Four And Twenty Blackbirds (2005) - Plot & Excerpts
I really enjoyed this book. It’s one of those books that tends to give you a lot of questions and reveals the answers slowly as the story proceeds. I had trouble putting the book down both because the story was interesting and because I wanted to know all the answers.This is a paranormal-type story told entirely from the first-person perspective of a young girl named Eden. From the time she was a child, Eden has been aware of three female ghosts. On rare occasions, these ghosts show themselves and/or talk to her, and warn her of danger. We meet her when she’s about 5 years old, and we’re given little bits of relevant snippets from her life as she grows up. Once she’s an adult, I think in her early twenties, the meat of the story begins. Eden has a mysterious past. Or, more accurately, it’s her ancestors who have a mysterious past. Naturally Eden wants to know more about this past, but she has trouble getting any straight answers from the people close to her. And of course this just makes her more determined to get answers, so she tries to find them on her own. I think, if I read the paranormal genre more often, I might have been annoyed by the cliché of the “mysterious past” with people refusing to give the main character any answers, and the main character who’s bound and determined to find answers despite all the dire warnings. However, I haven’t read many paranormal type books since I was a teenager, so I wasn’t as bothered by it as I might have been back when I saw this device used more often.The story was interesting. There was a very slight creepiness factor perhaps, but it wasn't strong at all. The main character isn’t intimidated by much, and she could take care of herself, which I liked better than the type of main character who’s always terrified by what’s happening and is desperately looking to other people to help them deal with things. Eden didn’t always make the best decisions, but she made her own decisions and dealt with the consequences.I liked Eden quite a bit, but one thing that bothered me was that she seemed to have almost no thoughts for her future. She’s still living with her adoptive parents, she has no job, and at no point do we see her give any long-term thought to how she’ll make a living and support herself. Her current source of funding for her adventures is explained, but she never seems to think beyond the current moment. It would have made Eden feel more realistic if the author had let us hear a few stray thoughts from her as she mulled over possibilities for her future.Although this book is part of a series, it told a complete story and didn’t end in a cliff hanger. There were a few characters I wanted to know more about, but the major plot thread was pretty well tied up. I enjoyed the book enough that I plan to read the next book in the series.
I have come to the realization that although I would never live in the South again if you paid me, this does not mean that the South has left me. I apparently seriously dig me some Southern Gothic-flavored stories--well, I kind of knew this already, what with having read Charlaine Harris so much, as well as Ivy Cole and the Moon last year. It was however with great pleasure that I tackled Cherie Priest's Four and Twenty Blackbirds, especially after I discovered that she used to live in Chattanooga.'Cause y'know what? So did I, for about six months. Seattle is the land that I've Recognized, to swipe a concept from Elfquest--but Kentucky and Tennessee? That's still the land of my birth. And there's so much fucked-up family history all over the South that it's a gold mine of story fodder, especially if you write dark fantasy or horror.So yeah, I dived quite happily into Four and Twenty Blackbirds and enjoyed it quite a bit. The plot's not complex--pretty much Girl Sees Ghosts, Girl Delves into Her Mysterious Background, Girl Must Deal With Seriously Creepy Shit That Goes Down as a Result. But what drives this story for me is the atmosphere and the characters. As one who hails from that land, I'm here to tell you--this book gets it right. Which makes the aforementioned Creepy Shit that much more effective.This is also exactly the kind of horror novel I like. There's no gratuitous gore; blood is made that much more unsettling by how sparingly it appears. The tension comes from the uncertainty of Eden's explorations into her past--as well as her own nature--and the murkiness of the motives of those she comes across. Threads of history both recent and far past weave together into what for me was an excellent payoff at the end as the appropriate secrets are revealed.And just for a kicker, I was so entertained by this book that I only realized today, a couple days after finishing it up, that there wasn't a breath of romantic entanglement anywhere in the plot. This doesn't happen very often at all in my usual reading fare; when it does, it always leaves me vaguely disappointed, romantic sucker that I am. But for this story? This wasn't a flaw. There just was no need for such things here; it was great the way it was. Four stars.
What do You think about Four And Twenty Blackbirds (2005)?
I didn't like this as much as I'd hoped to. I was ambivalent toward Boneshaker, but I really love Bloodshot and Hellbent (my girlfriend is in the doghouse a little bit for finding them boring), so I had high hopes about this one. I know it was her debut novel, but still. There's something compelling about this -- the mix of races involved, the use of the location, history, etc... But the narrative voice isn't that different from the later Raylene of the Chesire Red books (except she has less of an issue with OCD, and she rambles a bit less!).Some bits of it were a bit creepy, but mostly the ghosts felt fairly benign. I want to know more of the whys and wherefores of this world, though, so I'm definitely sticking around: it may well grow on me. Lulu, for one thing, is an amazing character -- I hope she has more to do in future.
—Nikki
Atmospheric and lovely but this debut novel has more awkward pacing, infodumping, and spotty characterization than I've come to expect. The whole Southernness feels authentic (or at least similar to those classic Southern Gothic depictions I've read before) but I dunno... the handling of race seems more like an explanatory device (if witches in [the South] then [Black]) than something meaningfully explored. Like Eliza mentions her family didn't keep slaves in apparent contradiction but the conversation ended there when it felt like it ought to have continued, especially from the previously race-conscious mixed-race narrator. Overall interesting, fun, but not pushing me immediately into the next of the series.
—Samrat
Great modern Gothic Fiction.I read the creepy playground scene at night. My daughter got out of bed to go to the bathroom, and I didn't know whether to scream, cry or quietly wet my pants. So it took me a while to screw up the courage to get back into it (Yeah, I know. Stupid Robin loves her zombies and swordfights, but confronted with a rainsoaked, abandoned playground, she loses her mind).So why am I so freaked out? I guess it's that I grew up in Missouri, where large groups of trees are called woods, and they are full of oak, elm and hickory. You might come upon a thorned bush or poison ivy patch, but you can walk around it. Operative phrase being "walk around". Even things you don't like, for instance spiders, or snakes, hide and try to avoid you. This book is set in the South. Forests are primeval (which implies people aren't allowed...ever), and are full of cypress, and hanging moss, and vines that are aggressive. That smell of decay is the forest actively killing stuff and feeding on it- all the time. And all the creatures- from birds. to alligators, to bugs come out to watch you, and if you slow down long enough, eat you. Even the rain seems creepy, and in on the plan.Eden Moore isn't the typical ingenue of gothic fiction. Instead of corsets and petticoats, she sports army surplus boots and a knife hooked through her belt. Instead of arriving in a carriage, she arrives in her old black car she calls the Death Nugget. I love that. But most everything else is classic Gothic. She does all the Nancy Drew stuff I love AND hate about Gothic Fiction - go down the dark staircase, go wander through the cemetery at night, run into the forest after the scary noise. The birds are black. The family history is completely twisted. The clues are in scary places. The mysteries are multiple. And things are never quite as they seem.Don't be a chicken (like me). Read the book - at night.
—Robin Wiley
