Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

He pressured me into reading this book. "No, no," I objected, "I know about this Shirley Jackson; she's the one writes those scary books. I'd like to sleep tonight, thank you." Finally I gave in and picked it up. I didn't put it down until I had read the last word, and then only for long enough to get a glass of apple juice and demand to know why there wasn't more of it. Two weeks later, as I was reading it for about the ninetieth time, he suggested perhaps I ought to get some sleep, or some fresh air, or at least, if it wasn't too much to ask, a different book. "Fine," I snarled, "I'll try this HAUNTING OF HILL HOUSE." But that's another review, and I still haven't gotten around to why I loved this book so much. It's been said, I believe, that Shirley Jackson was incapable of writing a bad, or poor, sentence. More accurate, I think, would be to say that she cannot (could not) write an imperfect one. Every word of every sentence on every page of WE HAVE ALWAYS LIVED IN THE CASTLE drew me in, captivated me, and made it impossible for me to not believe everything I was reading. It was as if, while reading the words of Merricat Blackwood, I was her; her "madness", if that is the word for the way she thought, felt, and acted, consumed me and I thought as she did. I cannot imagine a more magical book, a more fascinating story. I urge you to read this book if you care one shred for literature. It is, truly, a masterpiece.