The Blackwater Saga by Michael McDowell

The Blackwater Saga is a southern  gothic story originally released as six novellas but now you can get in in one collection. I listened to the audio version. Fair warning on this one, this will not be spoiler free.

The story opens with a woman, Elinor, stranded in a hotel room in a flood. There’s an immediate mystery surrounding Elinor. She stays in Perdido Alabama and eventually marries into a wealthy family, the Caskeys. The book follows Elinor and the Caskey family from 1919 to around 1965. It has a cast of characters that feel real embedded in southern charm.

Thinking back on this book, my thoughts go mainly to Elinor. I’m left thinking about what she wanted and what she was. Here’s the thing, Elinor isn’t human. She’s some kind of river monster. She does some grotesque things in the book. There’s some interesting “magic” that she does. It seems she decides to have human life and then spends her life pursuing wealth and power. This isn’t criticism of the character…

I’m left with one question about Elinor and the story as a whole. Is Elinor a sympathetic character? She murders a few people, good, bad or somewhere in between, throughout the story. There are never any consequences for her actions. Everything goes Elinor’s way. At the end it looks like she might pay for at least some of what she’s done but she gets away with it.

What we have here is a story that focuses on the villain, the villain wins, and I’m just not sure how I feel about that.

That’s not to say I didn’t enjoy the book. It was good! It’s really rare for me to read a book that there isn’t something in it that bugs me. This one didn’t. It was well written and immersive. It’s not my typical faster paced action book. It is a solid southern gothic that left me thinking. That’s a good thing.

If you want a southern gothic book that follows a wealthy family in the deep south tis one is worth a read. Check it out!