The Elementals

This book was a total pleasure, from start to finish. To enhance that pleasure, I read it with a group of horror lovers over at Goodreads and we had a ball! <br /> <br />Written back in the 80's a lot of my fellow book loving friends have recommended THE ELEMENTALS to me over the last few years. Problem was it was out of print and I couldn't even find 1 copy of anything he's written in the various used book stores in which I shop. Then, Valancourt Books came to the rescue! Valancourt is dedicated to bringing back some of these out of print books and it's impossible for me to say how on board with that I am. <br /> <br />Anyway, this book ROCKED. A southern family vacations at their family's spit of land in southern Alabama, which they call Beldame. There are three houses, but only two families. Something is wrong with that third house and they all feel it.<br /> <br />The characters are crazy and memorable. Big Barbara-southern matriarch and drunk. India-a young girl from NYC trying to reconcile herself to a beach home in the south. Her father, Luker, with whom she has a very strange relationship. These are just a few of the fascinating characters that Mr. McDowell brings alive. He also brings Beldame alive with his descriptions of life on the gulf, the sweltering heat, the shifting dunes. I felt like I was there.<br /> <br />Another thing that I, (and a few others reading the book with me), enjoyed was the way the author would write a smooth paragraph where everything is cool and then WHAM: one chilling sentence that rocked the world of the reader. Over and over this technique was employed and I loved it. I truly loved it. <br /> <br />That's all I'm going to say about the plot. This book comes with an intro from Michael Rowe, author of the most the great book, Enter, Night. I avoided reading the intro until I had finished the book, because sometimes the intro gives a lot away. There is also a small section about the author in which I discovered that Michael McDowell helped to write the screenplay for Beetlejuice. That didn't surprise me because the characters in this book came alive to me just like the characters in Beetlejuice did. <br /> <br />This is a most excellent example of atmospheric, literary 80's horror and I cannot recommend it enough. I originally gave this 4 stars, but after thinking about it overnight, I cannot think of one thing that the author could have done better. So five stars it is for THE ELEMENTALS. Read it!

<strong>A+ For Dialogue and Scariness! ?<br /><br />I have never once, until now, read a book so scary, that has also had me laughing so hard.<br /><br />Have you ever read a book that’s given you both, joy and nightmares in the same chapter? Well, I have now.<br /><br />This gothic horror has some interesting writing, some of the greatest dialogue that I have ever read (think Shakespeare). <br /><br />The cleverness in describing characters by the author, the cleverness of the characters describing other characters is just precious (is the perfect word).<br /><br />And the horror! Oh, the horror of this book! Too scary for description. Just hilarious and horrific and scary and suspenseful and sad and glad are feelings that the book gives you…<br /><br />The Elementals get fundamentally…five stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️</strong>

here's a rant:<br /><br />the constant marginalization of horror really pisses me off. this is, after all, a genre that includes works by Edgar Allan Poe, Henry James, Ambrose Bierce, Ray Bradbury, Shirley Jackson, Joyce Carol Oates, Justin Cronin... so many classic and modern luminaries. it includes modern unknowns like Thomas Ligotti, who can out-write 9 authors out of 10, and dazzling semi-unknowns like Robert Aickman, whose prose can be compared favorably to best of Beattie or Byatt or Boyle. and yet it remains the most ghettoized and often despised of classic genres: many bookstores don't even include horror sections, and when they do, it is wall-to-wall King and Koontz; even Goodreads didn't bother including horror as a genre within in its annual reader's poll on best books of 2010. why is this marginalization constantly the case? is it due to the reactionary themes within an art form (literature) that is often seen as liberal and humanist in outlook? is it due to the frequently lurid and corny paperback covers and the often explicitly graphic content within, or the at-times gibbering, gore-obsessed nature of horror fan dialogue? <br /><br />perhaps the underlying reason is that the mining and unearthing of anxieties and fears is by its very nature an activity that the world holds at a distinct remove. horror is the Sin-Eater of literature; if every Great Novel is a golden road that leads the reader on journeys of learning and experience, then horror novels are those places outside that path, within the earth beneath it, the dark foundation and all those pathless places, the dirt &amp; the debris &amp; the many-legged crawling things, the areas that live without markers and guideposts yet surround us still. simply put, horror is endemic to the human experience. it deserves respect.