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299th out of 1,223 books
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Four and Twenty Blackbirds (Eden Moore #1)
by
Cherie Priest (Goodreads Author)
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 ...more
Paperback, 285 pages
Published
October 1st 2005
by Tor Books
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50th out of 521 books
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204 voters
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I read a review that recommended this book to the "aging Buffy crowd". Not that I'm taking offense or anything . . . Despite that backhanded insult and being a big Buffy fan, that throw-away comment does a huge disservice to this book. There is nothing snarky or Buffy-like about it. I hope the reviewer isn't assuming all Buffy fans and teens are too simple to enjoy a mature ghost story because I've been enjoying this sort of thing since I was ten . . . End of rant.
This was...more
This was...more
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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 Chattanoo...more
The creepist, strangest section of this book takes place in a bathroom at a summer camp. It does.
Of course, it could have been because I was reading it late at night, in bed, with the crazy homeless group across the street talking very, very, very loudly. (Yes, I know I should be more Christian and they're not harming anyone, but it is freaking midnight!).
Nah, it was creepy.
Four and Twenty Blackbirds introduces the reader to Eden Moore and her surprising lar...more
Of course, it could have been because I was reading it late at night, in bed, with the crazy homeless group across the street talking very, very, very loudly. (Yes, I know I should be more Christian and they're not harming anyone, but it is freaking midnight!).
Nah, it was creepy.
Four and Twenty Blackbirds introduces the reader to Eden Moore and her surprising lar...more
Another one I found underwhelming. Priest tries to capture a Southern Gothic atmosphere, and while she makes use of a lot of excellent, classic set pieces—swamps and cemeteries; abandoned hospitals and dark cellars—the first person narrative mostly failed to capture a sense of immediate terror or danger. Maybe this is because Eden, the protagonist, is so detached and hipstery—I guess it’s supposed to make her seem tough, but when she hardly seems to care what happens to her, it’s hard for me to....more
I read this book because it was a free download from amazon (Kindle) and I was back in the States and thought what the hell. The book was free, but that doesn't include the time I wasted reading it. The plot was "twisty", but in that bad way where it's just confusing and not really clear if the author herself knew exactly what was going on, or what she was trying to convey. It was not downright painful the entire time, just when the author tried to be clever.
I confess I dow...more
I confess I dow...more
It's a Southern Gothic horror ghost tale that misfires more often than not.
Plus, this book has a very specific audience, in my opinion: high school junior girls who don't yet read much (i.e. just graduated from Young Adult fiction and need an intermediate step before trying adult literature)... and who relish the occasional, daring swear word sprinkled here and there for color.
That said, Priest does fabricate a few passages that fully come together to achieve that spin...more
Plus, this book has a very specific audience, in my opinion: high school junior girls who don't yet read much (i.e. just graduated from Young Adult fiction and need an intermediate step before trying adult literature)... and who relish the occasional, daring swear word sprinkled here and there for color.
That said, Priest does fabricate a few passages that fully come together to achieve that spin...more
This book had all the classic elements of a spooky, mysterious book - swamps, crumbling hospital/asylum, ghosts, murderous relatives, and an unknown past. Like an adult version of Scooby-Doo almost, and I was (am) a huge Scooby Doo fan. And it had a few creepy moments- like a certain scene at a summer camp, and the vision of how the three women died. But the book itself fell flat. Eden was boring. She also seemed to be removed from her own life, and not really care about what is happening to...more
Rating: 2.75* of five
The Book Report: In a fun twist on Haley Joel Osment's famous line, "I see dead people," young Eden discovers she can see and hear three dead women when they save her life, preventing her from being shot by an insane cousin who believes Eden to be the reincarnation of an evil figure from their shared family past. The dead women appear to Eden only at times of great danger and stress, which come increasingly often as she grows into a strange young womanhoo...more
The Book Report: In a fun twist on Haley Joel Osment's famous line, "I see dead people," young Eden discovers she can see and hear three dead women when they save her life, preventing her from being shot by an insane cousin who believes Eden to be the reincarnation of an evil figure from their shared family past. The dead women appear to Eden only at times of great danger and stress, which come increasingly often as she grows into a strange young womanhoo...more
Cherie Priest has written herself a pretty good novel (which I'll call "Southern Something"). There is much to like. In tapping into the rich literary gothic tradition of the South, she has come up with her own creation. The characters, Eden Moore, her aunt Lulu, stepfather Dave, all seem to come from the New South, a South that hangs out at coffee bars for poetry readings and listens to the B-52s or R.E.M. (or someone newer). But Tradition is still there - and characters like Eden's g...more
Cherie Priest’s book was a huge disappointment to me. And it’s a book that makes me wonder about the ringing endorsements you find on book covers - because this book had them in spades. Even Ramsey Campbell, a writer I admire, had glowing praise for it, calling the book “breathlessly readable, palpably atmospheric and compellingly suspenseful.” I just don’t get it.
