Book I've Read: Blackwater I: The Flood

I finished Blackwater 1!
I actually picked it up at a local bookstore fully because the cover looked cool. Shallow? Maybe! But I don't regret it!

I wasn't aware that this book was actually originally published in 1985, and that this was a reprint. As the prologue (written by Nathan Ballingrud) mentions, it was written during the 80s horror book popularity surge, and therefore was not written with the intent to stay on the shelves long. Admittedly, I'm not all that familar with books from this time period. There's a lot of quirks in the writing, and I do not know which of those are just tells of its time and which are things that herald from this book being written in a span of a few weeks/months (just like the 5 that followed it).

There's a lot of run on sentences ("and this, and this, and this."), a lot of vague and floaty feeling descriptors, characters are almost constantly adressed by their full names, and this book does not follow a singular protagonist. There's a group of important characters (namely, the entire Caskey family) and there's a group of named side characters, but not any specific point of focus. Most characters seem to concern themselves with Elinor Dammert, but she is not a protagonist of any kind. I believe this to be intentional, but it can be hard to get into.

Of course, one thing that IS certainly a tell of its time, is some of the language used. Black children work for the Caskey family as servants, there is a frequent seperation of 'colored' folk and white folk, Elinor refers to her class of children as 'her little Indians", and another character makes an off-handed remark about 'Eskimos'. One of the black kids that work for the Caskeys, Zaddie Sapps, is said to be saving quarters to get into 'a school for colored people'. 
These aren't major plotpoints, but they are certainly there. It might be an unpleasant read for some, and that is fully understandable. It is an unfortunate show of age, but I personally believe that when it comes to older books there is no point in only discussing these parts of them. This is how things were during that time. This was the norm. That is not to say it was a good thing, but it cannot be denied that it was in fact a thing. I also choose not to censor discussion about these topics when talking about this book, for I feel like it defeats the purpose of even pointing it out. If you're interested in this book, and you're reading a reprint that doesn't come with a prologue warning you of these topics, you should be warned of the language employed here. 

But, that aside, how is the rest of the book?
Well...
It was. Fine! Good even! But maybe not... memorable?

The one thing of this book that stood out to me as truly memorable were the scenes regarding Elinor's identity as some kind of... Horror creature. Whenever attention is called to the water or the rain, you feel how something is off. It is very subtle, but unsettling. Plus, the subtly of the situation makes the more explicit horror scenes hit even harder. It feels so sudden and it really gives you a rush. I don't want to even spoil them, they're just really good.

People online discuss this as the author's Magnum Opus. Now, I'm not familar with the rest of Michael McDowell's works. And I'm certain they're not reffering to just this book, but to the entire series (which I have not yet read). But McDowell was the brains and primary author for the screenplays of Beetlejuice and The Nightmare Before Christmas. And although a lot of the fame attributed to these screenplays certainly comes from their modern day depictions, obviously not all of it does. I don't know if these books would be the author's Magnum Opus. Blackwater I was a fun read, sure, but not something I can see myself discussing in the future or even re-reading. If I find the sequels, I'll obviously be reading them. But I don't think I'll be on the look-out for them. If you're going somewhere for a day or two (depending on your reading speed) where you won't have your phone and want a light novella to blaze through? I highly recommend this.