Hello everyone! ❤️ Welcome to another book review. Our book club pick for November was We Have Always Lived in the Castle and honestly, reading it felt like stepping into a dream that is both soft and quietly unsettling. The story drifts around you in this strange almost tender gloom, the kind of atmosphere where even silence feels like it has a pulse. I went into it expecting something much darker and more frightening, but instead I found a gothic tale that whispers rather than screams.
The two girls at the center of the story were absolutely fascinating. They are lovely in this very eerie way, like porcelain dolls with secrets hidden behind their eyes. Sweet and strange and unsettling all at once. I genuinely enjoyed how their oddness was treated as something natural. It added to the charm of the entire setting, where bad omens and creepy details were simply woven into everyday life, as if everyone had silently agreed that the bizarre was normal.
The writing style did throw me off at times. There were moments where the language felt slightly misaligned or stilted and I cannot decide whether it was entirely intentional or partly an editorial hiccup. It created a small barrier for me and I had to push through it, even though the story itself flowed with that dreamy quality gothic literature often has.
One thing I truly appreciated was the fluid timeline. The book drifts between reality and thoughts; with a softness that never feels confusing. There is something almost lyrical about the way memories fold into the present. It made the story feel like a house full of half opened doors, each one showing a piece of the past without fully revealing what is behind it.
Still, I was expecting something more intensely creepy. There were moments that gave me that prickling feeling, but the overall tone was gentler than I anticipated. It is beautifully atmospheric, yes, and definitely unsettling in its own way, but it never reached that level of haunting tension I had imagined before reading.
So I settled on three stars. I enjoyed it, especially for the vibe and the strange beauty of the girls and their world. It just did not fully deliver the eerie punch I hoped for. But I am still glad our November book club chose it because it gave me a story that sits with you in that quiet, lingering way, the kind that makes you think about shadows you only half noticed before.
Luster of Books 