Black Bayou

This book reads a bit like a movie in places, and I found that both entertaining and intriguing. I'd love to watch this in a television show or a movie, just to see the environments and happenings brought to life, but the author does an amazing job of painting mental images. (With a richly visual setting like New Orleans, it would be a travesty not to do so. This author has a decent balance between telling and showing, and I appreciate that.)

We start off in the middle of a chaotic and horrifying scene, driven through it from the perspective of the confused victim - though thankfully in third person instead of first. (Why must so many books use first person these days? It's refreshing that this one doesn't.) Marigold's life falls apart around her as disturbing truths are unveiled about her family and people turn against her for the crimes of her parents. She has nothing and nobody left, except for an aunt she didn't know existed until after the incident and her aunt's incredibly spooky home.

From the very beginning, Black Bayou lays the foundation for supernatural events. It starts subtle with what could easily have been a hallucination caused by near-death then grows throughout, leaving physical signs that whatever is happening can't possibly be all in Marigold's head. By chapter three, I had already begun speculating what the shadowy entity might be and why her parents may have committed their crimes. Because of this instant curiosity, the story kept me hooked.

As the story progressed, I kept thinking to myself that I'd read one more chapter before putting it down, because I just had to know what was happening with the La Roux family and the thing which seemed to be stalking Marigold. Without spoiling anything, I'll say that I kept questioning which characters I liked and disliked because the author does a beautiful job of keeping things mysterious and casting doubts on each person Marigold encounters until the story's climax. The suspense builds slowly at first then becomes turbulent, leaving short moments for the reader to ‘breathe' only to have the rug ripped from under you without notice as things pick up again - perfectly timed to be an enthralling thriller.

I had my suspicions that something was going on with this one particular person, but I never predicted the actual outcome and that makes me enjoy the story even more. It had a few annoying points, mostly around Marigold's actions (and inactions), but overall I think this is a five star book with four star editing.

There are a few missing apostrophes, homophone misuses, excess word and sentence structure repetition, and Marigold's eyes were blue in one chapter then emerald green in another. These issues vary in annoyance level, but they didn't detract too much from the story. I considered rating four stars for this, but decided otherwise. If 4.5 were an option, I'd say that's more accurate.

For the first time ever, I find myself actually wanting to read the rest of the books in a series where the first book was free.