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We Have Always Lived in the Castle

by Shirley Jackson

4.07 · rating details · 6,879 ratings · 1,174 reviews

Taking readers deep into a labyrinth of dark neurosis, We Have Always Lived in the Castle is a deliciously unsettling novel about a perverse, isolated, and possibly murderous family and the struggle that ensues when a cousin arrives at their estate.

Paperback, 146 pages

Published October 31st 2006 by Penguin Classics (first published 1962)

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May 02, 2008

Paul rated it

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Aug 08, 2007

sydney rated it

· review of another edition

This is my favorite book of all time, hands down, case closed.

Shirley Jackson wrote the short story "The Lottery," which is about a creepy small town. This follows in that tradition. It's about the Blackwells-- Mary Katherine, who is 18 but reads 12 to me, Constance, who is an adult but reads 18, and frail old Uncle Julian. And Jonas the cat. Six years before the book opens, the rest of the Blackwells were murdered at the dinner table. Now Mary Katherine (aka Merrica...more

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Feb 06, 2012

Kinga rated it

Shelves: special-place-in-my-heart

What a cute little book!! Just listen to this:

"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-cup mus...moreWhat a cute little book!! Just listen to this:

"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-cup mushroom. Everyone else in our family is dead."

There is a special place in my heart for all the wacky, unreliable narrators that might or might not have murderous tendencies. I read their words and I get them. Their logic makes sense to me. You are probably wondering: "But Kinga, doesn't it worry you? Doesn't it worry you that you find it so easy to relate to all the nutcases of the world?". And I will say: "Yes, it worries me a little bit, maybe. But hey, as Seal sings 'we're never gonna survive unless we get a little crazayy-y-y'. (Btw. did you hear the Seal and Heidi are no more? This is the saddest news ever. They were my favourite celebrity couple ever!)

Anyway, the book. Merricat and Constance are sisters and they live in a big house all alone, not counting their handicapped uncle. They have a garden where they grow things and Constance cooks all year long which makes Merricat observe:

"We eat the year away. We eat the spring and the summer and the fall. We wait for something to grow and then we eat it."

And it all sounds like total bliss to me. I want to live in a big house like that with my sister, and have my little harmless rituals, and new books from library every week.

Hey, don't you think Merricat should totally marry Frank from the Wasp Factory? They are meant for each other! Of course, they both hate strangers to they might initially try to kill each other, but every relationship has its obstacles to overcome. I believe eventually they will realise they are soulmates and get married and have lots and lots of completely twisted children. That might be just a tad difficult given the fact that Frank does not have a penis, but I believe that love conquers all!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Fc67yQsP...(less)

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May 01, 2008

Becca rated it

Hands down--one of my all-time favorite books. No, it's not a horror or thriller in the contemporary sense, but just like her short story "The Lottery" this book exudes the "horror" of mass hysteria in its climactic scene. What does it take to make us stop being civilized, even for a moment, and do awful things to other human beings?

Yes, the residents of this house are different, especially the true murderer. But do they deserve what happens to them? And is their ...more

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Feb 18, 2011

Adriana rated it

We Have Always Lived in the Castle is a quasi-horror fairytale about two sisters, Mary Katherine (Merricat) and Constance Blackwood, who live in isolation with their invalid uncle Julian. The villagers of the small town hate the Blackwoods. It could be their wealth or their elitist attitude. Or it could be the murder of 4 of the family members 6 years previous. The sisters interact little with the villagers and seem to have not matured at all since the loss of their family. Merricat, at 18,...moreWe Have Always Lived in the Castle is a quasi-horror fairytale about two sisters, Mary Katherine (Merricat) and Constance Blackwood, who live in isolation with their invalid uncle Julian. The villagers of the small town hate the Blackwoods. It could be their wealth or their elitist attitude. Or it could be the murder of 4 of the family members 6 years previous. The sisters interact little with the villagers and seem to have not matured at all since the loss of their family. Merricat, at 18, runs around like a wild animal and buries things for protection. Even uncle Julian is stuck in the past, trying to write a book about the murders. The real conflict isn’t clear until a third of the way through the book when long lost cousin Charles, shows up on the scene, threatening the Blackwood’s perfectly preserved routine. At 150 pages, this book is an intriguing thrill you can read in one sitting.

