We Have Always Lived in the Castle

by Shirley Jackson · 1962

We Have Always Lived in the Castle is a New England gothic novel by Shirley Jackson that follows the reclusive narrator Merricat Blackwood and her sister Constance as they live in isolation on their family estate, shunned by hostile villagers after a mysterious arsenic poisoning that killed most of their family. The story unfolds with creeping dread, suspicious neighbors, and a tightly held family secret, creating a tense, unsettling atmosphere that blurs the line between horror and literary fiction.