Four and Twenty Blackbirds (original 2003; edition 2005)

To really understand this first book, I think I need to read the second one in the series. There was too much set-up here; I'm hoping the next book will distill the character down and allow the mystery/ghost story to happen a bit more naturally. ( )

This is a wonderful first book by Cherie Priest. It has an interesting family history, a few terrifyingly scary moments, and a great leading lady who is interesting. It does suffer from first book syndrome - a simple tale with some threads not finished, others too involved. For example, the scariest part (for me) was not the main story, but a small side story about a girl named Cora. I also tended to get lost in the relatedness of Eden's extended family.

But, Eden is so awesome - she is a mixed race child, but that isn't really much of an issue for the majority of the book. Cherie Priest also didn't go with the stereotype of a poor black southern family. Eden's Aunt and Uncle are not red-neck, in fact, I would probably call them Seattle Style Hipster (to use another stereotype). It would have been all to easy to follow stereotypes. Its what makes this book interesting, rather than cliché.

That is to say, there isn't stereotypical characters. Eden Great Aunt, Eliza is a very typical Old Southern Single Lady from old money. She has all the prejudices that come with it.

As mentioned before, this story lacks a few important backstory. For example, why Eden's mother choose to spend time in a home for unstable teenagers or how she even met Eden's Father. There also is no explanation for how the Eden's Family and Eliza's Family know each other enough to have formed an opinion. These are holes that if filled, would have made this a great book. ( )

Four and Twenty Blackbirds was Cherie Priest's first novel, and it was a very good beginning.

Eden Moore is an orphan of mixed race, living in the Tennessee mountains with her aunt and uncle. Her mother died giving birth to her, but Eden has inherited her looks and her second sight: she is one of a long line of females who see ghosts on a regular basis. For Eden, the ghosts whose world she is able to see are sometimes reassuring old companions, sometimes menacing and scary, and sometimes downright murderous.

A quest for her roots leads Eden to the home of a malicious relative living in Georgia in a huge antebellum mansion, to a monastery in St. Augustine, and finally to the swamps of southern Florida, where Eden must either kill or be killed in order that some things stay dead where they belong.

I enjoyed the book and most of the writing. The ending was weak, and the fight scenes difficult to follow, as was the genealogy and cast of characters. Still, for a first book, it was a promising beginning, and I will definitely be back for more of Priest's novels. ( )

I'm not normally a fan of horror books, mostly because I don't like a lot of blood and gore, but since this series was written by Cherie Priest--one of my favorite authors--I decided to give it a try. And I wasn't disappointed. Instead I was quite taken in by the story that she weaves and the characters that she's created.

Eden grows up with the ability to see ghosts. In particular she sees three ghosts that watch over her and at times protect her. And they know the secrets of her family, the secrets her Aunt Lulu refuses to reveal. When a crazed half-cousin comes gunning for her, Eden is drawn into the family secrets that she's been looking for...secrets that might kill her and everyone that she knows.

Priest creates and builds an appropriately moody and spooky environment, that will give you chills down your spine at just the right moments. She captures the environment to a T and builds places that become vividly real in the mind, lending to a sense of fear. The characters that creates are memorable, eerily familiar and yet strange and distant all at the same time. I found myself continually pulling and rooting for Eden to find out what her past was and wondering what dark secrets her family tree was hiding. And as I mentioned above I'm not really a fan of horror because of the blood and gore factor that creeps into so many of them, but Priest creates a sense of horror without drenching pages with blood and guts. Blood shows up on occasion, but it makes sense for the plot and story.

I can't wait to read the two other books in the series and I'd highly recommend this one, even to people who aren't normally fans of horror. ( )

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 her. She has a relative who is trying to kill her, but even says in the book that she is not really afraid of him. If she is not, we sure are not going to be. And if we aren't, then what is the point? That completely removes any tension from the book, and without some suspense, it is boring. And Eden is kind of tough to like. A co-worker, albeit an annoying one, is killed in front of her, and Eden doesn't care since she never liked the woman anyway. That just seems soulless. The book does pick up some excitement at the very end, where Eden is fighting for her life. And she finally seems to care. But that was it - the rest of the book could have been mysteriously scary, but since Eden didn't care, neither did I.

This is a case of never judge a book by its cover: This book looked like it was going to be a great read, but turned out it just wasn't. ( )