We Have Always Lived In The Castle Ch’s 9 & 10

I have to apologize to everyone for not having this post up in time!! It totally got away from me. Maybe subconsciously I was trying to avoid it because it’s our last discussion of the book I’ve had such a great time talking about this book with everyone and reading everyone’s comments about it! It really has been quite the fun read. But alas, all things must come to an end, and what an interesting end We Have Always Lived in the Castle has come to.

Did anyone find the ending anti-climatic? At first I did. I wanted more answers. Maybe not more answers, maybe that’s not the right term, but I wanted to see things play out more. We never learn much more about Uncle Julian’s death and the girls’ reaction is a bit strange…not much of a reaction at all really. I found it odd that the girls are able to continue to live in the house despite half of it being burnt down. Even with the vines growing over the house it doesn’t seem like it would be very liveable. The girls get checked in on and Helen Clarke makes a statement that the townspeople didn’t mean it the way they took it? Or something like that? That was bizarre to me. How else were the girls to take people destroying their homes.

But after sitting with the book for a couple of days, I began to become ok with the ending because it became almost fairy tale like to me. Where things don’t necessarily have to have a perfect ending and be tied up nicely. In fact, the ending became deliciously creepy to me with people leaving baskets on the front doorstep filled with food as an apology for their past behavior. Children daring each other to go close to the door. Stories forming about the old women who lived in the house still. But we as readers actually get to see what’s BEHIND the door. And I almost felt like the whole book was an homage to these sorts of folktales and legends that live in small towns. That it showed us the humans behind the doors. The real people who take the food that’s left in the basket and how they’re not creepy old witches, but people that we can feel for despite our initial questions about them. But of course these are just my own thoughts on the book. I would LOVE to hear your own thoughts on the ending.

What did you think of these last two chapters and even more, what did you think of the novel as a whole? Did you enjoy it? Were you disappointed by the ending? Are you likely to read more Jackson after reading this novel? I know I am!

Also, I just want to thank everyone for participating in this discussion!! It’s meant so much to me (who was a bundle of nerves to begin with!) and I just had so much fun hosting this. Hope everyone enjoyed it!!

We Have Always Lived In The Castle Ch’s 6, 7 & 8 Discussion

First of all, Happy Halloween Everyone!!! Or I should say a belated happy Halloween to everyone as you’re likely reading this after Halloween. But I hope that everyone had a wonderfully spooky Halloween and that Ms. Shirley Jackson’s wonderfully atmospheric novel could add to your holiday. I have a confession to make….I finished the book! After reading these three chapters I could NOT put the book down. But I promise no spoilers for the last two chapters here :p But we certainly reached a climax with these three chapters and I found it so hard to just put the book down for another week. So let’s chat.

What did we all think of all of this craziness??? All of this unrest? It seems that everyone just exploded in these chapters. Everyone except for Constance who seems to just always stay as level headed as she can. I feel for Constance…I truly do. The more and more we see of her personality, the more we see that in her own little world, she’s the one that has to hold everything together but she feels a constant need to hide from the outside world. Yet everything around her is in unrest. We have Merricat just losing her cool completely with Charles and who can blame her. She tears his room apart which leads Charles to lose it on her which leads Uncle Julian to lose it on him while Constance just tries to act as the moderator. And then there’s the fire….oh the fire

What a horrible scene, huh? Did anyone else feel just a huge surge of ANGER reading that scene?? As Charles tried to haul the safe out of the house and the townspeople went about smashing everything they could find in the house and even those in charge lost it. What’s left for Constance and Mary Katherine? Who are they truly safe with?

And then of course there is the big reveal at the end of Chapter 9. The reveal that so many of you had guessed from the beginning! This is a rhetorical question for some of you, but were you surprised by this? I guess even if you had guessed that it was Mary Katherine, what did you think of the way it was revealed?

I’m just head over heels in love with this book and am dying to get my hands on some more Shirley Jackson. What a wonderful writer she was, huh? I love the atmosphere and the emotion that she evokes with her words. Just perfect. And I couldn’t be happier with the discussions we’re having here. Thanks everyone

We Have Always Lived In The Castle Ch’s 3, 4 & 5 Discussion

I have to start off by telling everyone that while I was first terrified of leading this group, I am now LOVING it! The discussion for the first two chapters has been wonderful and has me thinking all sorts of possibilities that I haven’t thought of before. So what does everyone think of our next session?