I read this book because I saw that it was labeled as an unreliable narrator, which I agree and disagree about. My initial reaction to the book was a bit disappointing. I thought it was disturbing and sad, but without any kind of plot twist to really make it worthwhile (There is a small reveal at the end, but no one will be surprised.) Also, there are a lot of small plot threads that are never explained, which some will enjoy as a chance for imagination, but others will find frustrating. However, after I read some other people’s reviews, I feel like I have a better understanding of the book. First of all, the book has a number of different mental conditions: agoraphobia, OCD, and insanity. Secondly, there is the whole element of who is the real enemy? Is the person who murdered the family the most evil person in the novel? What about the cruelty and hatred of the villagers? What about the greed of various characters? Unfortunately, I think the book isn’t long enough to really explore some of these themes adequately, but maybe that is the best part of all?
(less)

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Sep 09, 2007

Jason rated it

Shelves: thriller, mystery

An incredibly haunting page-turner. The story of two sisters and their elderly uncle locked away on their sprawling estate from the surrounding villagers. The sisters are despised, mainly because they're rich but publicly because one of the sisters was accused of murdering the other four family members. The first-person narrative makes it difficult to keep the ending completely hidden but the story's not really about the mystery - it's about these two sisters attempting build a family out of the...more

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Jun 18, 2011

Mikki rated it

Shelves: novellas

Here is what we know about the Blackwoods:

1. They come from a pedigreed lineage deeply steeped in tradition and manners, 2. Everyone in the village hates them, 3. Their home is an elegant historic landmark that sits on miles of private acres which they're terrified to leave, and 4. Just six years ago there were many more Blackwoods -- a mother, father, younger brother and aunt -- but now there are only three.

There is eighteen year old Mary Katherine, her older sis...more

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May 29, 2007

dave eck rated it

This book reminds me of William Faulkner's As I Lay Dying and Ken Kesey's Sometimes a Great Notion. Both books I hold dear but am not sure where We Have Always Lived in the Castle will rest.

Merricat and Constance Blackwood, the two main characters, live with their invalid uncle in the wake of their dead family. The novel follows Merricat and Constance through their daily rituals, revealing in spurts how their life alone came together. Rather than uncovering a truth, the revealati...more

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Sep 26, 2007

Sierra rated it

Recommends it for: people who like their horror super-smart

So I just finished reading this for the second time, and I'm now sure it's one of my favorite books, ever. Shirley Jackson has been largely ignored as a major voice; she's most famous now for her book Raising Demons, about her experience as a mother, and for a couple short stories that have been widely anthologized but never positioned as part of a larger significant body of work. This book is totally, perfectly creepy and incredibly thought-provoking. The world she creates here is so seducti...more

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Jan 02, 2009

Sam rated it

Shelves: novels

Like chainsmokers and alcoholics, most reading addicts - the sort of people who are unable to leave the house, ride the bus, or take a bath without a book in their hand - started the habit early in life. Mention Maniac Magee around me, for instance, and watch me tear up. You could chalk this up to nostalgia, I guess, but I think there's something else going on here; the really great children's books (young adult books?), or the really great books that are about children strike at the heart of ...moreLike chainsmokers and alcoholics, most reading addicts - the sort of people who are unable to leave the house, ride the bus, or take a bath without a book in their hand - started the habit early in life. Mention Maniac Magee around me, for instance, and watch me tear up. You could chalk this up to nostalgia, I guess, but I think there's something else going on here; the really great children's books (young adult books?), or the really great books that are about children strike at the heart of so many neuroses and life-long confusions that they affect readers in ways most adult novels don't. It's not that you can't identify with novelistic adult characters - I remember feeling like Jude Fawley from Jude the Obscure was some sort of long-lost sibling - but if you want to make someone feel truly basic emotions like loneliness, comfort, and fear, you're best going a little younger, where the pain is more painful and the comfort is more comforting.

Shirley Jackson isn't a children's writer, certainly, and she doesn't deal in comfort. But she does use the tropes of the children's novel in this book, her last novel, We Have Always Lived in the Castle, which concerns the lives of two sisters who are shut up in old mansion after a tragedy took away half of their family. The younger sister runs wild through the countryside with her cat, while the older sister cooks elaborate meals for their demented uncle, who is plodding through his memoirs of the tragedy.

