#[FINISHED] May 2025 | We Have Always Lived in the Castle - Shirley Jackson

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celest nexus
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For the month of May, this forum post will be for the discussion of We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson
No spoilers needed!

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celest nexus
swift axle
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merricat, would you like a cup of tea?

a great short book to read, the dark vibes were immaculate. i like the confusion i was experiencing: is this real? are they real or are they spirits? who's dead and which ones not? why did she do it?

i totally got shocked when uncle julian said merricat had died at the orphanage, because he never seemed to acknowledged or talked to her. he only addressed constance in their talk.

i like merricat's character and i wonder how old she actually is. she still talks about the moon, winged horse, magic, omens; went out into the wild and slept on the ground with leaves. yet somehow she's mature enough to go grocery shopping for her family, remembering about eggs when constance's list didnt include them, able to hold emotions when talking in stella's shop. what an interesting character fr frduckIsForLove

also the reveal that constance was not the murderer, but merricat is? wow... i wonder why the song and rhymes are like that: constance the one who poison people. did constance took the blame for merricat?

also merricat's flashback on her family when she was in the summerhouse: she shouldnt be punished, should be praised and loved, called as "the most loved daughter". i wonder if it's real or its merricat's imagination? because if its real, why did she poison all of them? very intriguing i say poobSmirk

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also charles PFFTTTT what a jerk! like maybe initial intention is great: to help constance heal and adapt to the outside world, meet new people, and move on.

but then he was blinded by the fortune they have, quickly turned on merricat and even threatened her: "what would merricat do if constance and charles dont love her anymore?"
as if she cared about you!!! andioop

i like merricat's revenge arc on him LOL. yes he's a demon, a bad evil ghost! he could be shunned away if we changed the environment because he would be confused and lost his way!! kekCry my sweet sweet merricatduckIsForLove

robust kayak
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I’m gonna preface that this isn’t my usual cup of tea. I really wanted more answers but alas!

I liked trying to work out if Mary is really dead. Who committed the crime, is Charles good or bad? But I really wanted more to be tied up at the end.

I also expected a sort of twist with Charles but I guess he’s just a greedy man driven by wealth in the end!

Since Mary had weird visions of being worshippped I wanna know why did she kill everyone??

I liked the creepy vibes overall but not enough answers for me personally, I found it a bit too bizarre to really appreciate it

swift axle
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yeah, i like it because of the vibes and characters. but the plot isnt plotting kekCry

robust kayak
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I think some people will really like that element and there’s definitely skill to writing that way but not me personally. Still, an interesting little book that I wouldn’t have picked up otherwise!

swift axle
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I have never heard of the author or the other books, and I kinda expected a horror book because of the title kek It was not, but a fun experience hating on other people I thinkcattoHearts

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I like to be bitter and I like picking on CharlespepeEvil

robust kayak
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I was waiting for a Charles redemption but I guess not hehe

umbral zenith
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soooo i finished and i'm typing this before reading any other reviews here. i feel like i had super high expectations for this book and none of them were met. i was expecting creepy vibes, unhinged twists and a weird ending and got none of it? the ending was pretty odd i'll admit, but it was just merricat and constance living in unhealthy denial in a burned-down house. why were the villagers coming with food presents and apologies at the end? i have a feeling that they just imagined it to feel better because at no point was there any indication that this would happen.
what was the point of charles?? all he did was antagonize merricat and tried to play constance against her. i thought he was out for their money, but that doesn't seem to be the case either given that he didn't get the safe from the house when he could have at any given time. i didn't like him but then again, i didn't like any of the characters. i expected to feel sorry for merricat getting bullied in the village, but she did quite literally murder almost her entire family, so i can't blame them. none of them were likable, not even constance.
i think all in all, this felt way too surreal to me and i don't even know if everything was real because it was just so bizarre and not in a good way. i didn't enjoy the writing either as it just seemed to be merricat's stream of consciousness and i tend to not enjoy these writing styles

robust kayak
umbral zenith
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I’m glad because I had such high expectations and I feel like it’s a popular book from a very popular author and I’d feel bad if I was the only one

wide yoke
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bruhhh im so sick of unreliable narratives and literally nothing happening in these books im also very sick of shitty nothing endings

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literally what was the point of this story despairge

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the writing was good tho

umbral zenith
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Awful

wide yoke
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things just happened but also at the same time nothing happened??

