Blackwater: The Complete Saga by Michael McDowell | Horror Fiction Review

This was originally published in 6 installments. I'm reviewing it as a novel because that's how I listened to it.

My 2 Cents for Free!


Blackwater by Michael McDowell

Released August 1983
Source: Audible Purchase
See more @ Goodreads

Wow, this was a long one! My attention span of late has been dismal but despite that I decided now would be the best time to tackle a 30-hour saga. I mean, it was either going to hold my attention or I could DNF yet another one. 2025 was the year for getting through my old tbr's so why not?

Surprisingly, this absolute doorstopper of a book that often went on about nothing at all but daily dramas featuring a wealthy and very dysfunctional family, that was less horror than family drama, managed to grab me and hold me all the way through to the very end. It has a little weird thread running through it but it's very much a southern family drama where the women are the ones in control. Maybe that's why I enjoyed it so much. These people weren't always nice or kind or likeable, but I loved reading about them anyway. It was very character driven and these imperfect people were written with so much care. You don’t find a lot of books like that these days. Or at least I can’t seem to find them. Most books seem overstuffed and too long, but this one didn't despite its length.

My only small caveat was with some of the narration. A few of the characters sounded too similar, one was made to sound really dumb and he was actually very sweet (and more naive than dumb), and another was given such a terrible lisp that it made me cringe. I can't remember if the text said he had a lisp (maybe?) but I kept wanting someone to tell him to close his teeth before he made the "s" sound like they taught me in first grade speech lessons. Those two choices felt slightly mean to me (maybe because I did have a lisp at one point) but besides that, I loved the rest.

Final Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐


Publisher Plot Synopsis 

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 ...

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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