We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson

Fiction ~ Library Book
Pub. Date: 1962
Publisher: Viking Penguin Inc.
4 stars

“My name is Mary Katherine Blackwood. I am eighteen years old, and I live with my sister Constance. …. Everyone else in my family is dead.” At one time there were seven Blackwoods, we learn during the course of the book that the others were poisoned. Constance was arrested for the crime then acquitted. Now Constance, Mary Katherine (called Merricat) and their Uncle Julian, whose health was ruined by the poison, are the only ones that survived and are now living in Blackwood house. Merricat does her best to protect Constance from the venom of the villagers, her protection falls short when a cousin comes to visit.

I first read this book when I was a young girl, I remember it was my sister’s book and she told me the “spoilers” before I even had a chance to read it. What makes this book enjoyable however is not the mystery of who did the poisoning, which is rather easy to figure out, but the telling of the relationship between Merricat and Constance, their treatment by the villagers, Merricat’s thoughts regarding the villager’s and her ability to see danger where Constance doesn’t and eventually drive out the danger makes this book worth reading.