Blackwood

In Blackwood, Michael Farris Smith takes us down a creepy, kudzu-covered trail where a vicious predator prowls, and sometimes the truth seems better unseen.

The best times in Red Bluff, Mississippi, are long gone. Vacant and crumbling, the towns offer of free housing fails to attract anyone, except for Colburn, a sculptor and drifter who lived in Red Bluff long ago.

As a child, Colburn experienced the horrific trauma of witnessing his fathers death. But as the story unfolds, the events leading to his fathers demise deliver a series of gut punches that are nearly impossible to shake off.

Smith weaves the fatalistic tale with sensitivity but leaves us unsettled. As we read Colburns painful ruminations, echoed by a rotting house smothered in kudzu, we learn of his despair. His loneliness. His unshakeable fear that reminds him hes alive.

Psychic threads connect the characters like twisting vines. Colburn and the boy pay retribution to their miserable fathers. Savage human and animal killers take innocent lives. Everyone in Red Bluff aches.

A desperate story like Blackwood needs skilled prose, and fortunately, Smith delivers. Measured and poetic, he emerges as a master of the southern gothic, a superb storyteller eliciting tears and compassion. Blackwood will haunt me for a long time. Get this book.

This is a literary Crime novel. I loved itI think. The book/story continues to swirl around and around in my imagination. This is my third book by this author, the most recent that hes published, and I have found he just gets better and better. Its interesting to me that the setting is a living breathing character and a coconspirator in the crimes; an amazing accomplishment. There are several things I have never seen before, at least not in one novel. At one point the story shifts to the point of view of a house and by the time I got to this section of the book it seemed natural and it worked. This book is told, and doesnt really ever touch ground, not entirely. Its a half-step back from a close point of view which kept me from dropping deeply into the Fictive Dream, something I need most from a book. This story held me in its grasp in another way, though. Its told in multiple points of view and shifts from one to another to service the story rather than the characters. There are three plotlines that intertwine to create the rope or backbone of the story. The end stunned me. Maybe because I had expected and or hoped for a different outcome. For the briefest of moments, I thought the story had crossed genres and ventured to the edge of horror and then realized it was the natural and obvious outcome. I read and write novels and can usually predict, based on MAR, motivation action, reaction, what is going to happen. This story snuck up on me almost like a slap to the face. Readers read for emotion and this one has a large dose of it at the end. Needless to say, I will be anxiously waiting this authors next book. I highly recommend this book for those who like literary crime novels.
David Putnam author of The Bruno Johnson series.

If youre looking for a fairytale ending, this is not the book for you. If, however, youre looking for something creepy and unsettling, give this a try.

Set in a dead-end town and a valley engulfed in kudzu, this is almost a story of redemption, almost a love story, almost a coming of age/journey of self-discovery. But you never quite reach any of these to their fullest with any of the characters. There is a constant undercurrent of unease throughout the book. There is a vibe of something always being wrong, in spite of the little slivers of hope you might feel.

I wouldve liked a little more depth to the characters. I feel like we meet them yet never truly KNOW them. This might be intentional but personally, I like to get a little closer to the people in the book before the end of the story. I will say that while we were a little fuzzy with characters, we were crystal clear on setting and mood. Overall, this was beautifully written and I gobbled it up.

Already love michael from The Fighter. This is a different, darker sort of slow burn that gives you a deep sense that something wrong is in the air, the way a good southern gothic should. Pure poetry and a perfect pairing for your CV-19 quarantine.

I was lucky enough to attend one of the last author events in this time of COVID 19. Smith was very interesting- and then I devoured this book. It is dark but held my interest throughout.

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