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We Have Always Lived in the Castle Audiobook— narrated by Bernadette Dunne
Jackson's last novel is narrated by eighteen-year-old Merricat Blackwood, who lives with her sister and uncle in a grand house the village despises, six years after most of the family died at the dinner table. It is a gothic told entirely from inside a charming, frightening mind, and it never once flinches.
Why the audiobook wins
Merricat Blackwood is one of literature's great unreliable narrators, and Bernadette Dunne's performance is what makes her voice so unsettling to live inside for an entire audiobook. Dunne finds the exact register Jackson needs: sweet, singsong, matter-of-fact about buried treasures and imagined curses, so the menace creeps up on you instead of announcing itself.
This is a gothic that lives or dies on voice, and hearing Merricat's asides delivered with real childlike conviction, rather than read as obvious warning signs, makes the eventual reveals land harder. It's an ideal short, dark listen for a quiet evening, the kind of book you want spoken directly into your ear.
Dunne has built a career on exactly this kind of psychologically exacting narration, and it shows in every controlled line here. At under seven hours, it's a compact, immersive descent into one of fiction's strangest minds, and one credit buys the whole eerie little house.
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Audiobook questions
- Who narrates the We Have Always Lived in the Castle audiobook?
- Bernadette Dunne narrates the audiobook edition of We Have Always Lived in the Castle.
- Is the We Have Always Lived in the Castle audiobook worth listening to?
- We scored We Have Always Lived in the Castle 4.2 out of 5. Merricat Blackwood is one of literature's great unreliable narrators, and Bernadette Dunne's performance is what makes her voice so unsettling to live inside for an entire audiobook. Dunne finds the exact register Jackson needs: sweet, singsong, matter-of-fact about buried…
- Can I listen to We Have Always Lived in the Castle free with an Audible trial?
- Eligible new Audible members can use a free-trial credit to listen in the Audible app. Eligibility and current offer terms are set by Audible.
