A review by kinzo103
We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson

dark mysterious reflective slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

This story is very exemplary of Shirley Jackson’s writing. This is a different twist on her common themes of class identities, ostracism, and public persecution. I appreciated the elements of the burden of domesticity, agoraphobia, and obsessive compulsive thinking. Jackson has a distinct way of writing about people that adds to the tone of the story but can feel like it’s adding a lot of words with no plot advancement, and this story definitely had that element. While it felt very slow initially, things picked up about 30% of the way and I really enjoyed the character exploration throughout.