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4.43 AVERAGE
4.43 AVERAGE
Maybe this book is a case of the “it’s not you, it’s me”… Every review I see is over the moon enthusiastic, and here I am with my lukewarm “I liked it!”. And I did, I really did! Just not as much as I thought I would. And believe me, I live for fucked up family sagas and monster stories, so I can’t exactly put my finger on what went wrong here.
The small town of Perdido, Alabama is almost entirely flooded after a big storm, and once the rain stops, young Oscar Caskey goes around the town in his little boat to see if anything can be salvaged, or anyone rescued. That is how he comes to meet the mysterious Elinor, who seems to have escaped the waters by staying put on the second floor of the hotel she was staying at. When Oscar finds her, she is neither wet, nor starving, nor afraid. Almost as if she knew he’d be there soon to rescue her. And thus begins the long saga of Elinor’s life and how she joins the Caskey family. I won’t try to summarize the 800 pages story, separated into six novellas. It spans the first half of the twentieth century and four generations of Caskeys, their fortunes and misadventures, their strange lives and their sometimes even stranger deaths.
The prose is nice, but it didn’t blow my socks off, and the pacing is strong, keeping up a really good rhythm that made me look forward to every new corner this strange story would take. But I didn’t warm up to any of the characters, with the notable exception of Frances (more on her a bit later), and the horror elements were a little too quaint for me. I know I have a tough hide when it comes to creepy stuff, but I struggled to lose myself in the atmosphere of this book.
One thing that I can give McDowell entirely is that he is amazing at building dysfunctional family relationships. If there is a proper monster in this story, it’s Mary-Love Caskey, the matriarch who governs her family with an iron grip and does not like it one bit when Elinor shows up and shakes up the established order of things. The way she controls, manipulates and drives everyone crazy actually felt too realistic for comfort at times, and I have to wonder what kind of woman McDowell’s mother was like.
The only character I really warmed to was Frances Caskey, and even then, I only started finding her interesting when she began becoming more aware of her nature and realizing who she really is. I would have loved it if this aspect of the story had been explored more deeply, but that thread of the tapestry was snipped off much too soon for my taste.
I think that the label of “Southern Gothic family saga” had me expecting something more along the lines of Anne Rice’s Mayfair Witches saga, and “Blackwater” turned out to be a lot quainter than what I had been looking forward to. It will be a 3-star read for me, mostly because I think it’s unlikely I will revisit it in the future, but I see why is it as beloved as it is.
The small town of Perdido, Alabama is almost entirely flooded after a big storm, and once the rain stops, young Oscar Caskey goes around the town in his little boat to see if anything can be salvaged, or anyone rescued. That is how he comes to meet the mysterious Elinor, who seems to have escaped the waters by staying put on the second floor of the hotel she was staying at. When Oscar finds her, she is neither wet, nor starving, nor afraid. Almost as if she knew he’d be there soon to rescue her. And thus begins the long saga of Elinor’s life and how she joins the Caskey family. I won’t try to summarize the 800 pages story, separated into six novellas. It spans the first half of the twentieth century and four generations of Caskeys, their fortunes and misadventures, their strange lives and their sometimes even stranger deaths.
The prose is nice, but it didn’t blow my socks off, and the pacing is strong, keeping up a really good rhythm that made me look forward to every new corner this strange story would take. But I didn’t warm up to any of the characters, with the notable exception of Frances (more on her a bit later), and the horror elements were a little too quaint for me. I know I have a tough hide when it comes to creepy stuff, but I struggled to lose myself in the atmosphere of this book.
One thing that I can give McDowell entirely is that he is amazing at building dysfunctional family relationships. If there is a proper monster in this story, it’s Mary-Love Caskey, the matriarch who governs her family with an iron grip and does not like it one bit when Elinor shows up and shakes up the established order of things. The way she controls, manipulates and drives everyone crazy actually felt too realistic for comfort at times, and I have to wonder what kind of woman McDowell’s mother was like.
The only character I really warmed to was Frances Caskey, and even then, I only started finding her interesting when she began becoming more aware of her nature and realizing who she really is. I would have loved it if this aspect of the story had been explored more deeply, but that thread of the tapestry was snipped off much too soon for my taste.
I think that the label of “Southern Gothic family saga” had me expecting something more along the lines of Anne Rice’s Mayfair Witches saga, and “Blackwater” turned out to be a lot quainter than what I had been looking forward to. It will be a 3-star read for me, mostly because I think it’s unlikely I will revisit it in the future, but I see why is it as beloved as it is.
dark
emotional
funny
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
challenging
mysterious
relaxing
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
The little I did read was good but I'm just not in the mood for it. I'm in a bit of a funk, lifewise. I might pick it up in the future.
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
Ostensibly a horror, actually an epic story of family politics and baby-swapping. So well-written that I didn't mind it was basically about a wealthy family getting mega-rich.
dark
mysterious
medium-paced