Jackson’s We Have Always Lived in the Castle tells the story of the Blackwood family who has sadly been reduced to just three members. Several years prior, four other members of the family died from acute arsenic poisoning. 

Tried for the deaths of her family, elder sister Constance lives an agoraphobic life now. She and her younger sister Merricat continue to live in their ancestral home, with only their disabled uncle Julian for company. All that changes when a distant relative turns up, trying to get the remaining family fortune. Charles sweeps in with grand plans and thoroughly disrupts the Blackwood household. Tragedy strikes, but from it comes a greater solidarity.

I found myself rather underwhelmed by this particular story. I’ve read and enjoyed Hill House, but this time the writing fell rather flat for me. I never got invested in any of the characters, save Charles and that only because I loathed him through and through. 

Charles blundered onto the scene, trying to ‘fix things’ that didn’t meet his standards, and nothing about the life these two sisters were leading made him happy. He wanted to put Julian in a facility because the older man was an ‘inconvenience’ with his poison-induced neurological damage. That really triggered me. And it’s not as if the skeez cared about any of them. He just wanted access to money he felt entitled to. 

Merricat’s efforts to drive Charles away lead to irrevocable changes and loss. A fire destroys the upper level of their home, and spiteful townsfolk follow the fire-engines to the house and loot it. The only saving grace was that the townspeople (mostly) realised they had done wrong after the fact and made amends. 

Recommended if you are a Shirley Jackson fan or enjoy psychological reads, old-school. 

***Purchased and read for my own enjoyment, such as it wasn’t.