Blackwater: The Complete Saga

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Overall, there is a slight supernatural twist to this that the author isn't really making a mystery about. Their clashes are interesting and often unexpected, you certainly don't find yourself knowing what's going to happen next, McDowell always seems to surprise and then have it feel like that twist was inevitable. With practical examples, stories from the field, and numerous activities and reflective questions, this insightful book takes you step-by-step through the work of the learning leader, helping you meet the unique learning needs of staff and students?

From the onset, the Blackwater series was right up my alley: southern family saga, and for a bit of fun, throw a swamp monster into the mix. McDowell was at the height of his powers when he wrote Blackwater,a six-part novel about the powers exerted by the mysterious Elinor Dammert over the citizens of Perdido, Alabama and her ghastly and inexplicable ability to use water to gain her hideous ends. He understood the political ramification with some nuance, and the prose I found to be efficient, enchanting and beautiful.The Elementals (1981), reissued in 2014 by Valancourt Books, with a new introduction by Michael Rowe. But Elinor shares a secret, supernatural link to the Blackwater River that determines both Perdido's livelihood and its fate. This is my second 30+ hour listen of pandemic times and while it takes me a longer time to get through than it normally would, there's a real pleasure in staying in the same world and characters for so long. Separated as newborns by the fiery death of their mother, twins Katherine and Andrea each possess one of a pair of heirloom ruby earrings. Life after slavery is a tragedy, I had some preconceptions of what life would be like after the Civil War but the most surprising thing, almost nothing changed.

McDowell's Katie, meanwhile, concerns a clairvoyant serial killer whose powers of perception enable her to evade her trackers. Truly a Southern Gothic epic, replete with generations of likable characters, vengeful ghosts and an amphibian femme fatale. Going into detail would be spoilery, but let's just say that while some of her victims deserve it, others very much do not. A hotel has been evacuated but when the son of a wealthy matron and a black servant drive by the halfway submerged hotel in their little boat, they discover a young woman in one of the rooms. Whenever there’s a horrific moment of a supernatural nature or concerning death, the prose becomes so poetic and vivid.

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. Starting with a huge flood in Perdido, Alabama and a mysterious woman found in a partially flooded hotel and ending with another flood in the same town, there is a symmetry here not often found in horror fiction.

Because I've read McDowell before I was also ready for him to be Not Great on Race and that was for the best. Considering the specific atmosphere of the drama, it's no surprise that Michael McDowell was a gay man. As if she were just sitting there waiting for them, even though the town had been evacuated days ago and she would have had no food or clean water for days. I genuinely, loved these characters, their interactions, and the dialogue associated with them all qualities are excellent and consistently engaging.

The key takeaway of the plot is knowing it’s a generational novel spanning decades and witnessing the Caskey family.