Just Finished Reading: The Lottery and Other Stories

I love Shirley Jackson, she is one of my favorite writers. Most book stories don't have her books, though which is unfortunate (and if they do it is usually just The Haunting of Hill House). So, I was really happy when I found this one at Barnes & Noble. It is filled with really cool short stories, with her most famous story The Lottery being the very last one. Some of my favorites were Charles, After You, My Dear Alphonse, The Witch, The Dummy, and of course, The Lottery.

Just Finished Reading: The Haunting of Hill House

I started reading this because I am a fan of Shirley Jackson. I love love loved her book We Have Always Lived in the Castle. As I started reading this one, I realized that I recognized the story. This book was made into two movies that I've seen, one from the 60s and one from the 90s, both called The Haunting. I just thought that was really cool because the 90s version of The Haunting scared the shit out of me when I was a little kid. It was always the ghost stories that got to me. I remember that the teaser trailer scared the shit out of me. It was one of the previews that they had on a VHS we owned, and I used to always have to fast forward through it whenever it was on. Looking back at it, it's really not that scary, but when I was 9 it used to give me nightmares.



The Haunting of Hill House is a really interesting ghost story, because the characters never actually see any ghosts. They pretty much only hear noises, but that is what makes it so freaky. I always hear shit when I am alone in a house, so I always have to have the TV on, or have music playing or else I start to freak myself out.

Just Finished Reading: We Have Always Lived In The Castle

I have always loved Shirley Jackson's story "The Lottery," so I wanted to read one of her novels. I absolutely loved this one. This was probably the only non-graphic novel/ comic book that I finished all in one day. I started reading it on Tuesday morning after I finished reading Never Let Me Go, and I finished reading it after I got home from class. We Have Always Lived in the Castle is about the Blackwood family. Constance Blackwood is an agoraphobe who was aquitted of murdering everyone in her family except for her uncle Julian, and her little sister Mary Katherine. Mary Katherine, or Merricat, is the protagonist of the story. She is the only one who every leaves the Blackwood house, and that is only to get groceries and books. Everyone in town believes that Constance was guilty, so they all hate the Blackwoods. Merricat is an interesting narrator, because she is obviously quite unhinged and often fantasizes about watching the people around her die. Because of this, she is what is called an "unreliable narrator." The truth of what happened to the rest of the Blackwood family wasn't all that shocking because I guessed it from the very beginning, but that didn't ruin the story at all for me. I really enjoyed reading this book and I look forward to reading more from Shirley Jackson in the future.