Six years ago, the entire Blackwood family was poisoned by arsenic in their sugar. Even though Constance, who prepared the meal, was acquitted, the villagers shun her and the family. Now Constance hides away with her uncle, disabled from the arsenic, and her younger sister Merricat. When an estranged cousin arrives, he upsets the balance between the sisters and threatens to bring to light hidden secrets.

If you want a trippy Gothic classic, you cannot pass on Shirley Jackson's short novel. Merricat is the perfect unreliable narrator, an odd childlike woman whom Constance coddles. Is Merricat's mental state a cause or a result of events?  The book's ambiguous nature leaves the story wide open for interpretation. You never learn why the Blackwood family was poisoned, so you are left to guess in this thought-provoking read.