It sounds like a children's novel, right? But bear in mind that the younger sister is mildly demented, the older sister has a Stepford quality, the uncle is profane and morbid, and the house itself exerts an evil influence on the entire family. Children's literature is often about the development of the self; in the course of the story the characters grow! They mature! They figure out who they are! Except that in a Jackson story, characters grow inward, they regress, they split into many different pieces.

Anybody interested in a genuinely frightening investigation into the nature of morality and human identity in the guise of a children's story will love this book. (less)

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Apr 11, 2009

Misha rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: 2008, novel

I read this to evaluate it as a potential book club selection. One of our members absolutely refuses to read "horror," so we were trying to determine whether this fit the mold. It didn't. Instead, it's a slowly creeping (although brief) tale of madness, death and small town prejudice told through the eyes of an introverted teenage girl who lives in a kind of fantasy world isolated with her sister and invalid uncle after someone has poisoned the rest of the family. A flashy, money-motiv...more

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Mar 08, 2011

al•veiz rated it

There is madness here, feminine madness. Madness in some ways tantalizingly similar to the madness described in The Haunting of Hill House (The only work penned by a woman that has ever sat on my idol shelf.) but in other ways just demented. The characters in We Have Always Lived in the Castle have suffered a grave tragedy. Their madness is justified by this. I don't like that about them. Jackson, like so many others, asks us to examine the incorrigible and horrific deficits embedded in huma...more

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Oct 13, 2011

Denae rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: fiction-horror, author-american, 1960s, fiction-gothic, up-to-no-good, greedy-relatives, foooood, impending-doom, questionable-sanity, questionable-motives, too-stubborn-for-their-own-good

It would be difficult to overstate the creepiness of We Have Always Lived in the Castle. Shirley Jackson brilliantly weaves a story of three recluses who are all frightening in their own way. The book begins with the knowledge that something terrible has happened and something terrible is going to happen. The steady pacing and consistent revelation of just how terrible the lives of the Blackwoods are is countered by the arrival of a greedy, disruptive cousin. Despite knowing that the reclusive w...more

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Oct 31, 2011

Stephanie (The Night Bookmobile) rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: 2011, pretty-great

“Merricat, said Connie, would you like a cup of tea? Oh no, said Merricat, you’ll poison me.”

We Have Always Lived in the Castle is my first book by Shirley Jackson and I will most certainly be picking up The Haunting of Hill House next. The story wasn’t quite what I was expecting. From the very first, you can tell the narrator is unreliable, and I figured out the “twist” early on, but perhaps I was meant to? I didn’t think it was all that subtle. Reading pages that delve into the uns...more

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Jul 08, 2010

J. rated it

Shelves: gothic

Let's say four and a half stars. Shirley Jackson's 1962 novel is in the American-Gothic / Pulp vein, but doesn't deserve either tag so much, as it is original imaginative fiction, steeped in rich, high-relief characterization. Stanley Kubrick or John Huston would have done well by this in a film version... A novel of Manners, more or less, just really atrocious Manners, inexcusable by any standard.

The first person narrative comes from young Mary Katherine, orphaned at an e...more
Let's say four and a half stars. Shirley Jackson's 1962 novel is in the American-Gothic / Pulp vein, but doesn't deserve either tag so much, as it is original imaginative fiction, steeped in rich, high-relief characterization. Stanley Kubrick or John Huston would have done well by this in a film version... A novel of Manners, more or less, just really atrocious Manners, inexcusable by any standard.

The first person narrative comes from young Mary Katherine, orphaned at an early age and now a selfishly infantile eighteen years old. She's being parented by a permissive older sister who is oblivious to almost everything. The sisters live alone, attended by their housecat Jonas, in their mansion on the hill; the days are full of wandering the grounds, and elaborate, circuitous daydreams...

The day outside was full of changing light, and Jonas danced in and out of shadows as he followed me. When I ran Jonas ran, and when I stopped and stood still he stopped and glanced at me and then went briskly off in another direction, as though we were not acquainted, and then he sat down and waited for me to run again. We were going to the long field which today looked like an ocean, although I had never seen an ocean; the grass was moving in the breezes and the cloud shadows passed back and forth and the trees in the distance moved. Jonas disappeared into the grass, which was tall enough for me to touch with my hands while I walked, and he made small crooked movements of his own; for a minute the grass woulld all bend together under the breeze and then there would be a hurrying pattern across it where Jonas was running. I started at one corner and walked diagonally across the long field toward the opposite corner, and in the middle I came directly to the rock covering the spot where the doll was buried; I could always find it although much of my buried treasure was forever lost. The rock was undisturbed and so the doll was safe. I am walking on buried treasure, I thought, with the grass brushing against my hands and nothing around me but the reach of the long field with the grass blowing and the pine woods at the end; behind me was the house, and far off to my left, hidden by trees and almost out of sight, was the wire fence our father had built, to keep people out...

