Book review-We have always lived in the Castle

Book review

I like creepy books with unreliable narrators. I'm not sure if there is a self-help group for people like me, but it doesn't seem to cause any harm, so I guess I'll just go with it. My latest creepy-unreliable narrator book is We have always lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson. It opens with the narrator telling us she is 18 and lives with her sister, the rest of her family is dead. As she proceeds to tell the story of the previous 6 months, we learn that most of her family died from poisoning. She and her sister were unharmed, her uncle was rendered disabled by the poison. Merricat, the narrator's nickname, goes on to tell us how much the town hates her family. As she proceeds in the story, it gets more and more sinister. The reader begins to wonder about this family. I liked it because it kept me guessing as to the root cause of all the horror. I did figure out who the mass murderer was before the end, but the rest of the story kept me on the edge of my seat. I hated putting the book down!

We Have Always Lived in the Castle By Jackson, Shirley Introduction by Lethem, Jonathan 2006-10 - Penguin Books 9780143039976 Check Our Catalog Alone since four members of the family died of arsenic poisoning, Merricat, Constance, and Julian Blackwood spend their days in happy isolation until cousin Charles appears. …More

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