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mattfrye 's review for:
Blackwater: The Complete Saga
by Michael McDowell
To echo most reviews- despite the ghosts and river creatures- you should not go into this book thinking that it is a horror novel. Most incidents involving these supernatural entities are subtle, short-lived, and are often played out through indirect description. This novel is more like a family soap opera, as there really is not an overall plot, but rather, hundreds of smaller subplots and character-driven arcs. Most characters progress and regress in their development throughout the book, all within the norms of southern culture. Commentary is provided on pseudo-freedom within the black community post-emancipation, lesbian/ bi-sexual relationships, religious communities, rape culture, and briefly, interracial marriages throughout the 1900s. The adjustment in expectations of a horror novel to a family drama hurts this book, as it is a jarring transition that can leave you bored when waiting for thrilling events to occur. This boredom is rivaled by intrigue as you get intertwined in the political maneuverings of the power struggles that occur within this wealthy family. The prose is rich and well written. You spend exceptional lengths of time with these characters, that when deaths occur, most are truly emotionally impactful; all those mundane days slip into meaningful decades, and the impact of each lost truly reshapes the family atmosphere and story.