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also like merricat is an eighteen yr old yet in every way behaved like a psycho 13 yr old

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maybe she never grew up after killing everyone

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average 12yr old reaction to being sent to bed without dinner: put arsenic in family sugar and kill them

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i was kinda excited when charles arrived cos i thought something was gonna happen cos at the start she was hinting like nothing is gonna be the same after this day blah blah, i was expecting for charles to arrive and then he doesnt like her so they plan to send merricat away then she poisons him and he dies and then we find out some cool shit

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istg if we get another weird mystery BoTM for June omg

robust kayak
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lol naya u crack me up

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I do agree though, despite me voting for the last two BOTM and i didnt really like either woopsie

wide yoke
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is this the cookies curse kekCry pls dont vote for next month /jk

robust kayak
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maybe ill try avoid mysteries this time lolol

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the moment I finished this book i said wtf did I just read.. but I also wasn't sure if I was just a bit dumb to understand it....... so now I feel validated that others are on the same page

wide yoke
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girl there is nothing to understand kekCry

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it coulda been so good and it jusy wasnt

umbral zenith
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Yeah no I had that same moment but I decided the book just sucks LMAO

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I’m scared to read Hill House now 🤩

robust kayak
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very true but i seek meaning in everything i read and when i cant find meaning i am scrounging around to see logic that just isnt there

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i dont have the authors vision ig

wide yoke
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yeh like i dont even know what she was going? normally if i can understand what the point is and the execution was bad i can excuse it

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but im sorry what was the point of it?

wide yoke
robust kayak
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i thought it was going to be a case of the town being poopies and judging this family for literally no reason and that was gonna be the twist / moral message

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just the families a bit weird

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but alas

wide yoke
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lmao poopies

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yeah i agree i really enjoyed it up to like chapter six or seven when i realized it was leading up to nothing lmao

robust kayak
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alas everyone is weird and i have no idea who to believe and im imagining like a decrepit af castle they're living in that's mouldy and blackened but also has some really high fortress walls with vines over it??? IDK MMANNN

wide yoke
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also i wanna say something but idek if it’s offensive or not so i wont lmaooo

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abt merricat

umbral zenith
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Say it tea

wide yoke
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oh hell naw i been in enough trouble here kekCry

robust kayak
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I WANNA KNOW

umbral zenith
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Say it and delete it right after

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I will stalk

wide yoke
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LMAO OKAY

umbral zenith
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She’s def mentally ill imo

robust kayak
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oh well yea thats not controversial i think

wide yoke
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okay whew lmao i just dont know enough abt it to diagnose lmao

umbral zenith
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I thought ocd with her rituals and routines

wide yoke
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but shes also lowkey OCD

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yeahhh

umbral zenith
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And things feeling safe/unsafe

wide yoke
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i was arm chair diagnosing her the whole book

robust kayak
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shes an unreliable narrator who has so much pent up rage that is a kid but not a kid with weird control issues over her sister and strict routines and def delulu with her visions of what the townspeople were doing

wide yoke
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i thought she was autistic then ocd then schizo then i just went with psychopath

robust kayak
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but i also did not understand the two women that came for tea or smth ?

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who were they why are they different

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i already forgot their names

wide yoke
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every day LETS GO TO THE MOON

umbral zenith
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Family friends or something who I think just came out of obligation

wide yoke
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girl stfu u are 18

robust kayak
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omg yes THE MOON !!!!!!

wide yoke
umbral zenith
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I really wish there had been more emphasis on the actual poisoning like why she did it and how it happened

wide yoke
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IM GONNA BE KINDER TO UNCLE JULIAN proceeds to do nothing but nag constance to cook more food

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yeah or even just a few flashbacks would have been good

robust kayak
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i thought uncle Julian was either gonna be a really bad guy who's abused the girls and that's why they're so err bizarre

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but then im also like this is BOTM it cant be that dark

umbral zenith
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I forgot who said it but someone said Merricat might be dead and that’s why Uncle Julian has never interacted with her

wide yoke
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and like why constance just shut up and took the blame i speculated that she did it cos she loves her lil sis but also just give us something

wide yoke
robust kayak
wide yoke
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he told charles that merricat didnt survive

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and that literally went nowhere

umbral zenith
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Oh 💀

wide yoke
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i thought it was a hint or something

umbral zenith
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But then why did Charles interact with her

wide yoke
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becos she is alive and unc julian is bonkers

robust kayak
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plot twist, uncle Julian is actually delulu and they're all on the moon

wide yoke
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charles himself said back to unc julian that “no shes not dead shes sitting right in front of me”

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and then unc julian called him a bastard

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lowkey now i think hes my favourite character kekCry

robust kayak
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yeah they did say a few times that Julian had his good days and bad, so i thought maybe he has alzehimers or something

umbral zenith
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I give up trying to understand this book soodge

wide yoke
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mans was tripping balls

wide yoke
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if someone just rewrites the last four chapters of this book it will be great

robust kayak
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but everytime i thought AHA i got it, I UNDERSTAND! the next chapter im like the f

robust kayak
wide yoke
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noo i haven’t written anything since YR 12 English atar kekCry

robust kayak
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are u not like 20 so that was 2 years ago. closer than me

wide yoke
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yeah it was 3yrs ago lmao why am i making it sound like it was a decade ago