<br /><br />so what does this have to do with The Elementals? a lot, and i suppose not a lot. the novel is slight and sensitive; without its horrors, it would be considered a bent and bizarrely charming thing, an honest and often grotesque depiction of Southern manners and society, a worthy offshoot of Flannery O'Connor. the story of a brave little girl and her perhaps-unusual family, and their misadventures. the author illustrates a certain place with a deft and subtle hand, free of fuss and bustle, full of surprising incident and quirky characterization and odd ambiguity. however the addition of horror moves the novel beyond a gentle but pointed comedy of manners and into something stranger and more threatening, a place where questions go unanswered, attacks go unexplained, characters both just and unjust find themselves at odds with nature and the unnatural, a place where the horrors literally rise from the earth and sand, to tempt and threaten and destroy, and then to return back to the earth, their motives unexplained. this is in some ways the essence of horror: the tableau of humanity, threatened and tormented by things that spurn our paths, that exist beyond our understanding. the horror may come from within or without, but it lives beside us always, an inconstant and alien reminder of how easily our cozy realities may be threatened and transformed, taken off of the paths that we so carefully construct and cherish. yeah, Horror!

Horror virtuoso Michael McDowell discards the gloomy norms of haunted house literature and sets this masterpiece along sandy shores of the sunny Gulf Coast. With sparkling waves at their doorstep and tanning oil on their pale skin, an exceedingly wealthy southern family relax in isolation at their Victorian beach houses over the summer. The respite is much-needed after the death–and bizarre funeral—of a detestable family matriarch.<br /><br />One of the vacant beach houses is infested with a nasty spirit. Something that’s not quite ghost, not quite monster, but capable of physical manifestation and elemental manipulation. The family had suspicions about the house for years. Rather than do anything about it, however, they’ve elected to let it become overtaken by sand dunes and fall into ruin. Until this year, that is, when thirteen-year-old India is unable to resist her curiosity.<br /><br />It’s a testament to McDowell’s talent that the supernatural creature is not even the most bizarre thing about this plot. As an Alabama native himself, it’s clear his authorial eye has always been intrigued by the incestuous culture of wealthy southern families. This theme is explored at great depth in his 1,000+ page epic Blackwater (1983), but this short novel has plenty to say as well.<br /><br />Many of the best moments include no horror at all, but are mere depictions of this family living their unusual lives. The funeral scene should be considered for the greatest opening chapter of all time, and everything that follows maintains that bizarre energy.<br /><br />The father-daughter relationship of Luker and India is relentlessly fascinating. She’s a mature thirteen years and flirty toward her father, who’s flirty back. It’s certainly weird, but McDowell doesn’t seem to be suggesting that there’s outright abuse going on. Yes, the father likes taking semi-inappropriate photographs of her and has no problem giving her alcohol, but she’s fully in control and their relationship is meant to be seen, I think, as a minor escalation from what is “normal” southern behavior. Luker’s own mother, for example, gives her grown son long, semi-erotic foot rubs in front of the entire family and no one bats an eye.<br /><br />Whatever message McDowell might be trying to convey, there’s no question that it works from a literary perspective. The pacing needs intriguing characterization to ground us in reality before we can experience supernatural horror. My favorite McDowell quote is when he said that horror writing requires “taking the improbable, the unimaginable, and the impossible, and making it seem not only possible—but inevitable.”<br /><br />Indeed, when the horror elements do kick in, the world is so established, so immersive, that there’s nothing the monster can do that’s too scary to imagine. And McDowell makes it damn scary. The Elementals is easily one of the scariest novels I’ve ever read. Scary enough to ruin beach houses for the rest of your life and to make you shiver every time you see a grain of sand.