Orphaned at birth, Eden Moore lives with her aunt Louise and Uncle Dave. She’s a strange little girl, but it’s hardly her...more
Orphaned at birth, Eden Moore lives with her aunt Louise and Uncle Dave. She’s a strange little girl, but it’s hardly her...more
I read FOUR AND TWENTY BLACKBIRDS (what amounts for me in the slight amount of time I get to read) in practically one sitting. It was my bedside book and I stayed up late to read 'just one more page...no chapter..' and I woke early and really savored the quiet of everyone else sleeping in over the weekend so that I could finish the fab A KISS BEFORE THE APOCALYPSE and really dive into this Southern Gothic ghost story.
Eden Moore's always known she could talk to ghosts and they can talk to ...more
Eden Moore's always known she could talk to ghosts and they can talk to ...more
Eden and I share the same "stomping grounds" and we were born within a year of each other. That's pretty much where the similarities end. Knowing that part of the setting of this novel would be familiar to me is what made me pick up this book (she mentions Red Bank, Moccasin Bend, Signal Mountain, and other parts of Chattanooga). From the cover, I thought it would be a fairly spooky read. At the best, it was suspenseful at times. Suspenseful enough to make me want to keep turning the p...more
Eden Moore is a special child. She can see ghost. And while this seems unnerving, it is really something that she accepts and grows up with. Eden's young mother died soon after giving birth to her and she has been raised by her aunt, Lulu and Lulu's husband, Dave. Together, they make a close-knit family and offer unconditional love to Eden. That is until Eden really starts to question her past. Things like why her psycho-cousin has tried repeatably to kill her, why the director of the hospital w...more
Three-point-five stars. (:
I wanted to like this book so much more than I actually did. Don't get me wrong, it's definitely worth the time. It was really a good book but something just didn't click with me. I loved Eden -- I thought she was a really good example of a curious but not a curiously-stupid character. She doesn't go off sauntering blindly into danger. She's smart and sassy and she always seems to know what she's doing.
More specifically as with all of Priest's no...more
I wanted to like this book so much more than I actually did. Don't get me wrong, it's definitely worth the time. It was really a good book but something just didn't click with me. I loved Eden -- I thought she was a really good example of a curious but not a curiously-stupid character. She doesn't go off sauntering blindly into danger. She's smart and sassy and she always seems to know what she's doing.
More specifically as with all of Priest's no...more
I seem to be tracking Priest’s career in reverse, having first read her highly-enjoyable steampunk novel, Boneshaker, and then her dark fantasy, Fathom. But Four and Twenty Blackbirds, the first in her Southern Gothic horror trilogy, is my favorite so far. Eden Moore can see ghosts. The orphan child of a teenage mother, Eden has been raised by her aunt Lulu and Lulu’s husband Dave, but she’s always had questions about her family and the circumstances of her birth, some of which Lulu is unw...more
What a fun find! I am so glad I pulled this out of the TBR closet and jumped in. I needed me a good ghost story and this book did not disappoint!
Eden goes on a sort of 'quest' looking for answers to her mysterious family history. She was adopted by her aunt, a wonderful woman, and her husband, an equally wonderful man. However, her families strange past catches up with her and she has no choice but to go digging for answers. This takes her through an old haunted sanitarium, to an old...more
Eden goes on a sort of 'quest' looking for answers to her mysterious family history. She was adopted by her aunt, a wonderful woman, and her husband, an equally wonderful man. However, her families strange past catches up with her and she has no choice but to go digging for answers. This takes her through an old haunted sanitarium, to an old...more
This book is seriously complex and I love the historical nature of the description of the family. A lot of good information about the South and current as well as past feelings regarding race. The supernatural aspects were great as well.
I'm not a practiced reader of the form, so it took me about two and a half chapters to realize this was, in fact, totally a Gothic. At which point I was like, "I'm out."
I'm sure it was a perfectly good Gothic! It's just that said genre is entirely too rich for my blood, and I was expecting a rather different sub-breed of ghost story.
I'm sure it was a perfectly good Gothic! It's just that said genre is entirely too rich for my blood, and I was expecting a rather different sub-breed of ghost story.
This is Cherie Priest's first novel and as such, has a few rough patches. However, I still really liked it. One thing Priest always does well, especially in her steampunk offerings, is write a pretty sentence and builds atmosphere - that's evident here. When very young, Eden gets a bit of a shock when 3 female ghosts appear to her the 1st time. As she grows up, they appear a few more times (stress/danger), throw in some weird dreams, attempts on her life by a religious zealot, and very complex...more
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 larg...more
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 larg...more
Eden Moore is a young woman in search of the truth. Who is her mother? Why did she die in an insane asylum? Who are the three women-ghosts who haunt her childhood and whisper of a man with dark powers? This book is Southern Gothic at it's best. As Eden ventures from the hills of Tennessee to the swamps of Florida in search of the truth. A past riddle with secrets of family. An aunt/sister who won't reveal the truth, a young man who wants to kill her and always the voices/whispers of three women....more
Since I'm a notoriously slow reader, I wasn't able to finish this the first time I checked it out. But even though it took a while to get it back, I was thrilled to be able to pick it up again to finish it months later. The main characters really sticks with you as do all the areas that she visits along the way. Several scenes have really stuck with me long after reading this book - and really that's what makes any book worth picking up. One of my favorite aspects of it though is how it handles ...more
Would have been four stars if I'd ever warmed up to the heroine. There was something empty about her, very hard to latch onto. Which is a shame, because I enjoyed pretty much all the supporting characters, especially the scenery-chewy Southern Gothicky ones, as well as the mythology itself. I'm not sure if it was the fault of the first-person narration, but the main character felt like a vehicle for all the interesting stuff, rather than being interesting herself.
