"We Have Always Lived in the Castle" is a 1962 mystery novel by American author Shirley Jackson. The story is narrated by eighteen-year-old Mary Katherine "Merricat" Blackwood, who lives with her agoraphobic sister Constance and ailing uncle on an isolated estate. Six years before the novel's events, most of the Blackwood family were poisoned, leaving the three survivors ostracized by their village. The novel explores themes of isolation, psychological trauma, and social decay through the perspective of Merricat, who is an unreliable narrator. The Blackwood family, once wealthy and respected, have become objects of fear and mockery, living cut off from society in their deteriorating home.
The title "We Have Always Lived in the Castle" reflects the family's long- standing isolation and their psychological and physical retreat into their home, which Merricat views as a sanctuary despite its dark history.