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nah i need an experienced writer to do it

robust kayak
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at least the book was short and i was curious enough to keep reading bc i wanted answers

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(that i didnt get... but still)

wide yoke
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same fr fr i thought it would be good cos its short

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alas

robust kayak
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i spent $3 on this book on Kobo

wide yoke
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ask for a refund

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well at least now ik three poisonous mushrooms

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i got it from library

robust kayak
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none of my libraries had it :(

umbral zenith
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I only spent 99 cents thank fuck

robust kayak
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there were like 3-4 versions of it on Kobo and I didnt know the difference but also did 0 research to understand the difference

umbral zenith
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Now that might very well be $3 AUD kek

robust kayak
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maybe one of them has an epilogue Froggiesus

wide yoke
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mine has an afterword

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and i read it cos its supposed to be breaking it down and analysing it so i thought it would help me understand but nope

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confused me even more

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fuck u joyce carol oates

umbral zenith
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I don’t even remember if mine had one

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I wouldn’t have read it anyway

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I was fed up at that point

wide yoke
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now im going to do my fav thing after finishing a book i hate: read 1 star GR reviews to feel validated

umbral zenith
robust kayak
wide yoke
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good thing shirley ‘temple’ is dead /jk

hardy gust
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Maybe I will take a break from my CR to start this. Your ire intrigues me

umbral zenith
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Sure if you want to be mad and disappointed /lh

robust kayak
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yees Tink. come in with the hot take

swift axle
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MERRICAT IS 18?

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oof thats why she could get groceries herself, i thought she's 12 Flooshed

umbral zenith
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Yeah it’s mentioned that she was 12 at the time of the poisoning

swift axle
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ohhhh wow they been inside for 6years

robust kayak
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wait i just realised Tink was in here but they havent read the book yet and just saw all of our spoilers hamShook

hardy gust
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I have read the book. It’s a reread for me

robust kayak
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Ah ok im glad! Would hate to spoil something for someone!!

hardy gust
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No worries, i voluntarily came here, after all

umbral zenith
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Did you like it

hardy gust
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I do remember liking it the first time, I listened to the audiobook, and as sometimes happens I retained vibes but not a lot of the substance. So this time I’m reading an ebook cause I remember loving it and I’m like damn, did I miss something? Cause of how many people hated it

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I am still loving it so far, 3 ch in

wide yoke
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will u guys watch the movie

hardy gust
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I did watch the movie, it was pretty good. Nothing mind-blowing. Sebastian Stan was good in it

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Omg I forgot Crispin Glover played Julian kekCry

wide yoke
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the trailer looks so good

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lowkey the movie looks more interesting than the book but at the same time constance and Charles is giving incest

umbral zenith
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I’ll have to watch it to make sense of this mess

wide yoke
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lemme know what u think of it

swift axle
hardy gust
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Wait Charles wasn’t actually her cousin was he?

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I thought he was like a grifter

hardy gust
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I just got to the part where he showed up. I guess Constance did seem to know him

swift axle
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I guess if he has the same face as their father it makes sense. But I keep forgetting about itcatsus

hardy gust
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Yeah I still think it just seems a little too convenient and Constance isn’t exactly a reliable source of information

wide yoke
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Unc julian said several times his brother arthur had an evil wife and their son was charles and they cut them off after the poisoning

hardy gust
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Idk he could have read about it and decided to pose as him to try to get the money

wide yoke
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but he looks so much like john who is constance and merricats dad that julian kept confusing him and calling him john

hardy gust
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Eh, lots of people look alike

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I’m perfectly willing to admit I’m wrong, I’m just saying what made think that

wide yoke
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yeahi doubt a lot of the things going on but i do believe that charles is really their cousin

hardy gust
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Finished and I still like it. The ending is weirdly paced, it just kind of drags on a little too long. I suspected that this book probably reflected Shirley Jackson’s mental state, and the afterward did say that this was her last novel and she suffered from agoraphobia towards the end of her life. The town is also based on a real place and is the same town she set The Lottery in. Apparently the people in that town are a bit of a piece of work

I loved the themes of nostalgia, being so rooted in the past that all you want is for nothing to ever change. We never find out what her family did to make her want to kill them all and I don’t feel like it really matters, to me at least. Julian surviving was probably a happy accident. I think Merricat always wanted Constance to herself

Charles is pretty interesting as this patriarchal character. He almost gets his hooks in Constance too, it’s like she’s susceptible to suggestion. I think he represented her desire to be “normal”. I still think having him be a random stranger would have been a good ending

warped token
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Hello friends 🫶

I give this 3 stars! A pass, but not that great imo.

The writing was very plain, nothing too crazy. I didn't really feel interested by the plot, so I don't know what exactly drew me in to continue reading every day, maybe the shortness of it, the pressure of reading it in it's time frame, getting it over with, etc
It was still good tho!

