I listened to an audiobook version Blackwater on Audible.
Genre:Â Horror
Publisher:Â Valancourt Books
Originally published:Â August 28th, 1983
Pages:Â 800 (Paperback)
Audiobook length:Â 30 hrs, 9 mins
Blurb by the publisher:
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 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 …
☼
Blackwater is a slow burner, and took me a bit of time to get fully into it, but the embers never died out, and it had a really nice build to it that made it increasingly more interesting as you go.
My Thoughts:
I came across Blackwater quite randomly while browsing around on Audible. I got curious, and then I also found out that Stephen King had said this about the author:
“the finest writer of paperback originals in America today”
So I decided to give the audiobook a chance.
I found the story of the Caskey family to be very interesting, and especially the way that we got to follow them for several generations throughout the book. This was originally a 6 book series, and you definitely get to see a lot of character development.
The horror element is very subtle, but it’s there. I would’ve loved to have seen a little more of it to be honest, and I there was quite a few questions that were left unanswered. Nevertheless, the story never got boring, and I got invested in the characters.
McDowell did a really good job of giving each character life, and made it easy to follow even though there were quite a lot of them. And I have to give some extra credit to Matt Godfrey, the narrater, for doing such a fantastic job with giving all of the different characters a distinct voice!
Blackwater is a slow burner, and took me a bit of time to get fully into it, but the embers never died out, and it had a really nice build to it that made it increasingly more interesting as you go.
I was very satisfied with the ending as well. The perfect one to a dark and different family saga.
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Christina de Vries 