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A review by mrgalahad
Cold Moon Over Babylon by Michael McDowell
4.0
Michael Mc Dowell is such an underrated/unknown author. I only discovered him through "Paperbacks from Hell" and loved everything I read from him so far. Like in his magnum opus "Blackwater" "Cold Moon over Babylon" takes place in Florida near the Perdido river, but this time we follow a much more gruesome story, which is set near a side canal of the Peridio called the Styx in the city of Babylon.
I haven't read another author which is able to create such hateable but realistic characters like McDowell. The villain in this story is just despicable, and I loved every page of him falling deeper into his insanity. The side characters all are well fleshed out and the turns are unpredictable. The reader mostly follows the Larkin family who’s the youngest member got kidnapped and killed. I really enjoyed the tense small-town atmosphere. Babylon feels like an existing city and the authors' knowledge of the surroundings of the Blackwater region really pays off. I still didn't get all the metaphors, for example, I didn't figure out what the moon represented, but this overall was a great experience. It only got 4/5 stars as the ending had some minor problems for me and the end while well-thought-out (liked that it kinda ended in a cycle) was a bit rushed.
If you somehow stumble upon a book from McDowell and the premise sounds interesting give it a shot. He is slowly but surely working his way up to be my favorite Horror author, by giving me extremely well-written characters and horror which doesn't rely on cheap jump scares or gore but well build up tension.
I haven't read another author which is able to create such hateable but realistic characters like McDowell. The villain in this story is just despicable, and I loved every page of him falling deeper into his insanity. The side characters all are well fleshed out and the turns are unpredictable. The reader mostly follows the Larkin family who’s the youngest member got kidnapped and killed. I really enjoyed the tense small-town atmosphere. Babylon feels like an existing city and the authors' knowledge of the surroundings of the Blackwater region really pays off. I still didn't get all the metaphors, for example, I didn't figure out what the moon represented, but this overall was a great experience. It only got 4/5 stars as the ending had some minor problems for me and the end while well-thought-out (liked that it kinda ended in a cycle) was a bit rushed.
If you somehow stumble upon a book from McDowell and the premise sounds interesting give it a shot. He is slowly but surely working his way up to be my favorite Horror author, by giving me extremely well-written characters and horror which doesn't rely on cheap jump scares or gore but well build up tension.