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ggcd1981's review against another edition
challenging
dark
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Abandonment, Violence, Death of parent, Gore, Ableism, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Child abuse, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, and Body horror
Moderate: Gaslighting, Emotional abuse, Grief, Cannibalism, Classism, Drug use, Child death, and Toxic relationship
Minor: Racism
devynvictoria's review against another edition
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
I agree with other people that India, Luker’s daughter, is super obnoxious and unrealistically written for her age, I honestly think this could have been a five star read for me if I wasn’t cringing every time she spoke or pulled out of the story for how unlikely really anything she does was for the age she was supposed to be. I understand that these characters were written to be unlikable, but her character was definitely overkill. I went through this pretty quickly and enjoyed the atmosphere and family dynamics of the book and I really liked Beldame as a setting. I liked how we slowly got pieces of the backstory behind Beldame instead of it all being info-dumped at once.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Death of parent, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Grief, and Cursing
Moderate: Body horror, Fire/Fire injury, Blood, Drug use, and Child death
Minor: Emotional abuse and Pregnancy
tobermueller's review
dark
emotional
funny
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence, Murder, and Death
Moderate: Alcoholism, Alcohol, and Drug use
chalkletters's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.75
I’ve talked a lot about my lack of experience with horror, most recently in my review of Mexican Gothic, and I’m thrilled to finally be adding a pure horror novel to my sidebar of genres. The Elementals was still nothing like I expected a horror novel to be. Despite the presence of such legitimate, traditional horror elements as ghosts and animated corpses, I wasn’t frightened by Michal McDowell’s writing, I was just fascinated.
What’s most surprising about The Elementals was how nice everyone is. While the characters certainly have their quirks, most of the McCray and Savage family members who stay at Beldame are genuinely pleasant people who care about one another. It’s unexpectedly wholesome. Of course, despite the interesting family dynamics, characters being nice to each other isn’t enough to make a story interesting, which is where the third house comes in.
The third house, slowly being consumed by sand, doesn’t map to the archetype of a haunted house, but Michael McDowell certainly made it psychologically interesting. The adult characters’ unease about it, stemming from what they try to dismiss as the result of a childishly overactive imagination, contrasts to Odessa and India, whose shifting relationship was cleverly handled. Despite the hints of darkness, the intense love the characters felt for their location kept the atmosphere of The Elementalsquite light — but perhaps that was part of the setting’s malevolence, that it made people want to stay.
Odessa’s rituals, both in Beldame and Mobile, felt like a window into another culture, adding to the intrigue. Michael McDowell weaved a lot of mystery around what Odessa was doing, raising questions as to where she’d learned it and whether it even worked. For visual, visceral readers there’s certainly more than just atmosphere to relish — the horror in The Elementals comes at you from all five senses.
I don’t know if I enjoyed The Elementals the way horror fans enjoy their horror, but I certainly had a good time reading it.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, Death of parent, and Blood
Minor: Alcoholism, Drug use, Infidelity, Addiction, Cancer, and Pregnancy
whatathymeitwas's review
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
Shew lord. I don't know what kept me from reading this book for so long, when I've seen it so highly recommended. However I'm glad I read it when I did, right at the end of May. I live in the south, in the Appalachians of Tennessee, and right around the end of May is when we start getting soup air and higher temperatures, made more intolerable by that suffocating humidity. Reading a book set so brazenly in the heat and sun of summer around the end of May is perfect timing.
This book managed to be as southern Gothic as it gets. Combine some old, old families, one with a disturbing history, some creepy houses, and a few well-fleshed out main characters... and I just don't know what more I could have asked for. This is a slow burn, deeply atmospheric horror novel, written very well and ultimately worthy of the title "literary." I imagine people who picked this up out of the paperback selections of horror in the eighties were mighty surprised— many similar novels would pale in comparison.
I'm not sure what I might could say about this that others haven't already. I deign to pepper my reviews with reinstatements of the plot itself, that's what the blurb is for and many other reviewers have done so before me.
What I will say, is that once this started ramping up the creepiness factor, it didn't stop. McDowell was fantastic at smoothing things out for you and creating a hesitant sense of peacefulness, calm, and realistic thought process; immediately after he thrusts you back into the sand and you're left half buried and gasping for air. This started really creeping me out while I was reading at night. You go through many nights and days with the characters, and feel you're right alongside and interacting with them, whether it's for a bizarre family funeral, an evening birthday party, a hot noon walk by the lagoon, or peering out the windows at the full moon, the breaking Gulf, and the ever ominous Third House and all that lurks within it, seething and breathing in the languid summer heat.
That connection to the characters, the place, the general setting, and the inherently Gothic aspects of southern Alabama really transport you, and you're with them as their feet sink into dunes and slide across wooden floors caked in the ever-present pristine white sand, wondering if something might reach out and grab your ankle.
This book managed to be as southern Gothic as it gets. Combine some old, old families, one with a disturbing history, some creepy houses, and a few well-fleshed out main characters... and I just don't know what more I could have asked for. This is a slow burn, deeply atmospheric horror novel, written very well and ultimately worthy of the title "literary." I imagine people who picked this up out of the paperback selections of horror in the eighties were mighty surprised— many similar novels would pale in comparison.
I'm not sure what I might could say about this that others haven't already. I deign to pepper my reviews with reinstatements of the plot itself, that's what the blurb is for and many other reviewers have done so before me.
What I will say, is that once this started ramping up the creepiness factor, it didn't stop. McDowell was fantastic at smoothing things out for you and creating a hesitant sense of peacefulness, calm, and realistic thought process; immediately after he thrusts you back into the sand and you're left half buried and gasping for air. This started really creeping me out while I was reading at night. You go through many nights and days with the characters, and feel you're right alongside and interacting with them, whether it's for a bizarre family funeral, an evening birthday party, a hot noon walk by the lagoon, or peering out the windows at the full moon, the breaking Gulf, and the ever ominous Third House and all that lurks within it, seething and breathing in the languid summer heat.
That connection to the characters, the place, the general setting, and the inherently Gothic aspects of southern Alabama really transport you, and you're with them as their feet sink into dunes and slide across wooden floors caked in the ever-present pristine white sand, wondering if something might reach out and grab your ankle.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Addiction, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Cursing, Drug abuse, Death, Death of parent, Drug use, Grief, and Body horror
Minor: Injury/Injury detail, Miscarriage, Blood, Cancer, Chronic illness, Fire/Fire injury, Infidelity, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Racism, Animal death, and Child death
kris386's review
dark
mysterious
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death and Death of parent
Moderate: Alcoholism, Blood, and Gore
Minor: Animal death, Cancer, Cannibalism, Child death, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Infidelity, and Vomit
adalgibson's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Diverse cast of characters? No
4.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcoholism, Blood, Body horror, Cancer, Cannibalism, Child death, Death, and Death of parent
Moderate: Drug use and Gore
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