THE STEPDAUGHTER by Caroline Blackwood

It’s almost criminal that the name Caroline Blackwood isn’t bandied about in the same breath as Muriel Spark, Patricia Highsmith or Shirley Jackson. Maybe it’s because she doesn’t fit neatly alongside any of them but through some feat of litrary alchemy manages to combine the best of all three in one macabre, psychologically insightful package. Nowhere is this more on show than in The Stepdaughter, where Blackwood takes the tired trope of the evil stepmother and makes something deeply interesting with quite the emotional wallop.

J has been abandoned by her husband. He’s flown to Paris, broken off their marriage by post, and taken up with a twenty-something Frenchwoman. J is left in New York to care for their four-year-old kid as well as his teenage daughter, Renata, from a previous marriage. Through a series of letters, J unloads on the unfortunate creature, finding fault with Renata’s weight, looks, habits… existence. It’s hard to read, and reflects more on J than the girl. But cracks begin to form in the veneer of hatred and something far more complex takes shape. Then Blackwood pulls the rug and, holy shit, I’m stopping now before I spoil it for you. Just read it.

The Stepdaughter by Caroline Blackwood
Virago Modern Classic, 2025
95 pages