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4.43 AVERAGE
4.43 AVERAGE
dark
emotional
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
2.5 ⭐️
This book was so frustrating. The prose is very good and he just sweeps you off your feet into this early 20th century eccentric Alabama family. The horror elements of this book were so subtle you would miss most of it if you weren’t paying attention. The books consists of 6 parts and each one includes a single graphic death scene, the rest is all storytelling setting an ominous tone. I really didn’t enjoy any of the parts that meant but I wanted to figure out what the hell was going on so bad. I eventually just started skimming the last few hundred pages to get it over with. I can see why people may like this but definitely not worth reading almost 800 pages over. I was expecting a super horrific ending with all my questions answered it went out with a puny whimper.
There’s also random supernatural elements to this which I don’t understand. Is this a river monster book or a ghost book? Does the river monster have abilities to conjure ghosts? I DONT KNOW
This book was so frustrating. The prose is very good and he just sweeps you off your feet into this early 20th century eccentric Alabama family. The horror elements of this book were so subtle you would miss most of it if you weren’t paying attention. The books consists of 6 parts and each one includes a single graphic death scene, the rest is all storytelling setting an ominous tone. I really didn’t enjoy any of the parts that meant but I wanted to figure out what the hell was going on so bad. I eventually just started skimming the last few hundred pages to get it over with. I can see why people may like this but definitely not worth reading almost 800 pages over. I was expecting a super horrific ending with all my questions answered it went out with a puny whimper.
There’s also random supernatural elements to this which I don’t understand. Is this a river monster book or a ghost book? Does the river monster have abilities to conjure ghosts? I DONT KNOW
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
dark
emotional
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
This post won't contain many spoilers beyond themes and genre.
Michael McDowell's Blackwater Saga was published in 6 short volumes (each <200 pages); its narrative spanning the years 1919 to the late 1960s in Perdido, Alabama.
The saga is regularly described as both horror and southern gothic. There's no need to define horror to this audience, but Gothic as a genre tends to deal with the anxiety and anticipation around archaic power structures fading away, whether religious (Lewis' The Monk or Radcliffe's The Italian), Feudal (The Castle of Otranto or the Mystery of Udolpho), or, in the case of Southern Gothic, slave-economy, which is often explored with post-civil war families decaying in the wake of abolition and the waning cotton trade (the decrepit plantation houses of Faulkner, or the painful integration of Flannery O'Connor).
Blackwater is not Southern Gothic. In fact, for first 90% of the novel has the Caskey's going from strength to strength, success to success, regardless of post slavery economics, two world wars, a great depression, and civil rights movements. Nothing touches them, and without going into spoilers, the ending does not set up a grand Fall, nor an accountability for their social position.
In fact, I'd go so far as to say it has an offensively revisionist view of race, sexuality, and gender norms, given the time period it's set it. It seems nearly everbody is fine with being whoever they want to be and who they want to be with, and in the 50 year span of the saga, the black servant family is never raised as a question of ethics or evolves in any way. Every generation is just so gosh darn eager to serve the Caskey's, coz they good folks.
On a line-by-line basis the saga is competently written; I wouldnt have finished it otherwise. The characters are each unique, but the 3rd person omniscient narration is more detached than usual, and entire years are breezed over in the same historical prose as the actual action, and makes investment in the drama difficult to achieve. As for the horror elements...? I'm personally convinced that they were a late addition to the drafting of the saga and that the series would have been improved by more ambiguity; as it is, the horror elements pop up occasionally like a jack in the box, disappear, and barely affect the continued plot.
I can't say that I *hated* it; as mentioned before, I wouldn't have read a book this long, over 3 months, if that were so. But every element of it was so neutered and undercooked that by the ending, I was pretty underwhelmed by what McDowell had to say about 50 years of Alabama society, where his foreword denoted that his aim was to "describe the people as they *are*".
A disappointment, to be sure, given my love of both Horror and Southern Gothic.
Michael McDowell's Blackwater Saga was published in 6 short volumes (each <200 pages); its narrative spanning the years 1919 to the late 1960s in Perdido, Alabama.
The saga is regularly described as both horror and southern gothic. There's no need to define horror to this audience, but Gothic as a genre tends to deal with the anxiety and anticipation around archaic power structures fading away, whether religious (Lewis' The Monk or Radcliffe's The Italian), Feudal (The Castle of Otranto or the Mystery of Udolpho), or, in the case of Southern Gothic, slave-economy, which is often explored with post-civil war families decaying in the wake of abolition and the waning cotton trade (the decrepit plantation houses of Faulkner, or the painful integration of Flannery O'Connor).
Blackwater is not Southern Gothic. In fact, for first 90% of the novel has the Caskey's going from strength to strength, success to success, regardless of post slavery economics, two world wars, a great depression, and civil rights movements. Nothing touches them, and without going into spoilers, the ending does not set up a grand Fall, nor an accountability for their social position.