In the first few chapters, it's established that MK isn't allowed to do a lot of things despite being 18, and it's funny to see people comment "she's 18, why isn't she allowed to touch knives?" but it makes so much sense now once you learn that MK was the murderer lol

I don't think it was intended to speculate about MK, but she's not stable and I think is suffering a mental illness. I anticipated (in like, every chapter lol) that she'd lash out and kill someone again, so I was kinda shocked that she continued to be put together (ish) each day and only ever did some minor inconveniences as her acts of hatred lol

I liked Constance. I think I like her more as a person than as a book character tbh kek
I'm just amazed at how much she cooked and cleaned LOL girllllll i wanna be you fr

I enjoyed the ending a lot, it's satisfying to know that the villagers were sending them nice meals and leaving them alone. I also thought it was interesting to see how A Big Fiasco can turn into a fable or tale that gets passed around. And I wonder how many fables we know that seem so absurdly false, but stem from something real

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ALSO I really wanted them to look through Uncle Julian's papers and learn something kekCry his papers really just disappeared from the storyline after he died omg I was hoping for more from it

warped token
mellow portal
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helloo guys!

i really enjoyed this read, even though it was not exactly a suave or pleasant one. unconventional, unreliable narrators work their charm on me, and watching the plot unfold from Merricat's ill perspective was, i believe, much more interesting than a straightforward narration could ever have made it, especially considering how not that much happens.

trying to figure out a mystery from the outlook of someone who already knows what happened, is guilty, doesn't want to talk about it and has a clear disconnect from reality is purposely difficult and imprecise. i don't think there's an angle here in which this a conventional murder mystery, with clean and precise answer and explanations, or at least that seems like a dull takeaway. it's a mess of family interrelations, codependency, whimsical lunacy, unbriddled need for both control and reassurance. would it make sense for us to know exactly why Merricat decided to off her entire family except for Constance? i would theorize it was an outburst of revolt for being punished, which was most probably a reoccurrence for her, and an obsessive need to push everyone else away other than her most beloved sister, finally being left alone to have a more peaceful life with her, caring for and being cared after. but i love that there's never a way to be sure, it's never quite put into words, since i don't believe even Merricat could be sure why she did it, and it would be unfit for her to neatly explain it.

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as a character study, i found it fascinating; this is my first Shirley Jackson and i admired the way she conveyed the narrators sicknesses by repetition, unabashedness, disarranged and seamingly irrational thoughts which are more often not explained. as a mystery, i found it a bit predictable, but not in a lackluster way. it was like i was just waiting for her to come out and say it, and it piqued my interest and kept me reading. i found the main characters to be likeable, even if in a twisted way -- inside Merricat's mind, you can really feel the love for Constance and the sympathy for Uncle Julian, and it rubbed on me. as a sort of fable, as Spicy nicely put it, i found it to be surreal, ambiguously tragic and whimsical, and atmospheric enough to make a lasting aesthetic and emotional impact in me, and it will probably keep me wondering for some time.

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i'm looking forward to reading more of her work!

unique kestrel
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I thought this was “just okay”, probably gonna give it a 3.25. I can see why people would like it or not like it.

Definitely Got It™️ more than Haunting of Hill House, and I think it’s a case of “Swap Hamlet and Othello as protags”, where things would be SO much better for the characters if they had different plots. Merricat (and Constance, maybe) would’ve loved The House (or at least what I vaguely remember about it).

Merricat is the only one who got what she wanted in the end: Constance shielding her from the consequences of Merricat’s own crimes actions, Constance all to herself, people leaving her gifts on their doorstep.

I know I said it while reading, but I feel like this was heavily inspired by the Lizzie Borden case: two sisters, one of which was charged and acquitted of homicide, parents murdered, town children made a song about the whole affair, refused to move despite ostracism after trial, etc etc

I want to spray the guy who wrote the intro with a watering hose on full blast because there were so many things he could’ve said other than “Sexuality is everywhere because it’s absent, and Shirley Jackson objected to the Freudian interpretation of her work but I’m going to talk about it anyway because it’s easy.” However, I would avoid his face because he does talk about Jackson’s agoraphobia+living in a “staid, insular village…anti-Semitic and anti-intellectual” and how it impacted this novel. Which it does, to the point that I’m wondering if Constance was a self-insert (not that that’s a bad thing).

north laurelBOT
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To be, or not to be: that is the question 💀

unique kestrel
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Thank you Carl, very appropriate

hardy gust
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Carl's like blah blah blah H@mlet... blah blah blah

