Blackwater, Part VI: Rain

And so, after two years, I have finally managed to reach the final book in the Blackwater series.  With this sixth book, the story of the Caskey family comes to its conclusion.  What began in book one, set in 1919, reaches its climax in book six, set some fifty years later, and the horrors that came to Perdido, Alabama on that Easter Sunday are finally laid bare.  Author Michael McDowell, in these six books, has created a world that, on its surface, appears to be a typical wealthy, Southern family story - but beneath that surface is something dark and sinister.  Elinor's appearance in Perdido back in 1919 started a chain reaction and introduced the Caskey family to unspeakable terrors that they have had to face for five decades - and now, with this sixth book, we are suddenly faced with the realization - was the Blackwater series really a story about the Caskey family - or has it truly just been Elinor's story all along?

Simply titled Rain, the sixth and final book, picks up a bit after the "death" of Frances Caskey.  Of course, readers know that Frances did not die; rather, she embraced her supernatural side and went with her daughter to live beneath the murky waters of the Perdido River.  But, as they have done for more than forty years, the Caskey family simply moves on, never questioning the strange events that have overtaken their lives since Elinor first came on the scene and insinuated herself into their lives.  The family members have aged, and the years pass quickly in this final chapter.  This book starts off in 1958, as Sister Haskew remains bedridden, her health (both mentally and physically) deteriorating more and more every day.  Miriam has become more and more like her grandmother, now determined to take Elinor's surviving granddaughter away from her, as payback for Elinor giving away Miriam when she was a baby.  The beginning of the end starts with the wedding of Miriam to Malcolm Strickland - while the Caskeys and half of Perdido celebrate this unusual pairing, Sister passes away upstairs in her room, the first of many deaths to come.

Queenie Strickland is the next in line, as she finds herself haunted by the ghost of her dead husband, Carl.  She is terrorized by the dead man, and it is only when her grandson, Tommy Lee Burgess, comes to live with her that the attacks seem to subside.  When Tommy Lee goes away to college, Queenie finds herself once again alone in that big house, and it is one of Ivey Sapp's relatives who finds Queenie's lifeless body on the floor of her home, two quarters (each bearing the date 1929) pressed over her eyes and the key to her house stuck in her mouth.

Oscar Caskey, now old and nearly blind, finally succumbs to the terror that is his wife's legacy, as he must face the consequences of his wife's actions.  Haunted by the ghosts of both Mary-Love and John Robert, both of whom died at the hands of Elinor's true self, Oscar is brutally murdered in his own home, found the next morning by his wife.

With the original Caskey family members now gone, that leaves only one final death, which has the most impact on not only the Caskeys, but on the entire town of Perdido.  It is the final chapters of this book that the readers is faced with realization that this series may have featured the members of the Caskey clan as they aged, married, had children, and died, it was never truly about them.  This was really the story of Elinor.  That young woman who was sitting on the bed in the hotel in Perdido as the flood waters rose.  That young woman who just happened to be seen by Oscar and rescued from her supposed fate.  That young woman who managed to not only marry Oscar Caskey, but eventually become the head of the Caskey family in pretty much every way.  Sure, Miriam took over the lumber mill, and Grace established a life in the panhandle of Florida, where her property eventually was revealed to be rich in oil.  Sure, Lilah took off for New York and created a life for herself.  But when it all boiled down to it, everything the Caskeys did, every plot they hatched, every scheme they put into motion - it all somehow involved Elinor.  And none of them - save Billy and Zaddie, who weren't truly Caskeys at all - ever knew the frightening truth of just who, or what, Elinor truly was and how her entrance into that family put into motion all of the horrifying events that resulted in so many deaths and so much destruction.

The series started with a flood that nearly destroyed Perdido and it ends with a flood that accomplishes what the first flood couldn't do.  It starts with the "birth" of Elinor, and it ends with the death of Elinor.  Blackwater is a six-book series that shows readers that the supernatural horrors of monsters and creatures from the deep are not necessarily the darkest monsters of them all.  Sometimes, it is the everyday machinations and actions of normal people that show who the true monsters in the world really are.

This has been a dark, yet enjoyable series to read, and I think I'm glad I read this as an adult - if I had read this as a 14-year old when the series was first published, I don't think I could have truly appreciated the nuances and underlying meanings of the story that I do as an adult.  Definitely a series worth reading for anyone who is a fan of horror and supernatural.

RATING:  10 exploding flame-shaped chandelier bulbs out of 10 for bringing the story full circle and providing a very satisfying conclusion to a story about the darker side of humanity.