<br /><br />But the scariest thing is that, were it not for small press Valancourt Books, almost all of Michael McDowell’s novels would be out-of-print and possibly forgotten. That includes The Elementals, but also Blackwater, Gilded Needles and The Amulet. All of which deserve classic, required-reading status for horror fans. Thanks to these recent re-prints, his books are finding new audiences and getting the respect they deserve. I found The Elementals on the required reading list for a master’s course on “Modern Gothic” literature.<br /><br />It’s a shame that McDowell is no longer with us to celebrate his revival. I’d like to ask him what he thinks about it. He’s quoted to say that the best thing a writer can do is write for now, not for the ages. For a while his novels seemed to be just that—fad stories for a booming ’80s horror market. Now that these novels are being dusted off, however, I think we’ll be reading him for a long, long time to come.<br /><br />MORE ON THE AUTHOR:<br /><br />Even among the horror community, Michael McDowell is not well-known. I’ve talked to many who’ve never heard of him, let alone read one of his novels. My hunch is that his books came out amid a sea of horror publications in the 1980’s and, without any movie adaptations, his name never could rise to the surface. This isn’t to say he wasn’t successful or didn’t have a fandom, of course, but it allowed for his bibliography to disappear over time. What everyone does know, however, is Beetlejuice and The Nightmare Before Christmas. McDowell was involved with the screenplays for both of these iconic films. In fact, the project he was working on before he died of AIDS complications, was a sequel to Beetlejuice. If you like memorable characters, gothic environs, a sense of humor and big scares, read everything you can by Michael McDowell.<br /><br />Note: This review was originally published by <a href="https://spookybooky.com/" rel="nofollow noopener">SpookyBooky</a>.<br /><br />Thanks for reading! Follow me for reviews of more bizarre books.

<img src="https://images.gr-assets.com/hostedimages/1630110617ra/31842365.gif" class="gr-hostedUserImg" loading="lazy"><br><br>In the state of Alabama sits three houses. They have a lovely view, one can walk along the sand and dip their toes in the cool water. Two families come to this little slice of paradise called Beldame, the Savages and the McCrays, who've been escaping to this lovely place whenever life gets rough. For some reason no one they've taken outside of their families seems to like the place, but they love it. After the funeral for one the Savages, the two families reunite and visit this lovely place; a place where they seem to repress the unpleasant events that happened there, like that time the hired help's daughter drowned there, or the time one of them visited the third house… the house that seems to be filling with sand.<br><br>Why did no one tell me about Michael McDowell? I mean, yes, I've heard of him in some horror circles as an underrated author, but why did no one tell me that his work was THIS good? I'll be blunt; I think this is one of the best horror novels to come out of the 80s… no, I'll go ahead and say it, I think this is my favorite horror novel to come out of the 80s. This is so good I don't even really know how to review it.<br><br>Let's get this out of the way; this book is genuinely unnerving. I love the genre, but I can't personally say that about too many horror novels. This book is unsettling. The idea of the title creatures… spirits… things… whatever they are, is unnerving because we never quite understand them. They seem to break rules that we think they are supposed to follow, and part of the brilliant aspect of this book is that it doesn't feel like the author is cheating with this. This is something completely unknowable and any rules it plays by are its own. <br><br>This book is filled with so much mystery, so many things that are not quite explained, but never feel as if they need to be. Much of it I wouldn't want to be explained. The mystery adds to it. It makes sense in its own weird way and I can't imagine that it would be improved with the blanks filled in.<br><br>I've rarely read a book I enjoyed this much from start to finish. It managed to be funny at times, terrifying at other and for much of it, such a well told southern gothic that I forgot about the horror aspects, just engrossed in the dynamics of these two families. When the horror crept back in, it was a welcome and terrifying surprise. A rare 5/5 stars.

