Blackwater: The Complete Saga

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A saga, of course, is a saga and not a short story and I see that this was originally published in several parts. Perhaps, had I listened to the book in parts (an Audible book magnificently narrated by Matt Godfrey) instead of going straight through, I would have found it less daunting. It didn’t matter to Elinor Dammert, evidently, that one of her bags had been lost. She didn’t blame Bray; she didn’t suggest that he had dropped the bag into the water and then lied about it; she didn’t wonder if someone else in a rowboat might have passed the hotel, reached in and filched it; she didn’t seem to upset herself over the loss of half of what little she had in the world. She said merely, It had my books in it. And my teacher’s certificate. And my diploma from Huntingdon. And my birth certificate. I’ll have to write for duplicates. Does that take long? she asked Sister. Sister had no idea, but supposed that it might. We learn this early in book one. So, really y'all, I'm not spoiling things (much). But the fact that throughout the entire series, Elinor spends 99% of her time as an iron-willed Southern matriarch, waging a war of wills against her mother-in-law for the first few volumes, scheming to enrich her husband and her family and to get her way against the wishes of the domineering, spiteful Mary-Love Caskey is what makes that other 1% so much more horrific, when she periodically assumes her true form, usually to perform some act of gruesome violence.

The only thing really "horror" about this story was how these people swapped babies around because they couldn't live in a house without one. Sheesh! However, that was a nice bridge to telling of family expectations and the pressure put onto the respective next generation. Nevertheless, it was crazy!The series had some ebbs and flows for me. Book one was a very strong start, and through book three, the family story was quite interesting. Of course, the most interesting thing was the anticipation of how this was all going to pan out. Which is why this didn't maintain the 5 star status I had going for the first half of the series. Sadly, due to certain real-life relatives (mine), I can attest to some people actually being like Marie-Love. Pretending they do what they do because they want best and know best and they'll crush you if you oppose them because it's really only about what they want, no matter who they hurt. Little does Oscar, Bray, or the rest of the Caskey family know what effect this enigmatic and mysterious woman will have on the town of Perdido, or on the family itself. Hendrix, Grady (August 1, 2014). "Summer of Sleaze: Michael McDowell's The Amulet". Tor.com . Retrieved August 28, 2018.

Mr. McDowell introduces readers to a fascinating antagonist bound to the river and the nearby land. Children in Perdido have created their folklore regarding this being. They begin to regale stories about a monster that is froglike in appearance with a tail. This menace enjoys eating people and burying their remains at the bottom of the river. Although this creature may sound menacing, McDowell leaves the distinction of good, evil, or neither to his captive audience. It is all about perception.Stand outside the door, said Mary-Love quietly to Sister, and see if you see Bray and your brother coming up the road. Don D'Ammassa, writing in the St. James Guide to Horror, Ghost & Gothic Writers, noted that McDowell's ability to maintain a sense of mundane normalcy against supernatural activity provides the novel with "a fine balance between reality and unreality," and he called Cold Moon Over Babylon "one of the best ghost stories ever written at novel length."

Oscar leaned forward in the boat, grasping the concrete casement of the window with both hands. He peered through the dirty panes. Neither had spoken for some time. Each had stared about in wonder at the spectacle of Perdido—where they had been born and where they had been raised—submerged beneath eighteen feet of foul water. What Easter but that first in Jerusalem had dawned so bleakly, or stirred less hope in the breasts of those who had witnessed the rising of that morning’s sun? Oscar had turned to speak these last words to Bray, who shook his head and again indicated his wish to be well away from this half-submerged building. He was afraid Oscar would want to circle the hotel and look in every last window. Oscar Caskey sighed. Elinor Dammert was, in some obscure manner, laughing at him. He reflected that she would fit in well in Perdido, if indeed his uncle did find her a job at the school. In Perdido all the women made fun of all the men. Those Yankee drummers coming in and staying at the Osceola talked to the men who ran the mills, and shopped in the stores where the men of Perdido stood behind the counters, and had their hair cut—by a man—while they talked to the men who loafed about the barbershop all morning and afternoon long, but they never once suspected that it was really the women who ran Perdido. Oscar wondered if that were the case in other towns of Alabama. It might, he thought suddenly and terribly, be true everywhere. But men, when they got together, never talked about their powerlessness, nor was it written about in the paper, nor did senators make speeches about it on the floor of Congress—and yet, as he walked beside her through the damp pine forest, Oscar Caskey suspected that if Elinor Dammert was representative of the women of other places (for she must have come from somewhere), then it was likely that men were powerless in towns other than Perdido as well.

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Annie Bell Driver took two steps downstream and was reaching for a pine branch to lift her over a patch of soggy ground when she stopped suddenly. Her foot dropped to the earth and sank in until the water seeped through the holes for her laces. This first book in the series starts after a flood covers all of Perdido in 1919, causing all the townspeople to move to higher ground . Some men take boats out into this partially covered town to make sure everyone got out, and that no one remains in the upper stories of the buildings. His screen credits include Beetlejuice (1987), and collaborations on The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993) and Thinner (1996). McDowell also wrote the novelization of the film Clue in 1985. The film was based on the board game and featured three different endings; however, the novelization was based on the shooting script and includes an additional fourth ending that was cut from the film. He also contributed screenplays to a number of television horror anthologies, including Tales from the Darkside. Bray is a colored gentleman with a large bump of responsibility, said Oscar, touching his forehead as if to point out where that bump might have raised itself upon Bray’s head. As a younger man, he was apt to shirk his duties, but I beat him over the head with a two-by-four, raised a welt in the proper place, and he’s never failed me since. As he spoke these words Oscar suddenly decided, in another part of his brain, that he might charitably and conveniently attribute all Miss Elinor’s mysteriousness to mental confusion brought on by four days spent alone in a flooded hotel. "But I still don’t understand why you came to Perdido," he persisted.