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Tracy Mumford

A family locks itself away after a series of murders

'We Have Always Lived in the Castle' by Shirley Jackson
'We Have Always Lived in the Castle' by Shirley Jackson
Courtesy of publisher

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Every week, The Thread checks in with booksellers around the country about their favorite books of the moment. This week, we spoke with Kendra Adkins of Four Seasons Books in Shepherdstown, W.V.

Adkins recently picked up "Life Among the Savages," Shirley Jackson's autobiographical story collection about the chaos of raising her four children.

For Jackson, who is best known for unsettling works like "The Haunting of Hill House," it shows a different side — her domestic life.

"I loved it. Dearly," Adkins said, "I had no idea she was so witty and dry. Because of the book, I'm now going on and reading her other works."

High school is where most people encounter Jackson, if they read her at all. Her short story, "The Lottery," is on many a syllabus. But her novels are not as well-known, and so Adkins recommends picking up "We Have Always Lived in the Castle."

It's modeled after the town where Jackson lived with her family in Vermont.

"It was, like a lot of little towns, not so welcoming to outsiders. In the '40s, it had a very particular anti-intellectualism bent and some anti-Semitism going on," Adkins said. "So she writes a lot about modern-day evil — how it's all around us and how do we move through that? How do we continue to live with it?"

The book is narrated by 18-year-old Merricat, one of only three surviving members of the Blackwood family. She and her sister and uncle have locked themselves away in their house, after the rest of their family was murdered by arsenic poisoning. The people in the town suspect her sister was responsible for the deaths.

We Have Always Lived in the Castle We Have Always Lived in the Castle

In true bookseller fashion, Adkins has a second recommendation — and a stark departure from "We Have Always Lived in the Castle." She recommends "Pond" by Claire-Louise Bennett.

The book, she said, is like "you're having coffee with a friend and you're jumping from topic to topic to topic." For anyone who enjoys non-linear, meditative stories, "Pond" will be a pleasure.

Pond Pond