So truly wonderful and scary on many levels, The Elementals, is one of my favorite reads this year. What does it touch on? To name a few things it gets perfect are: a blunt, honest and loving relationship between a teenage daughter and her dad, southern mores and speech patterns done right, family dynamics, hot weather, and one mind-numbingly disturbing, malevolent house. <br /><br />Beldame is the isolated retreat of the Savages and the McCrays. It consists of three, that's right three Victorian mansions set next to the Alabama gulf, far away from everything. Marian Savage, the cruel, cold matriarch of the family has just passed and the families go to Beldame for the summer. The Savages still own one house and the McCrays, connected by friendship and family ties to the Savages, owns another. House Three is abandoned and has been inundated by sand which has broken into the house and almost covered it on one side.<br /><br />Written in 1981, The Elementals has as its main characters a thirteen year old girl raised in New York by her Alabama raised dad, and a middle-aged black woman who is the maid of the Savages and also their friend. India, the girl, and Odessa are not friends at first, but become linked by a sensitivity to the evil in the third house and fight to keep their loved ones safe. <br /><br />The portrayal of the girl is particularly good. She speaks her mind, without being a brat. She and her father cuss like sailors which her southern grandmother decries. India and Odessa are magnificent creations. The conversations that India has with her father are brilliant. On meeting her runaway mother on a New York street, Luker, the dad, yells, F... Off, B...ch! I love it. Anyway, this is scary and well written and I can't wait to read more from this author, who, left us early because of AIDS, that scourge of my youth, which still has no vaccine.

<b>I really loved this one after all!</b><br /><br />My Kindle book of <b>The Elementals</b> starts off with a prologue from <i>Michael Rowe</i>.<br />I was a bit paranoid of spoilers so I decided to read it <b>AFTER</b> I finished the book and I agree with all he said on descriptions.<br /><br />One thing that he said in the prologue was the character of India McCray was <i>Lydia Deetz</i> from <b>Beetlejuice</b> and Odessa Red was <i>Van Helsing</i>.<br />He could not be more on point in this similarity! ??<br /><br /><b>The Elementals</b> is a Southern gothic horror book that starts off slow and builds to an epic ending of death, destruction and secrets being revealed.<br /><br />The location of the three occupied houses at Beldame is a unique setting for a gothic book.<br />The Victorian mansions are wonderfully described and the Alabama sun/setting is so much of a character in this book.<br /><br /><u>And speaking of characters...</u><br /><br />The characters in the book are so bizarre and just not quite right (which is perfect in my opinion for a horror book!).<br />The McCrays and the Savages are two weird ass families.<br />Did the urban myths and customs of the Savage family make them all like this or do we blame the hot, brutal sun for their eccentric ways?!<br /><br />The parent/child relationships in the book are also uneasy and strange.<br />It’s a nice touch because you’re not quite sure what is going on while reading all of the interactions between both families.<br /><br /><u> <b>And the sand!!</b> </u><br />Who knew sand could be so frightening and creepy?!<br />The descriptions of the horror elements in this book are also fantastic!<br />I could visually see all of the odd and scary things that <i>McDowell</i> writes about.<br /><br /><b>Definitely recommend this one if you love gothic books and also locations set in the Deep South.</b>

<i>Lo que hay en esa casa, niña, sabe más que tú. Lo que hay en esa casa no surge de tu mente. No obedece a las reglas y se comporta como debe comportarse un espíritu. Hace lo que hace para engañarte, quiere inducirte a creer cosas que no son. No posee ni una pizca de verdad. Lo que hizo la semana pasada, no volverá a hacerlo hoy. Ves algo allá adentro, y es algo que no estaba ayer y que no estará mañana.</i><br /><br />Cuando muchos lectores hablan tan bien de una novela, cuando todos dicen lo atrapante que es, decididamente voy a una librería y la compro. Esto es lo que hice con esta magnífica novela de Michael McDowell y no me equivoqué.<br />Verdaderamente está escrita en forma soberbia y el poder de adicción y compenetración que genera es total.