5 Bajillion Stars!! I can’t even fathom how to write a review at this moment. What I need to do at this time is sit back and soak it all in. Which means, I’m going to bury my head into my pillow and just sob for a while. Once this book-hangover passes, I will be back with a review for this INCREDIBLE masterpiece!

First thing I’ll say is wow this was long but it really is a six-novel series mashed into one. It was also my first McDowell. Supposed to be Southern Gothic in tradition. But the best I can figure is Southern Gothic means uneventful with a sprinkling of supernatural events. Not scary by any means so I wouldn’t suggest it as horror fiction which I’ll admit was kind of what I was thinking going in. Reads like a mishmash between The Shape of Water and The Thornbirds. And I’ll say it wasn’t ever ter...

Y'all, this is a Southern Gothic to drown all other Southern Gothics in a bathtub full of muddy river water.Originally a six-novel serial published back in the early 80s, during the heyday of the cheap horror paperbacks, the Caskey Family saga begins on Easter Sunday, 1919, and the great flood that nearly wipes out the small town of Perdido, Alabama. This is when Elinor Dammert appears — a mysterious young woman who just happens to be sitting in the upper floor of the flooded Osceola Hotel in do...

When Oscar Caskey finds the mysterious Elinor Dammert on the second floor of a hotel during a great flood, he brings her home and falls in love with her. But Elinor isn't what she seems and Mary-Love, Oscar's mother and matriarch of the Caskey clan, doesn't want Oscar marrying her...That's the setup but it's just scratching the surface. How do you write a teaser for an 800 page epic?My cohort Anthony Vacca recommended this and Paperbacks from Hell: The Twisted History of '70s and '80s Horror Fic...

Blackwater is unlike anything you've ever read, or ever will. Though categorized as a southern gothic and shelved in the horror section (when it's not out-of-print) it defies genre in almost every way. As a character-driven epic spanning multiple generations, it often feels closer to Harper Lee or William Faulkner than Stephen King. But other times, always when you least expect it, it is very much a horror novel. Not King, however, nor Lovecraft. It's a quiet, creeping horror that doesn't exactl...

Blackwater by Michael McDowell is much more than a horror novel!!He has created an atmospheric and dense Southern gothic..With believable characters full of life!! Published 1983 and released in six monthly installments..Welcome in Perdido Alabama!!Perdido is a little southern town in the early-to-mid 20th century..Like the tv series Dallas or Falcon Crest, both family sagas, so is Blackwater a Southern family saga!!Blackwater tells the story of the rich and powerful Caskey clan..The focus of th...

More than 5 stars! Both listened to and read this Saga. Audio is about 30 hours and paperback is 788 pages comprised of 85 chapters of tiny print. I am someone that speeds through long books and avoids tiny print at any cost; but on this one I did a 180. I loved this book and thank Char for introducing me to it through her review and recommendation. For this book, I savored every page and the closer I got to the ending, the more I dreaded it was about to be over for I would no longer know the Ca...

This is a fine example of an epic, historical, Southern Gothic, supernatural, generational family drama, noir, soap opera, mystery, thriller with a bit of horror sprinkled on top.

This was ... epic. There are a few family sagas out there in book format and I'm usually not all too interested in them. This one, however, promised to be a horror story besides and it was about a little town in Alabama surrounded by swamp and mystery (perfect theme to read about in summer). Let me say it right at the beginning: this is NOT a horror story. Not really. Did that mar my enjoyment? Not one bit! We start in 1919 when a flood has destroyed much in the little town of Perdido, Alabama.

And so this is going in my top ten books of all time I cannot tell you how this series has kept me going after the past few months yet made me cry so much. Review to comeIt begins with:And ends with:Thanks for the recommendation from the lovely Char (and my mother in-law)

I never thought I would describe a book billed as "horror" as charming, but this so is! I enjoyed the tale of this quirky southern family so much, and I miss them terribly now that it is over. When I started the book, I wasn't sure about it at all. I had my doubts about the narrator, too. I had just finished The Amulet by the same author, and the narrator for that book was very southern. This narrator grew on me, however, and became markedly more southern as the book progressed. His voices for t...

“She hates that levee the way you and I hate hell and the Republicans.” In another Southern Gothic classic, McDowell paints quite a picture. Surrounded by swampy lands and wrap around porches, the Caskey family takes in a stranger after a flood in 1919.  This stranger, Elinor, changes this family; changes it for the better. But she has a secret that she can't even tell her new husband, Oscar. The Saga spans over 50 years and four generations

Wow. Just wow. One of the best books I’ve ever read.

Wow! Does Gothic get better than McDowell's Blackwater?No, no certainly it does not.

River monster crawls out of river, marries scion of rich Southern family, embroils self in soap opera family shenanigans, occasionally tears townspeople limb from limb. It's the GREAAATESTTT

I'm a big fan of the late Michael McDowell, which probably explains why I would be willing to tackle this 800+ page southern gothic tome. I'm very glad I did. In Blackwater, McDowell tells the lives of four generations of the Caskey family of Perdido, Alabama. The story centers on Eleanor Caskey, a woman who appeared mysteriously during a catastrophic flood in 1919 and died half a century later during the next flood to destroy Perdido. Readers come to know intimately all of the members of the Ca...

2nd time listening to the audio complete. Everything I've said previously still stands. My original review is below.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 Mc...

Epic Southern Family Sagas generally automatically qualify as a Horror genre. IMHO. Deeply creepy, sometimes charming, often batshit crazy, and interspersed with WTF. That's just my normal reaction, however.Blackwater, on the other hand, raises the water to a new level.I'm not saying this is all that scary, despite King and Straub lauding this serial novel (combined here as one long novel). But all the elements are here. We're meant to love or really, really hate the characters for their actions...

Truly a Southern Gothic epic, replete with generations of likable characters, vengeful ghosts and an amphibian femme fatale. This wonderful novel, first published in serial format, has received new interest thanks to Paperbacks from Hell: The Twisted History of '70s and '80s Horror Fiction. And now Valancourt rewards us all with a lovely new collected edition! My reviews for each of the six installments can be found below:The FloodThe LeveeThe HouseThe WarThe FortuneRain