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Jun 27, 2018
If you like strange and Gothic stories, then this might be up your alley, from the same author as the psychological ghost story "The Haunting." Merricat Blackwood lives with her sister Constance and Uncle Julian in an old manor house on the edge of a town that shuns them. It soon becomes apparent why: not long ago the rest of the Blackwood family were poisoned at the dinner table. Though Constance was acquitted of the crime, the social stigma remains. But Merricat is happy with the family's isolation: so when a distant cousin turns up, seeking to make amends with his remaining family members, she makes it her duty to drive him off. It's a surprisingly short book - more of a novella really, and the first-person narration takes the reader right into Merricat's twisted mind: full of contradictions, secrets and dark humour. The character study is in some ways the centrepiece of the book, though the creepiness of the plot and atmosphere also leaves its mark. I would recommend reading Joanna Lindsay's "Picnic at Hanging Rock" as a companion piece to "We Have Always Lived in the Castle", as both are similarly short, and very alike in regards to theme, ambiance and the way the story is told through a feminine perspective.