<br />Michael McDowell, quien escribiera el guión de la ya mítica animación “El extraño mundo de Jack” y de la película Beetlejuice, ambas de Tim Burton, hizo también una gran carrera literaria que le valió menciones y reconocimientos, y previa a esta, escribió otra novela muy buena llamada “El amuleto”, que pienso buscar para leer algún día.<br />La historia de “Los elementales” se centra en una apartada localidad del sur de los Estados Unidos, llamada Beldame, en donde los miembros de dos familias, los McCray y los Savage deciden ir a descansar luego de la muerte y del extraño funeral de la matriarca de los Savage, Marian, madre de Dauphin, suegra de Leigh, consuegra de Big Barbara Ann, quien es la madre de Luker y a su vez este es el padre de India, una chica de trece años un tanto especial para su edad. En ese velatorio sucede algo perturbador que tiene que ver con lo que se desarrollará más adelante.<br />Los acompaña su sirviente negra, llamada Odessa. Típica empleada de color de los estados sureñas del país, de esas que conviven con la familia durante décadas.<br />Hay tres casas en Beldame, construidas exactamente con la misma arquitectura de estilo victoriana, aunque “la tercera casa” está abandonada. Las dunas avanzaron para apropiarse de ella y nadie vive allí. Al menos eso es lo que todos creen.<br />Pero algo maligno acecha en esa casa. Algo ominoso, terrorífico, con entidad propia, que comenzará a atormentar a las seis personas que viven en las otras dos y además de estas entidades que con el correr de la lectura se transformarán opresivas y torturantes para los personajes, encontraremos otros dos personajes claves en esta historia.<br />En primer lugar, el calor. Insoportable, agobiante, abrasador. Capaz de generar las más variadas alucinaciones en los moradores de esas casas y todo ello derivará en obsesiones y visiones aterrorizantes cada vez que se acerquen a esa tercera casa.<br />El otro personaje es la arena. El autor, utiliza el recurso de la arena como la sangre en las novelas de vampiros y ésta se convierte en el eje de todo el mal que envenena el ambiente.<br />Prontamente, comenzarán a suceder cosas verdaderamente extrañas y toda la acción se centrará en dos personajes claves: por un lado en la hija de Luker, India, quien entablará una peculiar relación con la otra pieza fundamental de todo esto, que es Odessa, la sirviente.<br />Entre las dos, descubrirán que todo el terror que yace en la tercera casa y lo que se desencadenará en la tercera parte del libro será enloquecedor. <br />Criaturas horripilantes, apariciones fantasmales, escenas inverosímiles y repugnantes comenzarán a suceder una tras otra y es aquí en donde recrudece todo el terror que asalta tanto a los personajes como al lector.<br />Leyendo acerca del autor, me informo de que escribe “terror gótico sureño”. Realmente a mí no me importan ese tipo de clasificaciones. Esto es terror y del bueno.<br />McDowell juega con la sugestión del lector y logra que este vea lo mismo que los personajes. Las extrañas criaturas que pululan en esa casa, son descriptas con tanta nitidez que uno se asusta y esto hace que la adrenalina suba y nos exija leer más y más…<br />Esta novela fue escrita por McDowell en 1981 pero por suerte, existe en Argentina una editorial excelente y maravillosa, que se llama La Bestia Equilátera. Yo ya poseo otras dos novelas tan desconocidas como únicas y que solo esta editorial podía publicar. <br />Una es “El caballero de cayó al mar” del desconocido H. C. Lewis y “El otro lado”, escrita por un extraño ilustrador del siglo XIX, que era amigo personal de Franz Kafka y que se llamaba Alfred Kubin.<br />La Bestia Equilátera tiene esta sana costumbre. Todo lo que edita es original, desconocido y de una gran calidad.<br />Volviendo a “Los elementales”, (tuve que esperar a leer más de doscientas páginas para entender por qué se llamaba así), no tengo más que palabras de admiración porque he pasado ratos de altas dosis de atención, susto y entretenimiento.<br />McDowell escribe tremendamente bien y como comenté previamente, sabe cómo jugar con el inconsciente del lector.<br />Hacía mucho que no leía una novela de terror. La última fue “Christine” de Stephen King, que era un gran amigo del autor, y recuerdo que era adolescente cuando la leí y se me había generado cierta aversión a pasar por delante de la trompa de los autos cuando caminaba por la calle.<br />Espero no tener que ira a ninguna mansión antigua para no recordar lo que sucede en la ominosa tercera casa de Beldame, en donde los Elementales acechan para enloquecer, aterrar y matar.<br />Y alentado por la lectura de esta novela, voy a ir un paso más allá, comenzando a leer otra escalofriante y aterradora novela, ya mítica: la que escribió William Peter Blatty y que se llamó “El exorcista”.