Good Southern Gothic ...more
Good Southern Gothic ...more
Jennifer
rated it
Recommends it for:
fans of Southern Gothic mysteries
Recommended to Jennifer by:
Priest's later books
Shelves:
read-2011
After reading Priest's steam punk series, I decided to investigate her earlier novels. Though this novel had all the elements you'd expect --a protagonist who sees ghosts, a family curse, and lots of swampy atmosphere, this story didn't grab me as much as I'd hoped. It was fine--just not great. This was one novel I actually thought might work better in third person; sometimes the thoughts of Eden Moore, the main character, distracted from the story at hand--particularly when an identity mix-u...more
good stuff from Priest again!
it has not only intrigued me into the Southern history of the USA, but showed me the creeptastic nature of that voodoo juju magic stuff and ghost stories
a believable and likable protagonist and a delightfully horrid old distant Auntie.
it is a good scary tale of a kid who sees dead people- or dead relatives and is on the hunt to avenge their deaths in a manner because she and her adopted mom are in line to be slaughtered.
it is so easy y...more
it has not only intrigued me into the Southern history of the USA, but showed me the creeptastic nature of that voodoo juju magic stuff and ghost stories
a believable and likable protagonist and a delightfully horrid old distant Auntie.
it is a good scary tale of a kid who sees dead people- or dead relatives and is on the hunt to avenge their deaths in a manner because she and her adopted mom are in line to be slaughtered.
it is so easy y...more
This book started out so interesting. When the protagonist was a child I found her interesting, curious, and a real fighter. Then she grew up and somehow became this self indulgent petulant prat. She doesn't think she's perfect, just special, attractive, strong willed, and always right. The 'plot' in the book was so rambling and dull that I had to resist the urge to skim through random pages of useless background information--and that was okay because the author repeated plot points often en...more
I found this book by chance when I was browsing through a used book store. It didn't look terribly boring, so I gathered it up and brought it with me on my Spring Break trip to San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. Admittedly, I have never been much for horror, but this book was so delicate and tasteful with it that I did not run screaming from the room to throw Four and Twenty Blackbirds into the water. I did, however, get a little paranoid with the very intrusive plant that kept slapping my window. A...more
Eden starts seeing ghosts when she’s barely old enough to talk. When she’s ten her cousin tries to kill her. Then things start getting weird – twisty family trees, ancient wizards, gross resurrection rituals, etc.
This book nicely engaged me for the first third (great atmosphere, southern racial politics, vivid writing) and then lost me almost entirely in the last two-thirds (clichés, predictability, decline in the writing quality). I think partly the book is just a predictable little...more
This book nicely engaged me for the first third (great atmosphere, southern racial politics, vivid writing) and then lost me almost entirely in the last two-thirds (clichés, predictability, decline in the writing quality). I think partly the book is just a predictable little...more
Four and Twenty Blackbirds by Cherie Priest is a modern day urban fantasy with deep roots going back to the time of the Civil War. That fact is interesting because Priest's latest work, Boneshaker, Dreadnought, and Clementine, are all set in an alternate history where the American Civil War continued well beyond its 4 years. That's more of an aside, however, as Four and Twenty Blackbirds does not take place in the same world as those other novels.
Four and Twenty Blackbirds is a ghost s...more
Four and Twenty Blackbirds is a ghost s...more
A brilliant scary story with a compelling heroine. Lots of ghosts, mystery, intrigue and occult imagery plus a cracking pace.... combined with a heady mix of scenery that chills the bones and stirs your imagination with the imagery of the swamps and creepy mansions of the deep South!
Most of all, I love Eden. She is a wise-cracking woman who is smart and pretty handy in a fight. It's so refreshing to read about a girl who well and truly knows how to handle herself for a change- despite ...more
Most of all, I love Eden. She is a wise-cracking woman who is smart and pretty handy in a fight. It's so refreshing to read about a girl who well and truly knows how to handle herself for a change- despite ...more
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CHERIE PRIEST is the author of nine novels, including the steampunk pulp adventures Dreadnought and Boneshaker. Boneshaker was nominated for both the Hugo Award and the Nebula Award; it was a PNBA Award winner, and winner of the Locus Award for Best Science Fiction Novel. Cherie also wrote Fathom and the Eden Moore series from Tor (Macmillan), and her novellas Clementine, Dreadful Skin and Those ...more
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