Review: We Have Always Lived In The Castle, Shirley Jackson

This was one of the books suggested to me by the librarian of the school I work at as a History teacher. I'd never read any of Jackson's work before, although I had heard of "The Haunting of Hill House", thanks to the Netflix adaptation.

For those whom have not read this book either, We Have Always Lived In The Castle centres around the remaining three members of Blackwood family. I say remaining, because the rest were murdered six years before the beginning of this book. The beginning of it perhaps inspired the start of another book, I Capture The Castle, as the two seemed very similar in tone, although the protagonists artre very different.

Mary Katherine, called 'Merricat' by her sister, Constance, is the only one of the Blackwood family to leave the house since the murder. She meticulously documents the family's weekly routine. Tuesdays and Fridays are the worst days, she explains, as she has to go to the village for groceries and books. Most of the villagers believe that Constance, accused but acquitted of the murders, is responsible, and as such they treat Merricat with the same contempt. She treats her walks to the village like a game, and she wins if she makes the round trip without anyone tormenting her. If they do, she imagines the harm she would do to them with alarming detail.

Uncle Julian is the last of the three of the surviving Blackwoods. He seems to be senile, whether that's from old age or the lingering effects of the arsenic (the murder was committed through someone putting arsenic in the sugar bowl) but is determined to document the whole event and write it in a book.

Their comfortable existence is soon disrupted by an apparent cousin called Charles. Merricat dislikes him straight away, calling him a ghost and a demon. He has more luck charming Constance, but is no match for Merricat and Uncle Julian, although he does slyly threaten to turn Merricat out of the house. It seems his only motive to be there is not to reacquaint with the family but to try and get his hands on the Blackwood fortune.

For a short book, (only 146 pages), it packs a hell of a punch. The small world consisting, (apart from the walk through the village at the start), solely of the house is built up room by room and the grounds around. There is even a jaunt to the ruined summerhouse in which Merricat enacts in her mind a dinner, of sorts, with her deceased ancestors, in which they treat her as she imagines they should have done.

The twist at the end is not altogether shocking - the book builds it up piece by piece throughout - but the rest of the story, particularly Merricat's inner mind, makes more sense once that piece of knowledge is secure.

It's a commanding, strange, and (at times) whimsical piece of fiction, with enduring and endearing (in Uncle Julian) characters. It's hard to guess at an ending for this kind of story but it is done remarkably well - I'll leave it for you to find out.