Play Book Tag discussion

[I read this with Halloween in mind as it is pretty creepy, then realised that it also fits the crime fiction tag...]

Merricat, said Connie, would you like a cup of tea?
Oh no, said Merricat, you’ll poison me.
Merricat, said Connie, would you like to go to sleep?
Down in the boneyard six feet deep!

This book’s narrator Mary Katherine (Merricat) is at once childlike and defensively hostile, superstitious and perhaps a little creepy. What has happened to make her that way, and who is to blame? Who in her strange little family is being protected, and from what? Who makes the rules, and will things ever change? (view spoiler)[At times - especially the "we are so happy" ending - I was reminded a little of the short story "It's a Good Life" in which an entire town's behaviour is controlled by the whims of an all-powerful six-year-old. (hide spoiler)] This was a fun quick October read - impressively creepy without giving me the fear in real life, and I couldn’t resist going back and skim-reading it again as soon as I’d reached the end, to see how many of my early impressions came from passages that could be also be interpreted totally differently with more knowledge…

This is my favorite Shirley Jackson book. I love how she can make creepy and scary from anything.