Always present in my mind is the notion that the 80s comedy Beetlejuice must get a sequel. (Alas, a Broadway musical will suffice.) That film molded my nerdy self into the literophile we have today: Oh what a marvelous imagination behind one of the funniest and most creative screenplays of all time!<br /><br />&amp; then to realize that the writer of said masterpiece also wrote horror novels! Horror novels of the best quality! And there is plenty to admire in "The Elementals," a story that has accumulated dust in more ways than one! (Inside joke.) We visit the terrain of those gigantic sandworms that terrified our imaginations--even in Beetlejuice: the animated series. &amp; Lydia Deetz, quintessential goth girl, is revamped as imp India, also a precocious teen that sees what's beyond. <br /><br />But this is nothing nearly as terrifying as Clive Barker's (also-80s) brand of horror. Or Stephen Kings. It is absolutely inventive, and, even better, hella funny at times.

When Marian Savage dies, her son and his family head south to Beldame to recover in beach houses that have been in the family for generations. The family splits and takes two of the beach houses. The third house stays vacant, for an ancient evil lurks within...<br /><br />I read <a href="https://goodreads.com/book/show/23476097.Blackwater_The_Complete_Caskey_Family_Saga__Blackwater___1_6_" title="Blackwater The Complete Caskey Family Saga (Blackwater, #1-6) by Michael McDowell" rel="noopener">Blackwater: The Complete Caskey Family Saga</a> earlier this year and loved it. Michael McDowell has been on my radar ever since. When my cohort Anthony offered to loan it to me, I jumped on it.<br /><br />I have to think The Elementals is a trial run for some concepts Michael McDowell would later explore at great length in Blackwater, namely a Southern family saga with supernatural elements lurking on the fringes. <br /><br />The Savages and McCrays have been coming to Beldame for years but have always avoided the mysterious third house. After the death of the Savage matriarch, they head down to Beldame for some r&amp;r. It's India McCray's first visit to Beldame so naturally she's very curious about the third house. It's sounds like it's going to be creepy from the beginning but it's not. Michael McDowell takes his time, develops the Savages and McCrays into characters you can't help but be interested it. Then he torments the poor bastards.<br /><br />For the most part the story revolves around India McCray and Odessa, the Savage's maid. Odessa knows a lot mroe than she's letting on and India is a teenage busybody with nothing but time on her hands at the sleepy penisula. I have to say that Luker and India are my favorite father-daughter combo in all of fiction with their interesting dynamic. Apart, they're both fascinating but together, they're something else. Lawton's machinations made me hate him more than I feared the evils of the third house. Big Barabara's alcohol problem and relationship to Lawton was sad but I wound up liking her quite a bit.<br /><br />In addiition to family drama, McDowell paints a very accurate picture of the torturous, oppressive heat and humidy of the south. I broke a sweat while I was reading some of the later chapters. The creepy happenings start at Marian Savage's funeral and gradually grow from there. By the end, it's hard to tell who is going to survive. <br /><br />Much with Blackwater, I would have read twice as many pages featuring the Savages and McCrays. I enjoyed the characters so much that the horror element could be removed and it would still be an enjoyable book. Four out of five stars.