Blackwater is the saga of a small town, Perdido, Alabama, and Elinor Dammert, the stranger who arrives there under mysterious circumstances on Easter Sunday, 1919. On the surface, Elinor is gracious, charming, anxious to belong in Perdido, and eager to marry Oscar Caskey, the eldest son of Perdido’s first family. But her beautiful exterior hides a shocking secret. Beneath the waters of the … the Perdido River, she turns into something terrifying, a creature whispered about in stories that have chilled the residents of Perdido for generations. Some of those who observe her rituals in the river will never be seen again …
Originally published as a series of six volumes in 1983, Blackwater is the crowning achievement of Michael McDowell, author of the Southern Gothic classics Cold Moon Over Babylon and The Elementals and screenwriter of Beetlejuice and The Nightmare Before Christmas. This first-ever one-volume edition, with a new introduction by Shirley Jackson Award-winning author Nathan Ballingrud, marks Blackwater’s first appearance in print in three decades and will allow a new generation of readers to discover this modern horror classic.
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This book was originally released as a series of six novellas in the early 1980s, and quickly forgotten. It’s a subtle, well-woven horror story masked as the saga of a Southern family of mill owners in Perdido Alabama. It is so. so. so good. And even after you figure out what kind of monster Elinor really is, it never becomes predictable. Beautifully written. McDowell went on to write the screenplays to Beetlejuice and a Nightmare Before Christmas.
My niece told me about this book. Whoa. Talk about some evil women, this book has them. The men seem to be more of an after-thought.
Takes place over a couple of generations in Perdido. After a flood, a young woman is found in a flooded hotel. She has plans when she arrives and proceeds to make them real. Scary. Interesting.
I think one of my favourite aspects of this southern gothic family saga was the willingness of people to die just to prove a point and/or inconvenience others. 😀
A wonderful book, unlike anything else I’ve ever read. I lived with these characters for about three weeks and was sad to let them go.
Blackwater: The Complete Caskey Family Saga, Michael McDowell, 1983
My favorite quote: “All deaths are sudden, no matter how gradual the dying may be.”
Notable characters: Elinor (Dammert) Caskey, the mysterious stranger who shows up in Perdido, Alabama, in 1919 … and many, many more. Definitely too many to mention … but don’t let that scare you. Every character here is well-drawn, memorable, and imperative
Most memorable scene: Elinor throwing her baby into the Perdido River (it’s not what you think)
Greatest strengths: A seamless ability to bounce from literature to horror to family drama to historical fiction and back again without losing the slightest bit of steam
Standout achievements: For a saga as long as this one, every segment, every chapter, every scene, every page is pure gold
Fun Facts: Michael McDowell was the author of several other horror novels and Southern gothics, as well as the screenwriter for Beetlejuice and The Nightmare Before Christmas. He is also responsible for the novelization of Clue, which boasts a fourth ending not included in the movie. And this rare little treasure is famous for something else, too: it’s price. The current going rate for a mass market paperback copy is $499.99, and for a mere $1,053.55 you can get a used one on Amazon
Other media: N/A
What it taught me: That really good books can never be too long
How it inspired me: This is one of the books that made me want to create my own fictional monsters — which I did with the Black Wasp character in book 3 of my Vampires of Crimson Cove series. As much as I love vampires, werewolves, and ghosts, there are endless possibilities when it comes to villains and monsters, and what Michael McDowell did with the river creatures in Blackwater (whatever they were) reminded me of that
Additional thoughts: Blackwater was originally published in six parts, equalling a total of 1,200 written pages or about 30 hours on audio … and I loved every minute of it. I’m convinced there’s nothing Michael McDowell couldn’t do … and well. It’s a shame he’s no longer with us. I would have loved to have met him
My rating: 4.5 of 5
Haunt me: alistaircross.com
An outstanding writer, and it is little wonder that Stephen King called him the greatest writer of original paperbacks alive. I only wish I’d discovered him sooner. McDowell knows how to draw you in, and make you wait …and wait. Blackwater is like Little House on the Prairie meets IT. Except that Pennywise has nothing on Elinor Dammert. Seriously, he really doesn’t.
Blackwater: The Complete Saga on audio is absolutely phenomenal! Phenomenal! That’s right, it’s so good, it deserves two PHENOMENALS.