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I do wonder what Constance really wanted. Cause like she goes along with Merricat in the beginning, and then Charles. Literally everytime Uncle Julian says something, from planning his next meal to what he's going to write, she's just like "uh-huh". Like the part when he says he wants liver and she's like sure, and I was wondering if she even had liver to cook, but it didn't matter cause he later changes his mind. And then at the end, like yeah shut up the house completely and let's really never leave. There's even a point where she says they should have tried to be more normal. Like that's a very frustrating character to me cause like, girl what do you want? Do you have any wants? Do you just want to get along and not have any confict?

wide yoke
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yeah and the fact that she never said anything when she got blamed for the poisoning too not even to merricat until like 6yrs later

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she just goes along w anything and everyone

unique kestrel
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I feel like she got parentified young, being ten? years older than her mentally ill younger sister and just. couldn’t break out of that mindset/stayed like it once she helped Merricat kill the rest of their family sans Julian

hardy gust
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Ikr? Like you could shoot someone, put the gun in Constance's hand and be like "Why would Constance do this?"

hardy gust
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Like you never get the sense that she's scared of Merricat, but just wanting to keep things on an even keel

unique kestrel
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Definitely. Like, Merricat breaks things specifically for Constance to clean up, but she doesn’t say or do anything to show annoyance (until Charles shows up)

warped token
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I updated my bingo for the whole book

Idk if "close female friendship" counts since they're sisters, but I wanted a bingo pepeEvil
Also leaving "paranoia" as a maybe because I see it in MK a bit

Picsart_25-05-06_16-57-51-904.jpg
hardy gust
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You can get the bingo with takes place in the northeastern us, as the guy in the afterward said it’s “recognizably” that one town in New England

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Also protest with a rich internal monologue

warped token
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Damn wtf
My copy doesn't have an afterword

hardy gust
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And dark humor and a loveless marriage kekCry

warped token
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I was so sleep when I read this LMAO

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Where was the dark humor

hardy gust
warped token
wide yoke
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its vermont

hardy gust
warped token
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Omg omg

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You're so right

hardy gust
warped token
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LOL TINK

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THIS IS THE FINISHED THREAD

hardy gust
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Oh wait I forgot this is finished thread lmao

warped token
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LMFAOOOOOO

hardy gust
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Love how I was just revealing bingo prompts and then used spoilers for the rest

warped token
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I don't remember what I learned about the parents, I didn't know they were loveless pepeInteresting I read somewhere online though that the father SAed the daughters

hardy gust
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Yeah that’s not confirmed, fair. But it seemed that way to me

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Oh yikes

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That would explain a lot actually, and the afterward also said Jackson didn’t like to explicitly write about sex but that there’s a lot of subtext

warped token
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Wait

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Hell yeah

20250511_144320.jpg
wide yoke
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the most said abt it was the part were uncle julian said they never argued they just dgaf

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and that him and his wife argued even sometimes

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and then he called his wife ugly

warped token
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I liked Uncle Julian even though he seemed kinda useless kekCry bro just didn't care about anything

wide yoke
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i think i will begin chapter 41 or sumn with a lie, a VERY BIG lie, i will say my wife was beautiful despairge

warped token
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I DON'T EVEN REMEMBER THAT LOL

hardy gust
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Ok so the afterward I read said that when people asked him who his favorite author was, he said Shirley Jackson, and everyone would say they’d never heard of her. And he’d be like, uno card reverse you’ve read her before. And everyone would be like omg what no I haven’t. And he’d be like yeah you read the Lottery and describe it just to be all smug and shit. He kind of sounded like a dbag tbh

hardy gust
warped token
hardy gust
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Oh never mind I’m a dumbass

wide yoke
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not in Unc’s julian book

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yeah ive read the lottery and i didn’t realize it was by her either lmao

warped token
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SAME i was so shocked

wide yoke
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afterword guy 1 - naya 0

hardy gust
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Oh wow, this really does happen

warped token
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I want to reread it

hardy gust
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What the heck, how do people not know who Shirley Jackson is, she’s like my idol

wide yoke
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yeah lets ||stone merricat’s fam|| spoilers for lottery

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sorry lol i feel like i normally dc abt authors of short stories cos im not seeing their names the whole time im reading it lmao

hardy gust
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There’s a good movie about her life, it stars the actress from the Handmaid’s Tale

hardy gust
wide yoke
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for a book i see their names for longer

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and then more likely to remember

unique kestrel
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Join me in wanting to spray him full-force with a hose

hardy gust
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Yeah there was just something so smarmy about that guy

