Four and Twenty Blackbirds: Southern Gothic that shows a lot of promise

Four and Twenty Blackbirds by Cherie Priest

If you’re a reader who can’t get enough of crumbling antebellum mansions, dark family secrets, and muggy Southern weather, you’ll enjoy Four and Twenty Blackbirds (2003). This Southern Gothic ghost story was Cherie Priest’s first novel, and while it’s imperfect, it’s quite readable and shows a lot of promise.

Set in Chattanooga, Tennessee, Four and Twenty Blackbirds possesses a strong, tangible sense of place. I once spent a brief time in Chattanooga during the summer, and Priest took me right back. She has a knack for the sensory detail that makes a book’s setting come to life. A particularly vivid scene is one in which the heroine, Eden, explores a crumbling hospital in search of clues to her family’s past.

And what a past it is. Eden’s family history is filled with all the baggage you might expect from Southern Gothic: racism, abuse, incest, murder, mental illness, and of course, ghosts. Eden’s quest begins when some of the family’s secrets catch up to her and put her in mortal danger.

Eden is an interesting protagonist; not always likeable, but always dynamic. She’s got a catty streak, and sometimes she annoyed me, but she never bored me.

I was disappointed in the ending — I wanted something more. But, I enjoyed Four and Twenty Blackbirds and look forward to reading Cherie Priest’s more recent novels.

Eden Moore — (2003-2007) Publisher: Although she was orphaned at birth, Eden Moore is never alone. Three dead women watch from the shadows, bound to protect her from harm. But in the woods a gunman waits, convinced that Eden is destined to follow her wicked great-grandfather an African magician with the power to curse the living and raise the dead. Now Eden must decipher the secret of the ghostly trio before a new enemy more dangerous than the fanatical assassin destroys what is left of her family. She will sift through lies in a Georgian antebellum mansion and climb through the haunted ruins of a nineteenth century hospital, desperately seeking the truth that will save her beloved aunt from the curse that threatens her life.

Author

Kelly Lasiter

KELLY LASITER, with us since July 2008, is a mild-mannered academic administrative assistant by day, but at night she rules over a private empire of tottering bookshelves. Kelly is most fond of fantasy set in a historical setting (a la Jo Graham) or in a setting that echoes a real historical period (a la George RR Martin and Jacqueline Carey). She also enjoys urban fantasy and its close cousin, paranormal romance, though she believes these subgenres’ recent burst in popularity has resulted in an excess of dreck. She is a sucker for pretty prose (she majored in English, after all) and mythological themes.
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