Here we see Mary sort of spinning into almost a psychosis, I would say with the belief that buried objects will keep her safe, a book nailed to a post will keep bad things from happening, a series of three magic words can protect her (anyone have anything to say on those words?), a secret hiding place among trees to protect her and conversations with her pet cat, Jonas.

But it’s not just Mary that’s acting increasingly more bizarre with these next three chapters. As Frankie pointed out in the comments of the discussion of Chapter’s 1&2, the whole family seems to make a mockery out of the murder of the rest of the family, often making harsh jokes about it. And does anyone else get the feeling that Uncle Julian knows much more about what happened than what he leads on…that he has some sort of dementia and occasionally sees through to the past. It almost seems to me that Constance tries to shut him up at time. I almost wonder if SHE’S putting something in HIS food at times and telling him “now now, just go outside and look at the pretty birds.”

And then there’s Cousin Charles who I honestly don’t know what to make of. I find it highly suspicious that he’s there just to reunite and look after everyone. Highly suspicious. Though he seems to  find Uncle Julian’s talk of the murders disturbing at times, there’s also something about him that just isn’t right. But let’s be honest…is there anyone in this bloodline that we’ve met so far that has their head screwed on straight?

A lot of people mentioned in the comments last week that they had a strong feeling Mary Katherine was the one who put the arsenic in the sugar. Is everyone still feeling that way? Just curious to know. I honestly don’t know what to think at this point. I really don’t! But I have a feeling I’ll be flying through our next section tonight :p

We Have Always Lived In The Castle CH. 1&2 Discussion

It’s time to get this party started!! And by party, I mean this super creepy book. Well Ms. Mary Katherine sounds pleasant, doesn’t she? She opens the book telling us that she wishes she would’ve been born a werewolf, she dislikes washing herself and that everyone in her family aside from her and her sister are dead. I’m guessing we’re not considering Uncle Julian family since it’s by marriage or is he going to be some kind of ghost or something? And then things just  get more and more bizarre as we learn that the whole town dislikes her and her sister. Or is it mostly in her head? Or is it a combination of the two? We certainly see Mary Katherine’s own imagination get carried away as she imagines the deaths of those that give her grief.

But it’s in the second chapter that the meat of the story seems to be revealed. A murder…a poisoning with arsenic. Is it just me or did it sound like Constance and Uncle Julian were putting on a show almost for Helen Clarke and Mrs. Wright? I mean, this is a messed up family. That’s my first impression. And who is Helen? I mean yes, we know she’s one of the few townspeople that are “good enough” to come and visit the girls, but why? What’s her interest in them? And why bring Mrs. Wright?

Wow…there’s just so much to talk about here. I was hooked by this book right from the beginning!! I’m so glad to be reading this one!! And I really can’t wait to see where it goes. So here are a few questions to discuss: What were your thoughts going into this novel? Is it anything like what you expected? Do you think that Constance put the arsenic in the sugar as of right now? Any hunch on what’s up with the family? There’s just something really off about them. Why is Helen so interested in the girls? What about the title of the book? And most importantly…are you hooked?!

Can’t wait to meet everyone here next week!! Same time, same place

Welcome To We Have Always Lived In The Castle!

Hey everyone!! My name is Chris, and I’ve been asked to host the Classic Reads Book Club in the fourth quarter read this year! I can’t tell you how honored I was just to be asked and then how terrified I was. You see, I really have no idea what I’m doing over here, so please be gentle :p I promise to try my best though!

A little introduction, I blog over at Stuff as Dreams are Made on and have been doing that on one platform or another for almost four years now. When I started blogging, I read almost exclusively fantasy, sci-fi and horror, but my reading tastes have broadened tremendously since I’ve been blogging!! But there is always that special place in my heart for the previously mentioned category. So when I was asked to host this book club, my thoughts wandered over that way. And they fell upon this book by Shirley Jackson that I have been wanting to read for years now! And it’s quite a short book, but from what I’ve heard, it packs quite the punch in it’s slim volume.

I can’t wait to discover what lies between the covers with you all! I’m really quite excited about this Here’s the schedule that I’ve worked out for us:

October 18th – 24th: Read and Discuss Chapters 1&2

October 25th – 31st: Read and Discuss Chapters 3-5

November 1st – 7th: Read and Discuss Chapters 6-8

November 8th – 14th: Read and Discuss Chapters 9&10 and Wrap Up

I’ll put the posts up over here on either the night before discussion begins or first thing in the morning. Since I’m not a morning person at all, it’ll likely be the night before :p Hope everyone enjoys!! Happy spooky reading to you all!!