We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson

In We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson, eighteen year-old Mary Katherine "Merricat" Blackwood lives in New England with her older sister, Constance, their sickly Uncle Julian, and a very loyal black cat named Jonas. Surrounded by a large piece of land and secured inside of a locked gate, their house appears to be more of a fortress than a home. Once a week Merricat warily slips off her family's property to enter the village for groceries. There is she is taunted by children and treated with suspicion by other adults. What was it that happened in their home to make the town so fearful of the Blackwood family -- and just who was responsible for this crime? Even after the big reveal, Merricat's unusual and unique perspective on her world will have you wondering what's reality and what's fantasy in this classic tale of gothic horror.