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A review by rereader33
We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson
2.0
October Spooky Reads Challenge
Prompt: Read a horror novel by an author you've never read before
I am going to be quite the contrarian here, but this book was pretty disappointing. Maybe it's because it's been talked about so much, gotten such good reviews, and was written by THE Shirley Jackson that I had such high hopes, but in the end I thought this story was meh at best.
My biggest issues were twofold: I wasn't sure what the message was supposed to be (and the ending made that more confusing) and scenes jumped around so much throughout chapters that I was often left confused as to what was going on. If the intent was to leave the reader disoriented, then Jackson did her job well, but often I would have to go back and read whole paragraphs just to figure out what was going on and whether we were in the past or present. And yeah, I have no idea what I was suppose to glean message-wise with this story, other than people are assholes. Which I don't need a fictional story to tell me, I experience enough of them in real life to know that.
I will say, Jackson's writing, pacing, and mastery of suspense are top-notch. I may not have enjoyed the story itself, but I was certainly hooked from page one and just HAD to know what happened next.
Kind of a downer review, I know, but I did have high expectations for this novel and was let down. I will give Jackson's other works a read because I do love her writing and suspense, but this was disappointing. It's a quick read, though, so if you want to give it a shot, go for it. It won't take you long.
Prompt: Read a horror novel by an author you've never read before
I am going to be quite the contrarian here, but this book was pretty disappointing. Maybe it's because it's been talked about so much, gotten such good reviews, and was written by THE Shirley Jackson that I had such high hopes, but in the end I thought this story was meh at best.
My biggest issues were twofold: I wasn't sure what the message was supposed to be (and the ending made that more confusing) and scenes jumped around so much throughout chapters that I was often left confused as to what was going on. If the intent was to leave the reader disoriented, then Jackson did her job well, but often I would have to go back and read whole paragraphs just to figure out what was going on and whether we were in the past or present. And yeah, I have no idea what I was suppose to glean message-wise with this story, other than people are assholes. Which I don't need a fictional story to tell me, I experience enough of them in real life to know that.
I will say, Jackson's writing, pacing, and mastery of suspense are top-notch. I may not have enjoyed the story itself, but I was certainly hooked from page one and just HAD to know what happened next.
Kind of a downer review, I know, but I did have high expectations for this novel and was let down. I will give Jackson's other works a read because I do love her writing and suspense, but this was disappointing. It's a quick read, though, so if you want to give it a shot, go for it. It won't take you long.