Candles Burning by Tabitha King and Michael McDowell

I have never read any of Michael McDowell’s work, and the only book by Tabitha King I read ages ago I thought was so-so. Based on that I wasn’t sure exactly what to expect from Candles Burning, I only knew that my always-awesome book club recommended it, so I grabbed it with some free book points I had earned. I was pleased with what I got; this was book of the true Southern Gothic.

Calley Dakin is a young girl when her family travels to New Orleans where her self-made father, Joe Cane Dakin, is attending a conference. Unfortunately, her father doesn’t come back to the hotel one night, and the next day her crazy Southern momma gets a ransom note for 1 million dollars. In true Southern Gothic fashion, two half-witted women who seem to have no motive dispatch Calley’s father in a very bloody, crazy way. This changes the course of Calley’s life, as her crazy and disapproving grandma takes over her life, ends up “adopting” the “man of the family,” Calley’s brother, and basically runs her mother and her out of the house. Calley and her mother end up in Florida at a strange B&B, where they spend their days entertaining the guests, working, and scheming to get the money back her mother knows her father had before the grandmother and her lawyer ran off with it all. Eventually Calley is able to get revenge for her family, but it takes awhile (she is a grown up by then). The journey there is just dripping with the feeling of swamps, heavy kudzu, magic, mystery, off-beat characters, and oh so twangy Southern dialogue, so it is equal in intriguing reading and annoyance at the silly accents.

I wouldn’t run right out and buy this book for everyone I know, but if you like William Faulkner or Flannery O’Connor and want to read something like Faulkner-lite, pick this up. There is some imagery there that will stick with you, even though you might spend a large portion of the book wondering what the hell is going on.

Rating: 4 purrs for naming her Calliope and for adding just a touch of the supernatural. The story had enough atmosphere on its own without too much “magic” in it.