We Have Always Lived in the Castle in The Toast

Aug 03, 2013 P. rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: fictive, slightly-off

This was one of those books I read as a precocious tween and loved, but had forgotten everything about. Now I can say that I was totally right to love it. If anything it's more mysterious and tragic the second time around, and that's hard to pull off.

Merricat's voice is so good. Jackson presents her and doesn't try to explain or flash back or voiceover or anything. She's in control and confident that the voice and the place and the characters are enough. ...more

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Oct 01, 2015 Maggie rated it really liked it

Shelves: read-2015, october-reads

Not what I was expecting, but that's not a bad thing. I enjoyed it quite a bit, Merricat is a decidedly creepy and unreliable narrator, but she's so well written that I could see the logic behind a lot of her actions. Poor Constance. I thought it was a little slow to start, but after the first 50 pages or so I didn't want to stop reading it. It's also pretty short (the copy I read was about 140 pages long), so it's a quick read. Not necessarily scary, but definitely unsettling and creepy in a lo ...more

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Jun 08, 2015 CC rated it really liked it

Shelves: classics, horror, fiction

What a strange book. I understand why Shirley Jackson has such a following. A dark little treat.

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Mar 28, 2009 Genevieve rated it it was amazing

Shelves: fiction

Creepy and fascinating and very well-written.
*
Just reread this and appreciated it more, I think, this time around. It's just so perfectly formed. And the way it uses the sort of cozy domesticity you get in classic children's books as a weapon. The second sentence gets more disturbing as the book goes on. ...more

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