Shirley Jackson - We Have Always Lived in the Castle (Book, 1962)

We Have Always Lived in the Castle is the first book I’ve read by Shirley Jackson and I wonder if that was a mistake, because I’m not sure any of her other works can live up to it. 

It’s a fantastically uneasy tale about two sisters and their uncle, all of whom live together in seclusion in their family’s large house. Constance, the elder sister, has been acquitted of poisoning the rest of the family, killing all of them save for Uncle Julian, who was left wheelchair-bound, and Merricat, the younger sister and narrator of the book, who managed to avoid being poisoned at all. The family have isolated themselves but they continue to suffer the unwanted attention of the local townsfolk. 

It’s only a short book, and just goes to show what can be achieved when the focus is tight. Jackson manages to create an escalating sense of unease, and I can’t quite recall any other book where I genuinely had no idea about what directions things were going. I did suspect that a particular reveal, but it wasn’t that consequential and I really could not have guessed how things would be left. I think my next few books will need to be a little lighter to allow me to recover!