Book Review: Four and Twenty Blackbirds by Cherie Priest

Ever since I found out my book falls into the category of urban fantasy, I've been on a book buying binge--not a reading kick, mind you, just an all out wallet busting frenzy. Bookstores love me. Amazon sent me a Christmas card. One of the first books I bought, Four and Twenty Blackbirds by Cherie Priest finally surfaced in my to be read pile and I'm so glad.

Priest's protagonist, Eden Moore, is a girl with issues--of the kind that seem to crop up only in the South, for some reason--family secrets and some very real skeletons in the closet. First up, some guy's trying to kill her and second, the three ghosts that follow her around aren't much help in the physical world. Eden's on a quest to find out who she is; a search that may prove her undoing.

When it comes to lush description and deliberate layering of tension, Priest is horror's go-to gal. Her swamps are as thick and wet as a roiling pot of gumbo, and her most frightening scenes creep into your head like kudzu tendrils, nightmares clinging to every root. You'll have to forgive the southern imagery, I'm still watching the scotch moss sway in Eden's world.

Good stuff. Grab your wallet.

Next Book: The Becoming (The Anna Strong Chronicles, Book 1) by Jeanne Stein