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A stunning debut novel from a rising master of supernatural horror and the Southern Gothic
The classic Southern gothic gets an edgy modern makeover in Priest's debut novel about a young woman's investigation into the truth of her origins. What Eden Moore digs up in the roots of her diseased family tree takes her across the South, from the ruins of the Pine Breeze sanitarium in Tennessee to a corpse-filled swamp in Florida, and back in time to the Civil War, when the taint in her family bloodline sets in motion events building only now to a supernatural crescendo. Priest adds little new to the gothic canon, but makes neo-goth chick Eden spunky enough to deal with a variety of cliche menaces a scheming family matriarch, a brooding Poe-esque mansion and a genealogy greatly confused with inbreeding that would have sent the genre's traditional wilting violets into hysterics. Eden is a heroine for the aging Buffy crowd, and her adventures will play best to postadolescent horror fans. Agent, Lantz Powell. (Oct.) Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.
More Reviews and RecommendationsCherie Priest lives in Chattanooga, Tennessee, where she is a writer for a computer company. This is her first novel.
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November 03, 2008: Pulled me in from the first page and kept me there until I finished the book. I liked it so much I went ahead and ordered the next two books in the Eden Moore series.
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June 01, 2007: I came upon Ms. Priest by accident and was instantly interested being from Chattanooga myself. That it was gothic horror cinched it. From the first chapter I was pulled into a world, where I almost felt like I was talking with a friend, being told an old family ghost story (we all have them here in the south). The characters were interesting and I found myself unable to put the book down. The tone was on the money for the southern nuiance and I cared about these characters. I'm anxious to read the next in the series (especially since I worked at the battlefield and spent my teen years there hearing about old 'Green Eyes'). I truly enjoyed this story. If you want a taste of true southern gothic and a page turner, this is your piece of pie. Write On Ms. Priest !!!!
The Barnes & Noble Review
Haunting. Mesmerizing. Unforgettable. Adjectives cannot adequately describe the singular narrative brilliance of Cherie Priest's debut novel.
Four and Twenty Blackbirds -- a contemporary ghost story with elements of southern gothic, supernatural mystery, and dark fantasy -- follows an orphaned girl's harrowing journey into adulthood and her desperate quest to find out who she really is. Growing up with her aunt and uncle in the mountains of Tennessee, Eden Moore is never truly alone. The “mixed race” girl is infrequently visited by a trio of ghosts, three long-dead sisters who counsel and protect her. But no one can guard Eden from a lunatic who believes she is the next coming of her great-grandfather, an infamous African sorcerer whose followers have somehow found a way to resurrect his spirit. When the life of Eden's beloved aunt is endangered, she embarks on a journey to uncover the roots of her decidedly inbred family tree. From the ruins of a Tennessee sanitarium where her mother died to the halls of a decrepit Georgia mansion to the gator-infested swamps of southern Florida, Eden's investigation leads her to the terrible truth…
Priest's Four and Twenty Blackbirds is one of those exceedingly rare literary gems that will not only engage and challenge readers on a cerebral level but will also masterfully manipulate their emotions. Lyrical, poignant, and brilliantly understated, Priest's debut novel is a genre-transcendent storytelling tour de force. Fans of writers like Stephen King, Dean Koontz, and Peter Straub will absolutely fall in love with this spellbinding novel -- and with Cherie Priest, who is undeniably one of the most exciting new authors to come along in years. Paul Goat Allen
Although she was orphaned at birth, Eden Moore is never alone. Three dead women watch from the shadows, bound to protect her from harm. But in the woods a gunman waits, convinced that Eden is destined to follow her wicked great-grandfather--an African magician with the power to curse the living and raise the dead.
Now Eden must decipher the secret of the ghostly trio before a new enemy more dangerous than the fanatical assassin destroys what is left of her family. She will sift through lies in a Georgian ante-bellum mansion and climb through the haunted ruins of a 19th century hospital, desperately seeking the truth that will save her beloved aunt from the curse that threatens her life.