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Jonathan something

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Jonathan Lethem

lethal verge
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I finished this a week ago, but only typing up my thoughts now. This was the second time I've read this book, and what struck me the most was that...Merricat is likely autistic. She has rigid routines and rules (i.e. she can't go into Uncle Julian's room, even after Constance gives her permission). She dislikes people and struggles (or simply does not want to) have regular interactions with them. Her dislike of washing herself could be because of sensory issues. She does not like to be observed while eating. She maintains a child-like manner, even at the age of eighteen. It just really stood out to me in this read. I also thought, in my most recent reread of The Haunting of Hill House, that ||Nell is also on the spectrum. But for her it is less pronounced, and could easily just be trauma.||
I did love Merricat. She was right to immediately distrust Charles, who was clearly just after the family money.
And I felt bad for Constance. She took so much responsiblity onto her shoulders, both the care of Uncle Julian and Merricat, and later the guilt of not having done it right. She was sweet and trusting, and vulnerable to Charles' schemes.
Which is why, despite loving Merricat, I did not love her dumping the pipe into the paper wastebasket. I believe she knew what she was doing. And it created more responsbility for Constance to bear, living in a half-burnt house.
On this reread, it was really enjoyable seeing all the hints seeded earlier in the book, which foods Merricat is allowed to touch and serve. Constance, washing the sugar bowl right after her family died, I think shows she knew right from the start that it was Merricat. I really appreciated these details on this time through.
Overall, it is a great book. It builds slowly but well.

wide yoke
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would u guys count this as a cosy mystery lol

unique kestrel
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No

wide yoke
hardy gust
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No lol

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Cozy horror maybe, but mostly cause i don’t really know what that means, but i could see this as kind of low-stakes and the focus being more on the world and environment than big scares

wide yoke
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i dont want to read a mystery book soodge but i need one for my #1352239602450173984 and just wanted to shove this in there cos it doesn’t even fit any other prompt

hardy gust
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It’s not really a mystery imo

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I know, I struggled with the prompt too

wide yoke
robust kayak
mighty torrent
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finished! loved the creepy vibes and the unreliable narration, but, definitely no plot in sight. i absolutely hated charles and not just his greediness, but also the way he treated merricat and uncle julian, like isn't it obvious that they're unwell? did not understand the villagers either. i was very confused during the house-trashing scene, i thought merricat had just overly-dramatised it from her perspective, but it turns out, it really happened? and then, all of the villagers just apologised? like whats going on?
i dont know if i can say i liked merricat, she was an interesting character and i'm pretty sure she's on the spectrum, but the whole 'murdering her family' and 'burning the house down' is a bit too much. but i loved constance and her kindness, the way she took care of merricat despite all she did, and put up with her chaos (even taking the blame for her). i think constance has always accepted merricat for who she was, and merricat will forever be grateful for that.
another thing i loved was the suble foreshadowing, all the 'this is the last time something will happen' really keeps you hooked. but i do wish that we got the full story of what happened that night, and why merricat did what she did (i dont believe it's entirely because she was sent up to bed without dinner, i think that was just the last straw). 3.75/5 stars

celest nexus
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Uh yeah. I hated this kekCry

For me this book was just too much atmosphere and so many unreliable story that it was just frustrating to read. Couldn't connect to a single character, not a fucking plotline in sight, everybody's crazy it seems. I had a hard time digging through Merricat's yapping. I feel like everything was just one big dream or smth, and just the fact that i dont know if everybody is actually like this or if it's imaginary from merricat's head, i just can't. I dont understand why Constance loves Merricat so much, I thought merricat was like 8 but no apparently not kekCry I had to really force myself to go through this. I can see how surreal it is and how some people really can love this book, but for me it was so far off that I just really couldn't connect with it and enjoy it. Nothing felt creepy, real, whimsical, just weird and made no sense in my head.

celest nexus
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The whole thing that the villagers also don't make sense to me, it sounds like something merricat made up in her head

pure chasm
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just finished this and loved it so much! jackson is such an incredible author!

i think the thing i love so much abt jackson’s writing is the “domestic horror” genre, like merricat’s just grocery shopping and im like “omg im on the edge of my seat.”

i love how i didn’t really know what truly happened with the family deaths throughout the book, i loved that she kept dropping hints abt “this was the last normal day.” i did really hope that merricat and constance would die and just inhabit the house as ghosts. it didn’t make as much sense to me that they continued to live completely self sustaining lives (except for the villager’s offerings), although i do find that concept intriguing, too, that two humans could live almost completely undetected in a boarded-up house. because i’m sure that’s actually happened irl.

i think it also intrigues me bc i’m an incredibly relational/communal person so it’s just wild to me that anyone could live such an isolated life.

pure chasm
pure chasm
rugged valeBOT
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i’m intrigued by this,
why is she your idol, if
you don’t mind sharing?

- cleansky7
pure chasm
hardy gust
unreal nimbus
#

CB_run
Holy moly I'm behind in so many of these final thoughts threads it's not EVEN FUNNY. That being said I also forgot that I already read this years ago! SUCC I liked it then and I liked it now!

You will be wondering about that sugar bowl, I imagine. Is it still in use? You are wondering; has it been cleaned? You may very well ask; was it thoroughly washed?