Each wrenching movement of the plot is so well attended by the coping mechanisms of the characters, each oblique development plausibly graced by girlish games and nicknames that -- well, that the reader has no real idea what's coming, but can't shake the gloom and foreboding involved. Reminiscent of the dreamy-ingenue first-person account in A High Wind In Jamaica, with a similarly unpleasant outcome.

To say more is to give away either the big developments which come as strong shocks, or to reveal the myriad little bits of narrative needlework that anchor this sad & cautionary tale.
Very recommended.

By the way, if you get the edition with the Jonathon Lethem "introduction"-- be aware that it is truly an Afterword, with at least one explicit spoiler spelled out in its otherwise insightful discussion. But maybe Afterwords are no longer 'done' by the upscale commentariat. Whatever the position, it is right about the idea of Mary Katherine's "feral presexual tomboy" voice being the triumph of the work, and that with sexuality so consistently distant throughout the proceedings, the ambiguity formed by its absence creates another distinct & dramatic undertow. (less)

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Sep 10, 2011

JG (The Introverted Reader) rated it

· review of another edition

Recommended to JG (The Introverted Reader) by: Misty

Shelves: 4_stars, author_american, fiction, gothic, read_in_2010, reviewed, young_adult

"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-cup mushroom. Everyone else in my family is dead."
...more"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-cup mushroom. Everyone else in my family is dead."

And so begins Merricat's story about life for the last surviving members of the Blackwood family. There has been some sort of tragedy in the past, but Mary Katherine doesn't want to talk about it. She does want to talk about how much the villagers hate her family, how much she hates them, and how she wishes she could live on the moon.

Unsettling. That is by far the best word to describe this book.

Odds are that you didn't make it through high school without reading Shirley Jackson's short story, "The Lottery." It would be a tossup between that and "The Yellow Wallpaper" by Charlotte Perkins Gilman for my choice as most disturbing short story ever.

Jackson somehow kept that same tone alive throughout a novel.

Short stories are generally creepier for me than novels are. Authors end up explaining too much in a novel and I'm able to put them out of my head. But all those unresolved questions in short stories cause them to stay with me in a way that very few novels do.

But Jackson pulled that off here. Wow.

So much of the eeriness comes from Mary Katherine, or Merricat, herself. She's eighteen, but it's almost like her mind stopped progressing at twelve, which is when the tragedy happened. I don't mean that she's "challenged" in anyway, it's just that she doesn't really see the need to grow up. I found myself constantly questioning her motives and her truths. Are her truths widely-accepted truths? And if not, who are you supposed to believe?

There is the feel of a hedge witch about Merricat. She has daily tasks that she sets herself, and part of that is making sure that their property is secure from strangers. Oh, she does check the locks, gates, and fences, but she also makes sure that the talismans she has hung from trees and buried in fields are also intact.

I felt sorry for her sister Constance. Constance is apparently beautiful and she seems to be happiest when she's taking care of others. But whatever happened in the past has left her ostracized from society, and honestly even agoraphobic. She should be raising a beautiful family, but she's instead trapped living in a museum of a house with her younger sister and her elderly uncle. But she sweetly goes about her days.

I do recommend this book if you're looking for something unexpected and...unsettling. That really is the best word. It was great for Halloween, and I won't be forgetting Merricat or Constance anytime soon.(less)

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Oct 16, 2009

Sessily added it · review of another edition

Shelves: favorite-books, own

This is the first book that I have read in one day and then woken up the next morning and began reading a second time. Despite it being a short book (the 1984 edition I read is a little over 200 pages long), it took me several days to finish it the second time around because mundane things kept intruding. I read slower, the second time around, not wanting to waste specific moments of the book on a lunch break when I wouldn’t have time to savor it. It was just as good the second time, and I was j...moreThis is the first book that I have read in one day and then woken up the next morning and began reading a second time. Despite it being a short book (the 1984 edition I read is a little over 200 pages long), it took me several days to finish it the second time around because mundane things kept intruding. I read slower, the second time around, not wanting to waste specific moments of the book on a lunch break when I wouldn’t have time to savor it. It was just as good the second time, and I was just as sad to close it and be forced to move on to other books.

