturing beyond their gated property twice a week to purchase items they could not procure themselves. The reason: Constance was acquitted of murdering her extended family with arsenic in the sugar. The three live out very structured routines: On Mondays the women "neatened" the house; Saturdays they gardened; Tuesdays and Fridays Merricat went to the library and the grocery.

Uncle Julian, victimized by the poisoning both physically and mentally, relives that "last day" again and again. His constant recollections and questioning of facts for his book, his "life work", seems to the reader to prevent any of them from 'moving on', but on the surface does not seem to faze either sister. The family has three regular visitors that stop by each week who extend the hand of friendship that's still somewhat afraid of being slapped away.

The two sisters are like polar opposites: Merricat -- wild and unruly, believing herself to be a witch of sorts muttering safe magic words and burying odd objects from the house throughout the grounds to protect them; Constance -- embodying the domicile feminine role passed down through the Blackwood women, with her cooking, preserving, and gardening, constantly coddling and playfully admonishing her younger sister for her strange imaginings.

About halfway through the book, Cousin Charles forces his way into their lives, symbolizing male dominance attempting to 'check' these self-sufficient women. Merricat refuses to accept or even acknowledge his power bid, calling him a "ghost and a demon". Eventually another tragedy occurs, which again isolates the women from the outside world, forcing them to shrink further into each other, and creating a new weekly pattern of activities to fill their remaining days.

Shirley Jackson's works are very gothic in nature, sometimes considered works of horror, and very intriguing! About fort-eight pages into the book I made up my mind of how the book would end, and I was correct, but even so what is revealed from page to page was quite disturbingly provocative. The taunting of the villagers -- both children and adults -- the habits of the two sisters, the way they speak even...at one point my thoughts fell back to The Sixth Sense mentality, even. Not to knock M. Night Shyamalan, but really his work cannot compare. This was my third time reading Shirley Jackson and I was never disappointed. It's funny to me: the shortest book, the one that I read the fastest, the one I just happened to come across and knew instantly I had to buy, is the one I gleaned the most from...huh.

We Have Always Lived In The Castle, published in 1962, was the last novel of Shirley Jackson, author of "The Lottery" and The Haunting of Hill House.