Blackwater is a series that just keeps getting better and better, and I enjoyed this installment of the series/long serial novel even more than its predecessors. ***************************************Here is the Goodreads description:Wartime in Perdido jolted the sleepy little Alabama town as new people entered the community. Outsiders would invade the comfort of the wealthy Caskeys and take their daughters.This, though, was the part of the master plan of Elinor Caskey, who would see the fasmil...

Miriam gains humanity and the world goes to war. And several transgressors get eaten by a river monster. Also, I love how the cabin in the woods and its fishing pond gets revisited for McDowell’s short story “Miss Mack.”It’s fascinating to see how progressive this serialized novel is with the strong female matriarchs that are positive role models (once they drowned the harridan) and the wholesome and accepted gay relationship presented in this one. And the next novel starts out with the dictate

The Caskey family lives through the war and the family keeps growing and the darkness is still there, but it just doesn't seem as creepy anymore. Maybe I'm just getting use to the surroundings. One of the best series reads I've read.

this series is phenomenal. this book was the best so far. so much happens! why has it taken me this long to discover Michael McDowell?!?!

There is the horror and the very complicated family politics... And then there are all these bits so incredibly wholesome and it's wonderful. A normal family clan drama. No one go around pointing out the protective hungry fish at the helm and the meal collateral, it's unseemly.

Review to come when I complete the Blackwater series

Just a couple of gals bein' pals ;)

I've come to realise that this isn't so much a horror series as a detailed family history where someone happens to get eaten by a swamp monster every 100 pages or so. To be clear this is a good thing.

The War focuses primarily on the younger Caskey members and is overall less riveting than the other books, but not without intrigue. There's one deliciously gruesome scene, we learn a bit more about the mysterious Eleanor, and there's the necessary passage of time as the epic slowly escalates into what I hope will be a boiling climax.This far in it's hard to rate the book as a separate entity since this is just a segment of single novel and not really a series. All I know is, I'm still obsessed

The War... The War is the fourth book in the Blackwater Saga and continues the story of the Caskey family from Perdido, Alabama. As the title implies, this book focuses on the effect that the war has had on Perdido, the Caskey's Mill and the residents. There have been numerous life changing events happening with the Caskey's including a birth, a separation, a coming out, a marriage and several deaths. There's also been a shift of power in the matriarchy which has substantially changed the family...

The War is the 4th book in the Blackwater Series by Michael McDowell. The war has a great impact on this small southern Alabama town. With the lumber mill running at full strength, more workers are needed. The town of Perdido is being flooded by outsiders looking for work. The family fortune grows bigger and bigger everyday. James and Queenie become best of friends. They share a lot of the same interests. Relationships between some of the major characters are beginning to changes. The younger me...

While this book proves to be one of the slower of the Blackwater saga to start, it really gains traction in the last 20% or so. The War highlights shifts in the family dynamic, with the younger girls Miriam and Frances becoming adults and true assets to the Caskey family. Miriam sheds herself of her perpetual coldness towards her family and becomes an essential player at the mill, helping her father immensely while forming a stronger bond with him. On the other hand, Frances is faced with inexpl...

As the 4th book in McDowell's BLACKWATER series, this is by no means a stand-alone novel. Without giving away any spoilers to the series, THE WAR, shows us the effect of the war on the town of Perdido and the Caskey family, in particular. Relations between some of the main characters are beginning to change in various--some substantial--ways. The youngest members of the family are coming into their own, and developing their own individual character traits.The entire series is enthralling, and im...

The fourth book in this series is just as good as the others. (Though so far the first one holds the best book in the series spot.) It's hard to review a book from a series without spoiling anything, but suffice it to say, that I'm very late for a group read and I co-moderate that group! I'm also late on a couple of read to reviews. So this means, I have to set this series aside for a brief time while I fulfill my other reading obligations. I'm not happy about that. This type of story, written

The Great Depression is out and World War 2 is in! And that means there is money to be made. Again wartime profiteering only serves as historical scenery for the ongoing procession of marriages, deaths and baby thefts among the Caskey clan. Now that Elinor is the new lizard queen (frog queen?) of these Southern land barons, much of the family dynamics change, offering a kind of peace for the aging Caskey elders. Less cold shoulders and shade thrown for daily dinners together followed by long cha...

What I find most refreshing about this amazing work of Southern Gothic is McDowell's ability to work within such an insular microcosm as a small Alabama town within this time frame, with a cast of characters that, if one were to go out on a limb, could be called "stereotypical", yet manages, with a deft hand and honest view, avoid the label of stereotypical. His characters are, good and bad, true to themselves, "real" in the very best of ways.

Despite the title, strangely the most gentle one yet. Oh, and Miriam Caskey is one of the greatest characters ever written.

The War finds the Caskey family coming together through a time of prosperity: the War is on, the local economy is booming, and the Great Depression is over. It’s nice to see this family getting along—eating dinner together every week, going for rides to the beach in Pensacola, et cetera—as it seems they haven’t had much happiness in the first three volumes of this saga. Volume four allows the reader to breathe a bit. Because of this, however, the horror (and drama) aren’t quite as present, and t...

That ending :( Chilling and well-done, but depressing development.The books continue to follow the lives of the Caskey family. This one focuses mainly on the growing offspring with their changes, trials and tribulations. It may be labeled "The War", but the war only slow comes and isn't mentioned much until the end other than some soldier mini scenes. The depression had already taken hold before this book, so calling this one the War is a bit odd.Frances learns much about herself with some intri...

Pretty wonderful family drama. World: The world building is small and container given the large war going on. It's still about this family and the times. The war angle was done well and gives us a glimpse of small town America during this era. Story: Great family drama. The dynamic and the pieces that were used this arc were great. This is the following the death of the last book and seeing how this family adjusted to the new status quo was interesting. Of course the unsettling stuff is still th...