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The storytelling in 'Castle' is superb, haunting, unnerving and captivating. However, the story itself less so. While very good it is not brilliant and not very original.

Whether you love it or hate it, this book will get under your skin, invade your mind and leaves you pondering the many questions the author so brilliantly evokes in your mind. It’s like a scab you know you shouldn’t scratch but you want to. This book was very predictable yet I couldn’t put it down. It was unoriginal but I was still engrossed in everything it had to offer, from the characters to the plot and themes.

Pervasive, haunting, strange, evil, and disturbing.

The Plot

The 'Castle' is occupied by the young female protagonist in the story, Merricat. We meet her in the opening pages but now I will let Merricat introduce herself to you ... "My name is Mary Katherine Blackwood. I am eighteen years old, and I live with my sister Constance. I have often thought that with any luck at all, I could have been born a werewolf..... I like my sister Constance, ..... Everyone else in our family is dead.��

The dead family relates to a tragic and disturbing event six years ago when Constance is charged with poisoning and murdering her entire family. Tried and acquitted, the two sisters now live with an ailing uncle who suffers from the effects and trauma of that time. They live in isolation apart from the weekly outings where Merricat goes to the village shop for groceries where she is taunted and mocked by the local children. The castle, where she lives is also the subject of much folklore since their father sequestered the estate away from use by anyone but his family. Gates and fencing were erected to ensure they remained secluded.

After an accidental fire which leaves the Castle virtually uninhabitable, and looting by the neighbours, the lives of the two girls takes an even more peculiar turn.

Review and Comments

This is storytelling at its best. The writing style is simple but macabre that helped create such a creepy, sinister, and troubling atmosphere from the opening pages to the last. So no it’s not ‘horror�� as we know it, but frightening, evil and disturbing - absolutely.

As for Merricat. A vulnerable teenager or a clever lunatic?. A ghost or a girl living in a dream world albeit it a ‘dark fairytale�� she will do everything to protect? Merricat had me spooked and questioning whether this girl was pure evil, cunning, psychotic or just odd, but you do know she is behind much of the evil in the story and yet she remains calm, watching, and observing, and when you hear the words...

“I am going to put death in all their food and watch them die.��

Then there is no doubt that it was not Constance who laced the sugar bowl with arsenic.

To fully appreciate this story is to get inside the mind of Merricat - or try to. Her mind will take you to less comfortable places - ominous, chilling and pretty scary without the horror. A very subtle piece of writing in fact, but with an inescapable unease and then you realise the monster is the child come young adult. Meet the not so innocent but merry 'Merricat'.