Four and Twenty Blackbirds

After reading Boneshaker and going OMG, who is this Cherie Priest chick and how did I not read her stuff sooner??" I picked up her first book about Eden Moore and was completely blindsided that it was set in Chattanooga, Tennessee. (That's about an hour from my hometown.)

Eden was raised by her sister and brother in law on Signal Mountain (which I still count as a been-there, even if it was only a disastrous date with that guy who brought me pop-tarts in lieu of flowers). As she grows up, she is haunted by a trio of dead sisters, who give her parts of their story through dreams and visions - and they turn out to be her ancestors. Eden's family is about as open as a bridal shop in downtown Detroit, so she has to dig up what she can about show more the trio from an estranged, archaic great-aunt, who just happens to be harboring a homicidal nephew bent on wiping out Eden to end a family curse. (Say that sentence two times fast.)

Two foremost thoughts while reading:

"Hey, I've been there!"
"Hey, I think I just wet myself."

Seriously, these had some of the creepiest scenes I've ever read. Bet you $5 you won't read that campground bathroom scene without getting seriously paranoid about semi-reflective surfaces.

Compared to what, you say? Uh, everything I've read in the last decade. Yeah, it got me that good.

Here's the whole trilogy:

Book 1 - Four and Twenty Blackbirds

Book 2 - Wings to The Kingdom

Book 3 - Not Flesh Nor Feathers

I do plan to review the other books separately, but for the love of big words and small, difficult words, please don't wait on me!" show less

After reading Boneshaker and going "OMG, who is this Cherie Priest chick and how did I not read her stuff sooner??" I picked up her first book about Eden Moore and was completely blindsided that it was set in Chattanooga, Tennessee. (That's about an hour from my hometown.)

Eden was raised by her sister and brother in law on Signal Mountain (which I still count as a been-there, even if it was only a disastrous date with that guy who brought me pop-tarts in lieu of flowers). As she grows up, she is haunted by a trio of dead sisters, who give her parts of their story through dreams and visions - and they turn out to be her ancestors. Eden's family is about as open as a bridal shop in downtown Detroit, so she has to dig up what she can about show more the trio from an estranged, archaic great-aunt, who just happens to be harboring a homicidal nephew bent on wiping out Eden to end a family curse. (Say that sentence two times fast.)

Two foremost thoughts while reading:

"Hey, I've been there!"
"Hey, I think I just wet myself."

Seriously, these had some of the creepiest scenes I've ever read. Bet you $5 you won't read that campground bathroom scene without getting seriously paranoid about semi-reflective surfaces.

Compared to what, you say? Uh, everything I've read in the last decade. Yeah, it got me that good.

Here's the whole trilogy:

Book 1 - Four and Twenty Blackbirds

Book 2 - Wings to The Kingdom

Book 3 - Not Flesh Nor Feathers

I do plan to review the other books separately, but for the love of big words and small, difficult words, please don't wait on me! show less

After reading Boneshaker and going "OMG, who is this Cherie Priest chick and how did I not read her stuff sooner??" I picked up her first book about Eden Moore and was completely blindsided that it was set in Chattanooga, Tennessee. (That's about an hour from my hometown.)

Eden was raised by her sister and brother in law on Signal Mountain (which I still count as a been-there, even if it was only a disastrous date with that guy who brought me pop-tarts in lieu of flowers). As she grows up, she is haunted by a trio of dead sisters, who give her parts of their story through dreams and visions - and they turn out to be her ancestors. Eden's family is about as open as a bridal shop in downtown Detroit, so she has to dig up what she can about show more the trio from an estranged, archaic great-aunt, who just happens to be harboring a homicidal nephew bent on wiping out Eden to end a family curse. (Say that sentence two times fast.)

Two foremost thoughts while reading:

"Hey, I've been there!"
"Hey, I think I just wet myself."

Seriously, these had some of the creepiest scenes I've ever read. Bet you $5 you won't read that campground bathroom scene without getting seriously paranoid about semi-reflective surfaces.

Compared to what, you say? Uh, everything I've read in the last decade. Yeah, it got me that good.

Here's the whole trilogy:

Book 1 - Four and Twenty Blackbirds

Book 2 - Wings to The Kingdom

Book 3 - Not Flesh Nor Feathers

I do plan to review the other books separately, but for the love of big words and small, difficult words, please don't wait on me! show less

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 show more 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. show less

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 show more 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. show less

Eden Moore grew up knowing that the three ghostly women who always hovered somewhere near were tasked with protecting here. For a long time, she believed they were protecting her from her Tatie Eliza and her cousin Malachi who attempted to kill her when she was younger, both believing her to be as wicked as her great-grandfather. She should have felt at peace with the protection of the women, but dreams of a mysterious book with a severed hand at the back and the mystery surrounding her Mother's death and those of the three women pique her curiosity. She sets out on a dangerous course through an abandoned hospital and her Tatie Eliza's antebellum mansion to discover the truth about herself and her family before the past comes to take show more control of her.

Cherie Priest's debut novel is pure Southern gothic horror, complete with a crumbling mansion filled with family secrets as well as hidden rooms, a hospital haunted not just by the history of what happened there but by an angry spirit sent to harm the heroine, a creepy swamp, ghosts both good and bad, and dark magic. Her heroine, Eden Moore, is smart, strong-willed, no-nonsense and incredibly likable. Tatie Eliza and cousin Malachi are the perfect obstacles for her, blinded by family birthright, tradition and the belief that what they are doing is just. When Tatie smiles at Eden, you can feel the hatred dripping from her lips.

I also liked the pacing. Nothing seemed to drag and the action/suspense had me reading every word to make sure I didn't miss anything (instead of glossing over them like I sometimes do when I feel the book needs to be moving a bit faster).

"Four and Twenty Blackbirds" is a fun story, filled with action and supernatural thrills that I think fans of ghost stories and horror novels should take a chance to read. show less

Creepy, twisty, and full of atmosphere, this story was good, scary fun. I really liked Eden. While she does have suspiciously useful poetry, knife, and car identification skills, she was a believable characters, and pulled me along on her search for answers in deeply held family secrets.
The beginning scenes from her childhood didn't rig quite true for me, but once it settled into present time, I started to care for Eden and her adopted parents. I look forward to the next instalment.
The landscape is particularly well used to add to the growing tension in the story - forest, swamp, old family graveyard, gothic mansion, and abandoned institution, all these clichéd settings were given fresh life, and described so clearly I could smell them