The Lottery by Shirley Jackson: A Book Review
Genre: Horror
Shirley Jackson is one of the most classic writers of the horror world and her short story, The Lottery is one of her most known. Being only 9 pages long, the story goes quite quickly with the reader only understanding what is happening at the very end. Personally, I would love if the story gave more background and have read multiple fanfiction retellings that do exactly that.
What Jackson tells us about the situation happening in town, known only as the lottery, is very little. We know that every one picks a slip of paper from a box and the person who holds a black slip must pick again along with their household. We aren’t told why. We aren’t told what happens to the people. All we know is that the whole town is gathered, that there is talk of discontinuing it, and times are not how we know it.
Jackson writes very consistently, never telling the reader what may happen, though she relies heavily on foreshadowing. While the end can be slightly guessed at, it is still shocking in her manner of speaking as her descriptive languages shows the reader more than tells.
Plot: 10/10
Characters: 10/10
Writing: 10/10
Editor: 10/10
Total: 40/40
Title: Shirley Jackson: Novels and Stories
Author: Shirley Jackson; Editor: Joyce Carol Oates
Edition: Library of America Literary Classics
Published: May 27, 2010
Publisher: Library of America
ISBN: 9781598530728
If you want to get it: Amazon; Barnes&Noble
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