We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson (1962)

The rest of the Blackwood family died suddenly; now the Blackwood sisters, Constance and Merricat, live on the family estate with their uncle. Only Merricat dares venture into town and face the hostile villagers. Despite the hateful townspeople, all is well until a stranger arrives at the house.

Book Review:  We Have Always Lived in the Castle is one of my favorite books and Shirley Jackson's best novel. This is not a horror story: it's not scary or gory, no ghosts.  Not a mystery either; the reader will know the secret long before it's revealed. It's a novel of the psyche, of love and evil and family and fear. Of persecution and two damaged young women. Merricat is one of the most original characters ever written, and perhaps the most misunderstood; she's no victim. Complex, mercurial, tragic, and constant in her love of her sister Constance, she depends on sympathetic magic to survive. Shirley Jackson has made real their small, fragile world, reflecting her own feelings for the town in which she lived. You can ignore the symbols and metaphors, but they're there. We Have Always Lived in the Castle can be read on a psychological level, on a sociological level, as an allegory for Shirley Jackson's life, or purely for the disturbing pleasure of it. The two main characters are the two halves of the author, but are also her two daughters. If you read We Have Always Lived in the Castle, and listen very carefully, it will break your heart. Not quite like any other book, but one you just might love. Or hate. Or love. Silly Merricat. [5 Stars]