Jackson’s greatest skill is in setting a mood. From the beginning to the end, we are in the mind of Mary Katherine “Merricat” Blackwood, a mind that is by turns comfortable and unsettling. From here on out, there isn’t much else that can be said without giving away those turns, which are best discovered through Jackson’s writing. It isn’t even that the turns--between comfort and discomfort and back again--are all that surprising; most readers will guess them before they arrive because Jackson doesn’t stint on the clues. And they seemed to me to be more about what Merricat, our narrator, refuses to talk or even think about, rather than what Jackson is deliberately keeping from the reader. Splitting hairs, perhaps, but I think it makes for the more powerful reading of the book (and I’m not convinced that authorial intent is always the best reading of a book). Whether Jackson intended them to be surprising or not, I found their true power to lie in the slow shifting of the ground as we move toward the end of the book. (And I feel I have to say this only because such statements as can be found on the back of this edition-- “All is peaceful at the Blackwood Estate--until a murderer strikes”--could lead some readers to assume it’s a mystery. It’s not.) (Also, if you want to read more about those turns without first reading the book, most any description you can find, on here, or in the recent New York Review of Books article by Joyce Carol Oates, or Jonathan Lethem’s introduction to the 2006 edition, will give you some of them and might even give it all away.)

This is an extremely rich book. There is so much I could talk about: the use of food, the depiction of love, the depiction of hatred, the search for a utopia or a paradise of sorts. I really love this book. It’s earned its way into my list of favorites. And I don’t know what more I can say about it here. I’ll end this with a quote from the book: (Jonas is a cat.)

“The day outside was full of changing light, and Jonas danced in and out of shadows as he followed me. When I ran Jonas ran, and when I stopped and stood still he stopped and glanced at me and then went briskly off in another direction, as though we were not acquainted, and then he sat down and waited for me to run again. We were going to the long field which today looked like an ocean, although I had never seen an ocean; the grass was moving in the breeze and the cloud shadows passed back and forth and the trees in the distance moved. Jonas disappeared into the grass, which was tall enough for me to touch with my hands while I walked, and he made small crooked movements of his own; for a minute the grass would all bend together under the breeze and then there would be a hurrying pattern across it where Jonas was running.”(less)

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Jul 25, 2009

Jo rated it

Shelves: 2009, ya

Jackson's 'We Have Always Lived in the Castle' tells a delicious story of horror, isolation, murder and intrigue. With one of the most inspired and vibrant narrators that I can think of, this novel tells the story of Merricat, a young woman who lives in a mansion on a hill with her older sister, Constance and her Uncle Julian after a tragedy is inflicted on their family.
Merricat is the most charming and perfect narrator as she introduces you to her strange life, filled with her superstiti...more

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Apr 13, 2009

Sherry (sethurner) rated it

Shelves: fiction, sci-fi-fantasy-horror, read-multiple-times

We Have Always Lived in the Castle has elements of horror - fear and loathing in an ordinary small town, a whiff of the supernatural, a big spooky old house, but it's more subtle than most. There are no ghosts, no bug-eyed monsters. The plot involves two sisters and an elderly uncle who live isolated in a New England town. The reader immediately sees that they are hated and feared, and eventually learns that the older sister was convicted of poisoning her parents and a brother. Arsenic in the s...more

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Aug 17, 2008

Danny rated it

Shelves: library-book

This short novel, by the writer of the ubiquitous short story "The Lottery," is narrated by a little girl whose family are all dead except for an older sister, an invalid uncle, and at least some more distant relatives, one of which comes into the picture later in the story. The family was struck down by arsenic poisoning at dinner one night. It was in the sugar that people put on their blackberries. The narrator, Merricat, lives in a world of her own making on some land marked off ...more

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Sep 18, 2009

Rauf rated it

Recommends it for: Everyone

Recommended to Rauf by: Neil

Shelves: dark-and-haunting, fiction, shiny, my_sweetest_downfall, favorites

What do I learned, you asked? I got acquainted with the Blackwoods, of course. Let me introduce you to them.

