We Have Always Lived in the Castle

We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson  214 pp.

Just before Halloween I came across this list of scary books. At the very end this book was mentioned along with The Haunting of Hill House which I read many years ago. As I'd never heard of it I decided to give it a try. I wouldn't call this book scary as much as suspenseful and a little creepy. It is told from the point of view of Mary Katherine Blackwood aka Merricat, a girl of indeterminate age but probably a young teen. She lives in a large house with her older sister Constance and the invalid Uncle Julian. Several years before Constance had been tried and acquitted of the poisoning of her parents and other family members. The remaining three are recluses and only Merricat ventures into town to do the shopping. Most of the townspeople treat her badly because they believe her sister guilty. Enter cousin Charles, who arrives to take charge of things and free Constance from her self imposed prison. Merricat is instantly suspicious of the intruder and it is then you begin to suspect that all is not as it seems. The rest of the story is written in a way that you are waiting for the other shoe to drop. The suspense builds up until the final surprising act of violence. Strange but not scary.