Merricat Blackwood lives tucked away on her family’s secluded estate with her sister Constance and their ailing Uncle Julian. Once there were seven Blackwoods—until a spoonful of sugar, laced with arsenic, turned an ordinary dinner into a massacre. Constance was accused but ultimately acquitted, retreating to the crumbling sanctuary of their home, where Merricat guards her fiercely from the prying eyes and whispered hatred of the nearby villagers.
Their fragile, insular world holds—until cousin Charles arrives. Charming, insistent, and hungry for more than just tea, he threatens to unravel the delicate balance of the Blackwood household. Merricat sees what no one else will: that he must be stopped.
We Have Always Lived in the Castle is Shirley Jackson at her most masterful—a hypnotic, unnerving tale of isolation, obsession, and the dread that seeps in when an unwelcome presence disturbs a carefully constructed world.
