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A review by whatmeganreads
The Elementals by Michael McDowell
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
5.0
MUST READ FOR FALL/HALLOWEEN! Oh. My. GOSH. Truly creepy Southern gothic novels are so few and far between for me. Why is nobody talking about this book?! It's older, written in 1981, so I'll give y'all that, but geez, it's good! If you need any more convincing, this author also wrote the screenplays for Beetlejuice, The Nightmare Before Christmas, and the film adaptation of Stephen King's Thinner. Tragically, he died young, but he has a long backlist of books that I can't wait to dive further into.
This story is dripping with the syrupy heat of a Deep South summer, spooky houses - yes, there's more than one, a delightfully quirky family (I definitely saw foreshadowing of Winona Ryder as Beetlejuice's Lydia in India, the eclectic and peculiar teen daughter), all with a dash of bourbon and seersucker.
Be ready though - the action doesn't get good and rolling until around 100 pages in (this is a short read at only around 280 pages or so)...DO NOT GIVE UP EARLY.
It's been my favorite fall/Halloween read of 2021 so far!
This story is dripping with the syrupy heat of a Deep South summer, spooky houses - yes, there's more than one, a delightfully quirky family (I definitely saw foreshadowing of Winona Ryder as Beetlejuice's Lydia in India, the eclectic and peculiar teen daughter), all with a dash of bourbon and seersucker.
Be ready though - the action doesn't get good and rolling until around 100 pages in (this is a short read at only around 280 pages or so)...DO NOT GIVE UP EARLY.
It's been my favorite fall/Halloween read of 2021 so far!