We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson

I picked this up on a whim at the library because of the cover. I had no idea this book is actually well known and quite old. The library calls this a horror novel. It's weird and strange, I'll give you that, but I'm not sure it's really a horror.

This book is about a girl who lives with her sister and uncle in a big house. They live pretty much isolated from everyone because of something that happened to the family. There is a routine that the family lives by and when another distant family member comes to visit, it throws it all out of whack. I don't want to say more about it because I don't want to give anything away. It really is worth finding out for yourself.

This is the kind of story that you need to read more than once in order to fully appreciate the different aspects of the story. It was totally apparent that I had totally missed some pretty intense nuances of the story once I read the introduction. I made sure to save the introduction till the end because I knew it would talk about this old story and reveal some plot points that I didn't want to know ahead of time.

I don't know how to describe this story, really. It's strange, but so compelling. It kept me glued to the page and I had no idea what would happen next. I got so into it I almost missed my bus!

I'm totally bummed I found this by accident and I hadn't heard about it before. If you have heard of this and haven't read it yet, I really suggest that you do. It's pretty darn interesting.

Recommendation: For the lovers of a good story. It's not too scary, I promise!