I'm also bias because I fucken love Shirley Jackson. The way that she manages to instil unease with barely anything happening is something that I don't think many can replicate (with Summer coming up, I strongly recommend The Summer People by Jackson as a short fun read). Generally the whole village, not just the Blackwoods feel off-kilter, everything is very mundane but slightly off. We're slowly drip-fed the events that have left the village reeling and the Blackwoods distrusted, mostly from the mouth of Uncle Julian who is left incapacitated from surviving the Arsenic poisoning that killed 4 other members of his family, leaving just his nieces (one of which doled out the poisoning).

Merricat, said Connie, would you like a cup of tea?
Oh no, said Merricat, you’ll poison me.
Merricat, said Connie, would you like to go to sleep?
Down in the boneyard ten feet deep!

The relationship with Merricat and Constance is probably one of my favourite aspects- it reads to me as folie à deux. Constance very much has this air of wanting to free herself from the house, her past and the stigma that the village places on her - family friends are slowly trying to coax her from the house, the same can even be said of their cousin (though his intentions are not entirely noble as he knows all too well that they have money situated in the house's safe). To me, Constance is both an enabler while trying to cling to what remaining family survives her, even though Merricat is the reason that her family tree was pruned and she herself was put on trial. Merricat is quick to lull Constance back into their almost ritualized way of living in isolation- Merricat views her home then as a sanctuary with this behaviour she has invented to keep herself safe. Merricat is a troubled young woman, and not only by obsessional behaviour. She feels the need to mark the boundaries of the Blackwood land with fetishes and totems: talismans, which she believes will protect what is left of her family from the outside world. The final nail in the coffin coming to a head when Merricat starts a fire to punish their cousin causing the house to blaze, their uncle to perish and the town to be whipped into a destructive frenzy. This leaves the sisters living in the rubble of their home, completely distrusting and disconnected the rest of the world.

The reveal that Constance is covering for Merricat is part and parcel honestly- with how their characters are presented plus the resentment that Merricat has for having her delusions or wilfulness quashed, how she so easily wishes death on literally anyone that displeases her, it writes itself. despairge Generally I just feel bad for Constance because of how she's lulled into all of this or rather she's whittled down to accepting the isolation that Merricat wants. They are now 'living on the moon'. Doubly sad when Charles comes back to the ruined house and she overhears how disingenuous he is about why he's even interested in returning to the house (for the money rather than the well being of Constance).

To take any time to praise Shirley Jackson's writing style feels pointless as I feel like anyone who read this (liking it or not, I can understand why this book is divisive) can see her skill with prose and the way that she can untether the reader - making them feel like they're also living on the moon imo. I'm inclined to give this 4.5 starry happyfrog I just had a lovely time with it tbh, I love unhinged, off-kilter stories, no surprise there.

robust kayak
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Vaude, your take is always enlightening dam

unreal nimbus
robust kayak
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I didn’t see the book that way but I feel like I can appreciate it more seeing your perspective haha

celest holly
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I LOVED reading your thoughts Vaude!

This was a reread for me too and it hit more the first time around but I enjoyed rereading it all the same (mainly cuz I'd forgotten most parts lol). Like it’s still brilliant, but different things stood out this time, and I’m left sitting with a slightly heavier, more unsettled feeling?

I really loved the characterisations in this book especially those of Merricat and Constance.
Merricat's POV is so obsessive and like almost neurotic, and at odds with the supposed maturity of her age. Like WDYM she's 18? She doesn't feel a day over 12 or 6 rather (which I think is genius too in a way like she stopped growing kinda).Also, there’s this intense unreliability to her narration that I LOVE. Like you don't just notice it, but experience her internal world the way she experiences it, which is so twisted and isolated and all those trips to the moon. And then there's Constance who's such a lovely older sister really but I feel awful sad for her having to do so much all the time

Anyhoo, although I enjoyed it this time around too, I'm dropping a star cuz it was less awe-inspiring than when I'd read it first

Also, I've only read one other Shirley Jackson but I love how she has this way of writing horror that isn’t about gore or monsters but rather people, and what they're capable of when they're scared or feel powerful.

celest nexus
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Finished readers:

  • scarlettsens
  • mzcookies
  • eublepharidae
  • naya_4
  • tinkinaround
  • spicycheesecake
  • entulha
  • ctrlaltmerdel
  • jaclynport
  • ravenclaw_bookworm
  • manoukmade
  • cleansky7
  • vaudevet
  • hanzyyyy
  • beansandvalleys
  • bookish_bunny
  • wicdiv
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I also saw @sick coral you finished, but do you want to share your final thoughts on this book? duckIsForLove

celest nexus
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also curious to your thoughts Beans faceYasHeart

sick coral
celest nexus
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np! I'm just curious!