In fact, I'd go so far as to say it has an offensively revisionist view of race, sexuality, and gender norms, given the time period it's set it. It seems nearly everbody is fine with being whoever they want to be and who they want to be with, and in the 50 year span of the saga, the black servant family is never raised as a question of ethics or evolves in any way. Every generation is just so gosh darn eager to serve the Caskey's, coz they good folks.
On a line-by-line basis the saga is competently written; I wouldnt have finished it otherwise. The characters are each unique, but the 3rd person omniscient narration is more detached than usual, and entire years are breezed over in the same historical prose as the actual action, and makes investment in the drama difficult to achieve. As for the horror elements...? I'm personally convinced that they were a late addition to the drafting of the saga and that the series would have been improved by more ambiguity; as it is, the horror elements pop up occasionally like a jack in the box, disappear, and barely affect the continued plot.
I can't say that I *hated* it; as mentioned before, I wouldn't have read a book this long, over 3 months, if that were so. But every element of it was so neutered and undercooked that by the ending, I was pretty underwhelmed by what McDowell had to say about 50 years of Alabama society, where his foreword denoted that his aim was to "describe the people as they *are*".
A disappointment, to be sure, given my love of both Horror and Southern Gothic.
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
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
5/5 ⭐️. I cannot put into words how much I love this novel. At over 800 pages (30 hours on audio) this is an epic saga if I’ve ever read one. This book is a combination of family saga, Southern gothic, and horror. The book begins in 1919, in Perdido, Alabama. A flood has just decimated the town, and Oscar Caskey runs across a woman stranded in the local hotel. What follows is a story of love, hate, revenge and family, with a little bit of superbly creepy horror sprinkled throughout. This is the second time I have listened to this book. Both times, I balled my eyes out when it was over. I want a tv series now!
Overall, I'm giving the series 4 stars, and a short review.
From the onset, the Blackwater series was right up my alley: southern family saga, and for a bit of fun, throw a swamp monster into the mix.
The series had some ebbs and flows for me. Book one was a very strong start, and through book three, the family story was quite interesting. Of course, the most interesting thing was the anticipation of how this was all going to pan out. Which is why this didn't maintain the 5 star status I had going for the first half of the series.
I found book four to be quite slow and dull, but thankfully things got interesting again through book 5.
Book 6: This is where my disappointment came into play. While I did like the overall ending of the book, it sure took a long time to get there. Even though this, as the others, was under 200 pages, I found a lot of it to be a slog and I was impatient to finish.
This may be due to the fact that I read all six novels back-to-back, when perhaps it would have been more effective to space these out in the spirit a serialized series is meant to be.
Regardless, I did what I did, and found the journey to the end a bit too long in the tooth.
As a side note, a few thoughts occurred to me while reading the series:
This would make an incredible TV series.
The writing reminded me a lot of Jeffery Archer's style (note, I've only read one book of his, but...) : while I became very familiar with the characters, I didn't find there was a whole lot of depth to many of them. Familiarity was gained by exposure to them and how the story carried them along. The characters that were fleshed out better were known through dialogue, which, at times, was where McDowell really excelled.
Having said that, there were times when the narrative really shined, and these were the creepier (and most integral) parts of the story.
So, the four stars here is indicative of the strength of story idea, dialogue, and creepy parts that will take a while to forget.
It's too bad I was disappointed with some of the pacing, but no regrets overall.
From the onset, the Blackwater series was right up my alley: southern family saga, and for a bit of fun, throw a swamp monster into the mix.
The series had some ebbs and flows for me. Book one was a very strong start, and through book three, the family story was quite interesting. Of course, the most interesting thing was the anticipation of how this was all going to pan out. Which is why this didn't maintain the 5 star status I had going for the first half of the series.
I found book four to be quite slow and dull, but thankfully things got interesting again through book 5.
Book 6: This is where my disappointment came into play. While I did like the overall ending of the book, it sure took a long time to get there. Even though this, as the others, was under 200 pages, I found a lot of it to be a slog and I was impatient to finish.
This may be due to the fact that I read all six novels back-to-back, when perhaps it would have been more effective to space these out in the spirit a serialized series is meant to be.
Regardless, I did what I did, and found the journey to the end a bit too long in the tooth.
As a side note, a few thoughts occurred to me while reading the series:
This would make an incredible TV series.
The writing reminded me a lot of Jeffery Archer's style (note, I've only read one book of his, but...) : while I became very familiar with the characters, I didn't find there was a whole lot of depth to many of them. Familiarity was gained by exposure to them and how the story carried them along. The characters that were fleshed out better were known through dialogue, which, at times, was where McDowell really excelled.
Having said that, there were times when the narrative really shined, and these were the creepier (and most integral) parts of the story.
So, the four stars here is indicative of the strength of story idea, dialogue, and creepy parts that will take a while to forget.
It's too bad I was disappointed with some of the pacing, but no regrets overall.