The classic Southern gothic gets an edgy modern makeover in Priest's debut novel about a young woman's investigation into the truth of her origins. What Eden Moore digs up in the roots of her diseased family tree takes her across the South, from the ruins of the Pine Breeze sanitarium in Tennessee to a corpse-filled swamp in Florida, and back in time to the Civil War, when the taint in her family bloodline sets in motion events building only now to a supernatural crescendo. Priest adds little new to the gothic canon, but makes neo-goth chick Eden spunky enough to deal with a variety of cliche menaces a scheming family matriarch, a brooding Poe-esque mansion and a genealogy greatly confused with inbreeding that would have sent the genre's traditional wilting violets into hysterics. Eden is a heroine for the aging Buffy crowd, and her adventures will play best to postadolescent horror fans. Agent, Lantz Powell. (Oct.) Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.
Blackbirds is a modern version of the Southern Gothic novel, with at least four and twenty standard horror elements: ghosts, scary mansions, knife-wielding heroine, maniacal cousins, inbreeding, crazy old women, insane asylums and so on. Traveling from hilltops in Tennessee to swamps in Florida, Eden Moore, the young heroine, hits the highpoints of the horror genre as she goes. Eden is the daughter of a woman put in an insane asylum to hide the fact that she is pregnant. She is raised by her aunt and her aunt's husband and by three ghosts who talk to her throughout her childhood. As she becomes a woman, she sets out to uncover her past for herself. The plot is a little intense for the prepubescent reader, but great for the high school student familiar with Poe and Hawthorne. The echoes of the classics, blended with the modern edgy heroine who has no maiden-in-distress characteristics, make an interesting contrast for the reader who knows the classics of American literature. The ending is a little too neat and therapeutically modern, especially after all the drama of the previous events, but it's a good story nonetheless. KLIATT Codes: SA--Recommended for senior high school students, advanced students, and adults. 2003, Tor, 285p., Ages 15 to adult.
Girl in search of her true parents unearths disquieting family murders in a murky horror debut set in the mountains of Tennessee. Of uncertain parentage, with a racial makeup somewhere between black and white (her teenaged mother died in childbirth while incarcerated in Pine Breeze mental asylum), Eden has a gift for divination. While growing up with Aunt Lulu and Uncle Dave on Signal Mountain, she gets in trouble at school and in town because of her psychic visions. She sees three sisters pursued and killed by their father, Avery, and comes to identify herself with Miabella, who was Avery's youngest, favored daughter. Meanwhile, in the world of the living, young Eden is stalked by her delusional cousin Malachi Dufresne. His mother, Tatie Eliza, is steeped in the cult of a certain 19th-century practitioner of black magic, John Gray, who was eventually killed by priests. It turns out that Avery was also a follower of Gray, and someone has tapped into Avery's destructive power. Unless Eden can find an elusive book of spells, Gray's followers will emerge again from obscurity. With the help of Harry, a priest turned servant who knows the whole story of Eden's ancestry, Eden takes off on a road trip. In Highlands Hammock State Park she stumbles onto a coven of cultists who are still trying to raise John Gray. Kidnapped at the swamp site by misguided Malachi, who believes she's on the dark side, Eden finally manages to conjure angry Avery and attempts to restore peace to the restless ghosts. Wildly contrived and oddly chilly, despite all the ranting and raving.
Loading...| 1 | The changing of the guard | 1 |
| 2 | Defining success | 15 |
| 3 | The rules of the game | 22 |
| 4 | Indie, major or DIY | 28 |
| 5 | Organizations and networking | 36 |
| 6 | Setting up success | 40 |
| 7 | Licensing your music for film/TV | 56 |
| 8 | Music publishing | 71 |
| 9 | Publicity, marketing, and promotion | 78 |
| 10 | The pitch | 100 |
| 11 | Touring | 104 |
| 12 | The online wars | 113 |
| 13 | Retail and direct sales | 119 |
| 14 | House concerts | 129 |
| 15 | The age barrier | 132 |
| 16 | Crossing over to film, books and beyond | 135 |
| 17 | The long ride down | 137 |
| 18 | Straight talk on DIY | 143 |
| 19 | End game | 164 |
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