sick coral
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Pretty much right from the very beginning I knew this was going to be an odd book. I liked Merricat as the narrator, she's both captivating and unsettling. Her narration is a blend of conspirational intimacy and a dark, childlike delight in her own strangeness.
The Blackwoods are living in a grand old house that is giving strong mausoleum vibes. Constance, who appears as very gentle and diligent, is the caretaker of the household; actually it was very easy to forget Merricat is 18, because Constance treats and talks to her like she is much younger. And then there's Uncle Julian, who's half-lucid and at times lost to the past, obsessively chronicling the family tragedy that haunts them all. It's a very weird family dynamic.
Merricat's perspective is a prime example of the unreliable narrator. She speaks of the villagers with so much contempt, fantasises about their deaths and constructs a private world to keep her and Constance safe. She is by turns childish, malicious, and in her own twisted way extremely loyal. As a character she has this strange energy that is hard to put into words.
I liked how Jackson makes sure that some of the most prominent themes have a double meaning. Domestic cosiness becomes suffocation, the love between sisters becomes as much a prison as a refuge.
I don't really know what to make of the ending. It's everything Merricat wanted, now she has her sister all to herself, but I'm thinking of Constance. I got the impression that she wanted something more, that she had wishes to lead a more "normal" life. She's the character I feel bad for, Merricat is a very strong presence, and seems to totally dominate her. Even though I didn't like Charles at all, he at least for a short time got her away from Merricat's constant influence. So from this perspective, I can't say this was a happy ending for Constance.

#

Not a lot happened, but I really enjoyed the atmosphere. There's a certain psychological claustrophobic feel, and you're constantly thinking what is real and what is imagined or exaggerated. I give this 4/5 starry

runic yacht
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So I went in entirely cold to this book and came out a Shirley Jackson convert. 4.5/5 🌟 for me!

I was attempting to describe this book to my friend and I ended up saying it was a psychological fairytale haha. I definitely thought there were going to be some actual elements of magic or the supernatural, but I loved how Jackson narrates through Merricat's literally psychotic mind to make you question every reality and character motive. In the beginning, I thought maybe she was the author of some sort of fairytale world and the characters were turning against her.

I think the most interesting aspect of the book to me was Constance's relationship to Merricat and their collective descent into a world of their own making. I had an inkling that Merricat was the actual criminal in this book but I'm sure most people felt the same way! I agree with all the comments about Merricat seeming so much younger inside her mind than her actual age. I thought the development of the murder narrative was really well done through dialogue and Merricat's musings. I do wish Jackson would have made cousin Charles a little bit more likeable because he was the only outside influence in that house and the reader absolutely does not want to sympathize with him in any way.

As a side note, the manor sounds like a lovely home and I wish I could visit lol.

Last thought, I liked how the story had all the elements of a fairytale (castle = manor, sisters = isolated princesses, villagers = villagers, ending in a creepy way like the old fairytales with a moral-ish) just without the other-worldly creatures/objects/people.

#

Also, has anyone read any Henry James (I'm thinking specifically Turn of the Screw) and did this remind you of his writing?

twilit cipher
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Trying to sum up my thoughts for this damn for a book that was less than 200 pages this just felt really slow to me. I liked certain aspects of Merricat's narration and she seemed like she was the most interesting character out of the bunch but she was also so contradictory in how she was written. I mean that by at times she felt like she was 18 and at other times she felt like she was trapped at 12. Making the decision to murder (or attempt to) your entire family except your sister is a big one and her practicing magic to try and protect her family seems quite mature but then we have how overly protective Constance is of her, how she seems to have no friends, and how she just wanders about with her cat practicing poor hygiene omg the age difference and how Constance had to take on the caretaker role for both Merricat and Julian after what happened might make her more protective and somewhat infantilise Merricat but idk if that's me reading into things or if I'm meant to take that from the book.

Anyway outside of the major events of the book (the poisoning and the fire) it just felt like a lot of yapping. I didn't really get the suspense or the creepiness from this that was described because it was obvious that it was only going to be Merricat or Constance who poisoned everyone. Charles seemed like a pretty strange 'villain' too but considering we have all this from Merricat's perspective, I wonder if he was written that way just because he was a potential threat to the bond that Merricat and Constance had. They were getting closer and he might have come between them, so yeah, let's write him in as having nefarious motivations that he doesn't follow through on ShrugFreg

I can appreciate the symbolism of Constance and Merricat not being able to escape the house and only having each other at the end but also, why couldn't they break the cycle? I think a lot of this was influenced by the author's agoraphobia which is maybe why Constance can't leave but would it be a stretch to also say it's a metaphor for depression/mental illness and how difficult it can be to not feel that? I should have expected it from the title but I just wish that they weren't so secluded.

Now I feel like Merricat with all my non-sensical yapping but I think I just had high hopes for this and it didn't deliver on the creepy vibes that I was anticipating. 3 ⭐