First-about the book itself. Michael McDowell was a force to be reckoned with as far as writing about family dynamics. If you’ve read The Elementals, Gilded Needles, or Cold Moon over Babylon, (and if you haven’t you SHOULD), you already know that McDowell writes about families like no one else. Now imagine those books expanded to cover several generations of one family, in this case The Caskeys, and you might have an inkling of how great a work of literature, (that’s right, I’m calling it literature), Blackwater really is.
Starting with a huge flood in Perdido, Alabama and a mysterious woman found in a partially flooded hotel and ending with another flood in the same town, there is a symmetry here not often found in horror fiction. Perhaps it’s because Blackwater isn’t really a horror novel, (or series of novels, as it was originally released back in the 80’s), at all. I would describe it more as a Southern Gothic soap opera or family saga, with supernatural and horrific elements.
One of the things I adore about McDowell, and there are many of them, (click http://charlene.booklikes.com/post/13… for my essay on McDowell’s work), is how he treats horrifying supernatural events as if they were no big deal. Somehow, the way he does that makes the event even more horrifying, if that makes any sense.
Of course, as I mentioned above, McDowell writes family dynamics like no one else and this book proves it. Throughout generations even, McDowell is at the top of his game writing about this family with its rich men and domineering women. Being from Alabama himself, the authenticity of the family’s bearing and standing in their community of Perdido is never in doubt. His insights into human behavior are unmatched and beautifully written-without fail. Here’s a quote from the first book of this novel,The Flood, (which takes place in the early 1920’s):
“That was the great misconception about men: because they dealt with money, because they could hire someone on and later fire him, because they alone filled state assemblies and were elected congressional representatives, everyone thought they had power. Yet all the hiring and firing, the land deals and the lumber contracts, the complicated process for putting through a constitutional amendment-these were only bluster. They were blinds to disguise the fact of men’s real powerlessness in life. Men controlled the legislatures, but when it came down to it, they didn’t control themselves. Men had failed to study their own minds sufficiently, and because of this failure they were at the mercy of fleeting passions; men, much more than women, were moved by petty jealousies and the desire for petty revenges. Because they enjoyed their enormous but superficial power, men had never been forced to know themselves the way that women, in their adversity and superficial subservience, had been forced to learn about the workings of their brains and their emotions.”
I could go on and on about McDowell, as many of you already know, but now I’d like to address the narration of this story by Alabama native Matt Godfrey.
I just don’t have the words to describe how McDowell’s words, combined with Godfrey’s narration, made me feel. Together, they made a great work even greater. Godfrey’s voicing was so true to the source material it made the Caskey voices come alive. ALIVE, I say! I laughed out loud many times, and I cried a few times too.
I most especially adored his voicing of James and of Oscar. Don’t get me wrong, I loved these characters back when I first read the books a few years ago; but with Matt’s voice attached to them, they became larger than life. It was easy for me to recognize who was talking just by the inflections and changes of tone. I’ve never listened to an audio book where it was easier for me to identify who was who, just by how the narrator voiced them. I’ve listened to a lot of audios over the last few years, and that’s never happened to me-at least not in a book with as many characters as Blackwater. That’s why I say now, with no reservations, that this is the BEST audiobook I’ve ever read. PERIOD.
I hope that I’ve convinced you to give this audio a try by giving it my HIGHEST recommendation. I’d love to hear your thoughts on it if you do give it a go.
You can get your copy here: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07…
*I received this audiobook free, from the narrator, in exchange for my honest feedback. This is it.* **Further, I consider Matt Godfrey a friend, even thought we’ve never met, but this review IS my honest opinion.**
I’ve wanted to check out Blackwater since reading Paperbacks from Hell by Grady Hendrix, and finally got around to it. How to describe this collection? It’s like John Jakes meets Swamp Thing. Is that right? Does that work? I don’t know, but it wasn’t at all what I was expecting, and I loved every minute of it. Thought it was featured in a book about horror novels, I wouldn’t put this in that genre; there were brief instances of creepiness and gore, but not enough to justify a horror label. The characters, for the most part, were complex and multi-dimensional. The author’s writing caused the different settings (the river, the swamp, the town, the different characters’ houses, etc.) to seem like characters in and of themselves. I mourn the fact that the author didn’t create a larger body of work prior to passing in 1999, but I intend to give the rest of his works a look as soon as possible.