We Have Always Lived in the Castle (Paperback)

The story is written in very simple format, unravelling like a favorite and somewhat familiar mystery, and though largely predictable, the slim tome sticks to your hands by some supernatural force, and doesn't release you until the last page is turned and the last word read.

Mary Katherine Blackwood, known as Merricat, the main character, lives with her reclusive sister Constance and their Uncle Julian, the surviving members of a large family that came to a sad end through the consumption of arsenic laced sugar.

The intriguing Merricat tells the story, regaling the reader with her rituals, talismans and magic, but these alone are not enough to counteract the interloper, who threatens her familiar lifestyle, and tries to destroy the strong family unit.

The conclusion was not quite was I was expecting, being of macabre humor and vivid imagination, but was fitting and satisfying.

A haunting but not chilling read.

In the intervening years since high school, I took narrative writing classes to complete one of my degrees, and I can honestly say from that experience that Ms Jackson writes exactly and very successfully as they tell you how to write in such classes. There is a novel introduction; I mean, who can fail to be captured by a paragraph that tells you the narrator should have been a "werewolf" and ends succinctly with the statement that "Everyone else in my family is dead (p. 1)." The author builds mood and character by the use of carefully chosen words that project atmosphere, as when speaking of the village, she says, "The houses and the stores seemed to have been set up in contemptuous haste to provide shelter for the drab and the unpleasant (p. 9)." Already we sense there's something not quite right. Like Shakespeare's much touted Falstaff, however, the character of Uncle Julian adds a touch of levity that gives the tragedy of the story more impact. There is a good deal of detail, but despite this the story isn't just wordy or inflated to fill the requisit 200 pages. The detail makes the town and its residents and the two women in the "castle" much more real, and pull the reader into their story more fully than a more economical treatment would have done.

A thorough delight. Miss Jackson's work still hangs together despite the years.

For THOSE WRITING PAPERS: in narrative writing or English composition. Examine the book for key words that give each character their personality. What does the author tell you without actually telling it to you outright. Were you surprised by the revelations in the book? Were you surprised by the outcome? Compare writers like Edgar Allen Poe, Steven King or Peter Staub with Ms Jackson. How are they similar? How are they different? How is Ms Jackson's work "dated?" How is it timeless?

Teenaged Merricat Blackwood lives with her sister Constance on their family estate, in near total isolation from the hostile small-town community outside. Since the mysterious poisoning that resulted in the death of the rest of their family six years earlier, the sisters take care of their crippled Uncle Julian, the sole survivor, and enjoy their solitude. When a long-lost cousin Charles comes to them one day, Merricat senses that there is something sinister about him, and begins to desperately try to get him to leave.

First off, don't think that Merricat is your typical starry-eyed, whimsical teenage narrator. Unlike other young heroines, she's got a very dark streak. She's an introvert who has a penchant for burying things in the woods and imagines the villagers dying twisted, horrible deaths. Granted, they deserve her hostility, but like Eleanor in 'Haunting', you realize it's possible that the problems in the book exist solely in Merricat's mind. She's fantastically complex, one moment dreaming about living on the moon with flying horses, the next wishing that everyone would just die. This is a teenage narrator for 'Daria' fans.

Given that Jackson was living in isolation from her own hostile villagers when she wrote this book, it's easy to see Merricat as an extension of the author. Also, considering that Jackson was probably crazy at this point, the book feels very refreshing. The author didn't want to write a good, balanced story that would keep everyone happy. She gave us a one-way ticket into her mind, where some things were just twisted and warped, sorry to say. The sense of gothic claustrophobia works wonderfully well, and Merricat and Constance are absolutely fascinating. Jackson won't tell you what to think. You have to make up your own mind about these two. A perfect book for Halloween night.