MERRICAT
The Narrator, and an unreliable one at that. She believed in sorcery and witchcraft and she did bewitch me by opening the book in this way:
"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 a werewolf, because the two middle fingers on both ...more

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Jul 13, 2007

Lani rated it

· review of another edition

Recommends it for: "flatlanders" living in Vermont

Whenever I read a Shirley Jackson book, I find myself looking for North Bennington familiarities in her settings. "The Lottery" and "The Haunting of Hill House" were both set in North B. (Bennington College's Jennings mansion is infamously the setting for "...Hill House.") And "We Have Always Lived in the Castle" also hints heavily at the same shared locale. ...If you are familiar with the layout of the town as it was in the early 1960s, you can realistica...more

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Feb 10, 2009

Rachelterry rated it

Shelves: spooky, fiction

There's nothing like an unreliable narrator to turn you into an investigator. Who can you trust? Who sprinkled arsenic on the berries at the dinner table? Merricat Blackwood is one of the most eccentric narrators I've come across. She buries things all over the property around her house, nails relics to trees, makes a sick game out of a walk into town, pictures people dead, and is unfailingly optimistic. This is a great novel.

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Feb 06, 2011

Judith rated it

Shelves: adultfiction

I've wanted to read this forever, and it didn't disappoint. Brilliant characterisation and superb writing. I read the Penguin Favourites edition with an essay at the end by Joyce Carol Oates, which was illuminating.

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Jul 13, 2010

Marybeth rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: kitchen-table-book-club

When I hear "horror" or "chiller" what comes to my mind is some clumsy but persistent chainsaw wielding mad-man or psychotic fire-bug or some other out-of-the-blue villain that can scare you when you are alone, in an old house at night. Shirley Jackson can scare you in your own backyard on a bright sunny day with kids & dogs running & playing around you.

Because the story builds gradually, going back & filling in pieces, looking forward to a time when everything is...more

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Oct 14, 2008

Christy rated it

By the author of the story we all read in school "The Lottery," "We Have Always Lived in the Castle" is Shirley Jackson's eerie tale of reclusive and agoraphobic sisters (one possibly autistic, one presumed a murderess) holing themselves up in their large family home six years after the murder of the other members of their once-large family (arsenic in the sugar bowl). One is torn between sympathy and horror at the plight of the Blackwood sisters. Oh, and all the villagers a...more

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Dec 05, 2009

Trish rated it

Shelves: favorites

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Jan 10, 2009

bookczuk rated it

What a story! It's become a classic in literature, made into a play and even a movie I believe, is in the works. It's a somewhat disturbing psychological tale, narrated by eighteen-year-old Mary Katherine "Merricat" Blackwood, (who really seems to have the mind of an eleven year old- which is the age she was when a large portion of her family died from arsenic poisoning.) So many different psychological states are depicted by the various characters in the novel, that it should be u...more

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Jan 22, 2012

Michael Martin rated it

A chilly masterpiece about the small-minded circumstances and devastating consequences of bullying, "We Have Always Lived in the Castle" is in the fine tradition of gothic women writers like Carson McCullers.

Jackson creates compelling empathy for a family of outcasts and the mentally-disturbed woman-child who decides to do something about their plight.

Mary Katherine, Constance, and Uncle Julian Blackwood -- suffering from dementia and possibly heart failur...more

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Jan 19, 2012

Nettie Grey rated it

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About Shirley Jackson

Shirley Jackson was an influential American author. A popular writer in her time, her work has received increasing attention from literary critics in recent years. She has influenced such writers as Stephen King, Nigel Kneale, and Richard Matheson.

She is best known for her dystopian short story, "The Lottery" (1948), which suggests there is a deeply unsettling underside to bu...more

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Books by Shirley Jackson

Just an Ordinary Day: The Uncollected Stories Of Shirley Jackson

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Quotes from We Have Always Lived i...

“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-cup mushroom. Everyone else in our family is dead.” — 43 people liked it

“A pretty sight, a lady with a book.” — 28 people liked it

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BBCode	[url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/89724.We_Have_Always_Lived_in_the_Castle?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book][img]http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1311400048m/89724.jpg[/img][/url] [url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/89724.We_Have_Always_Lived_in_the_Castle?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book]We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson[/url]

We Have Always Lived in the Castle

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