Retro Review: We Have Always Lived in the Castle
/When I started this blog, I had been posting reviews on Goodreads for about 6 months. In the interest of having all of my book writing in one place, I will post one of these old reviews every Friday. They weren't written with a blog in mind, so please forgive the lack of summary and off-the-cuff tone.
4 stars. I was totally unprepared for this. It's not at all what I expected and I'm thrilled that it has become horror canon. I guess I expected ... simple, traditional, predictable ... I'm not sure. But this is pure genius. I docked a star because I actually found it a little boring, which I totally attribute to my state of mind this week, but I can't wait to really think about this one.
Perhaps the most brilliant aspect of this story is that the "villain" is the least scary person you encounter. Merricat is a lot of things: mentally ill, psychopathic, agoraphobic, stunted in many ways, and yet as a reader I found myself rooting for her. Her OCD-like tendencies are profoundly interesting and creative; she has invented magic for herself. "I decided that I would choose three powerful words, words of strong protection, and so long as these great words were never spoken aloud no change would come."....
So I rooted for her. And I related to her. And I wanted Cousin Charles to leave and never come back. And I was horrified when her world got trampled and stomped on by the people in the village. Those people - those small-minded, misguided people - terrifying. Charles' greed and lack of empathy - terrifying. Constance's denial and ultimate state of existence - terrifying. But Merricat? She's adorable. She loves her sister and she loves her cat and she triumphs in the end.
It's so bizarre.