Bingo Chart Review: We Have Always Lived in the Castle - Shirley Jackson

I put Shirley Jackson on the bingo chart because I have heard so many good things about her writing on Booktube, but I had never really heard about her before. I picked “We Have Always Lived in the Castle” because that was the one that seemed to pop up every time someone mentioned Shirley Jackson. 

The book starts with a presentation of the narrator, Mary Katherine Blackwood or Merricat. She tells us that she is 18 and that she lives with her sister, and that everyone else in the family is dead. It turns out that the rest of the family except the two sisters and their aging uncle was killed by arsenic in the food 6 years ago. Her sister Constance was put on trial for it, but nothing was proved, and now they all three live together in the house. The villagers all bully the family and Mary Katherine is the only one who goes out. I can’t tell you much more about the plot without ruining it for you, as I really think you should go in as blind as possible. 

Throughout the book there is an eery feeling that all is not quite right, Apart from the fact of the murdered family. I had my suspicions all along and toward the end, they turned out to be true. The story is told from Mary Katherine’s perspective and I kept forgetting that she was 18 years old, as her mind seems much more like that of a child. But I think that is the point. She uses “magic” to keep them safe and has her own ideas about what is good and bad and what people can and cannot do. She loves her sister and you are almost lead to think that she is just a sweet little girl, but then she starts wishing everyone dead, as she does a lot. But with the way people have treated her and her sister after the trial, how can you blame her? But then you remember that she is 18, supposedly a grown-up, and you realize something is wrong. 

The murder mystery is never actually solved. We figure out more about what happened, but a motive has to be guessed at by what we learn through the two girls. 

At one point in the book the villagers turn into a mob and I always find it astounding (and scary) how people can become so vicious. But unfortunately these kinds of acts are not confined to fiction, as it happens all too often in the real world too. In the book the people eventually realize they did wrong and try to apologize in their own way. I am not sure I would have been as forgiving as the girls are. The villagers basically created the “boogiemonster” of the girls and then they punish them for it. I guess they figured there was safety in numbers and now they could get their revenge. But for what? The girls had done nothing to them, and the fact that they couldn’t see that it was just two scared women they were haranguing astounds me. In the end they try to apologize in their own ways, but I hope they will never forgive themselves for becoming part of a mob as easily as that, and under such circumstances too. 

I really liked this book and gave it 3,5 stars out of 5 on Goodreads. I would definitely recommend this to practically everyone, excluding the youngest readers.