Audiobook Review: The Elementals by Michael McDowell

Audiobook Review: The Elementals by Michael McDowellThe Elementals by Michael McDowell
Also by this author: Cold Moon Over Babylon
Published by Valancourt Books on June 24, 2016
Genres: Horror, Supernatural
Format: Audiobook
Source: personal copy
Luker McCray hasn't returned home to Beldame, his family's home on the Alabama Gulf Coast, in decades. However, the death of matriarch Marian Savage forces him to make an impromptu return, with his teen daughter India. This reunion brings together family for the first time in years and they return to the family's three Victorian homes, all along the coast. Two are lived in, one is not. The mystery surrounding this house awakens a curiosity in India, one that introduces her to a family history full of unexplained and tragic deaths.

Something...or someone...resides in that third house. Something that's lay buried in the sand for decades, suddenly reawakened.

I do love me a haunted house story. This title has been on my must-read list for some time, so when the audio popped up in a list of recommendations, I knew I had to try it out.

This novel, originally released in 1981, was one of the highest regarded novels of the big horror boom in the 1970s and 1980s.  McDowell is known for his screenplays (Beetlejuice and The Nightmare Before Christmas) and this talent carries through into novel format.  The Elementals is truly written much like a screenplay, the rich descriptive text bringing the setting alive before your eyes. Add all the wonderful traits of a southern gothic and you have an extremely well-crafted horror novel!

The novel doesn’t start out as terrifying. Sure, there is the…unique act performed at the funeral that starts the book out on an ominous tone, but McDowell’s pacing draws the novel out, developing the setting and the characters so meticulously.  Not once, though, did the pacing seem stalled or drawn out; perfect pacing throughout.

Dare I say I would liken McDowell’s talent to my idol, the great Stephen King? It’s certainly not a stretch, I definitely got “King vibes” will listening to this one.

Speaking of the narration…wowser.  At first, I didn’t know if I would like R.C. Bray’s narration. It kind of reminded me of an old time radio show.  Soon, however, it completely transformed into quite possibly the perfect narration for a horror novel. It’s hard to describe it unless you hear it yourself…but a timeless..harrowing..chilling narration ensued. I absolutely became enamored with the experience.

This may be one of the best horror novels I’ve listened to in some time. I’m so obsessed with this author’s brilliance that I’m listening to another one of his horror novels next.  This is a must-read/listen for any fan of classic horror!

 

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