Edge of Dark Water

by Joe R. Lansdale

May Lynn was a pretty girl from a mean family who dreamed of becoming a film star. Now she's dead - her body dredged up from the Sabine River, bound with wire and weighted down. Her best friend, Sue Ellen, wants to take her ashes to Hollywood. But May Lynn's diary holds a secret: the location of a large sum of money.

Genres: Horror, Fiction, Thriller, Mystery, Historical Fiction, Crime, Coming Of Age

292 pages, Hardcover

First published March 1, 2012

About the author

Champion Mojo Storyteller Joe R. Lansdale is the author of over forty novels and numerous short stories. His work has appeared in national anthologies, magazines, and collections, as well as numerous foreign publications. He has written for comics, television, film, newspapers, and Internet sites. His work has been collected in more than two dozen short-story collections, and he has edited or co-edited over a dozen anthologies. He has received the Edgar Award, eight Bram Stoker Awards, the Horror Writers Association Lifetime Achievement Award, the British Fantasy Award, the Grinzani Cavour Prize for Literature, the Herodotus Historical Fiction Award, the Inkpot Award for Contributions to Science Fiction and Fantasy, and many others. His novella Bubba Ho-Tep was adapted to film by Don Coscarelli, starring Bruce Campbell and Ossie Davis. His story "Incident On and Off a Mountain Road" was adapted to film for Showtime's "Masters of Horror," and he adapted his short story "Christmas with the Dead" to film hisownself. The film adaptation of his novel Cold in July was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival, and the Sundance Channel has adapted his Hap & Leonard novels for television.

He is currently co-producing several films, among them The Bottoms, based on his Edgar Award-winning novel, with Bill Paxton and Brad Wyman, and The Drive-In, with Greg Nicotero. He is Writer In Residence at Stephen F. Austin State University, and is the founder of the martial arts system Shen Chuan: Martial Science and its affiliate, Shen Chuan Family System. He is a member of both the United States and International Martial Arts Halls of Fame. He lives in Nacogdoches, Texas with his wife, dog, and two cats.

Reviews

[Shelby *trains flying monkeys* · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars

Sue Ellen and her friends are helping her daddy fish (poison the fish with green walnuts because her daddy is lazy) and they end up finding the body of one of Sue Ellen's friends in the Sabine River. She has been tied to an old sewing machine so that she doesn't come back up, Sue Ellen's daddy and her uncle both want to just throw the body back in the river but the kids won't let them.
The story is set back in the Depression so finding a body was not the big deal it has become today. Her dead friend May Lynn had always wanted to go to Hollywood and become a star but ends up just getting tossed in a pauper's grave the next day. End of story. Not.


The kids can't stand that thought so they decide to dig up and burn May Lynn's body and to take her ashes to Hollywood.

These kids are some of the best characters. You have Sue Ellen who at sixteen pretty much takes care of herself. Her mama stays in bed most of the time with her "Cure-All" and her daddy is just pure mean especially once he starts drinking.
My grandma on Daddy's side always said I didn't act like a girl at all, and I ought to stay home learning how to keep a garden and shell peas and do women's work. Grandma would lean forward in her rocker, look at me with no love in her gooey eyes, and say, "Sue Ellen, how you gonna get a husband you can't cook or clean worth a flip, and don't never do your hair up?"
Sue Ellen gives no fucks.

Then you have her pal Terry, his mom recently married again gaining him several step brothers and sisters and a step-father who makes fun of Terry's "sissy" ways.
Jinx (my favorite) a black girl with a tongue that can cut down even the biggest man.
All these kids know they are doomed if they stay in the small town.

They find some stolen money and head off down the Sabine with Sue Ellen's mama along for the ride.


There are some bad guys chasing them though. The money they took is wanted by the Constable of the town they are leaving, Sue Ellen's Uncle and daddy and then one of the Bottoms legends comes to life. The legendary "Skunk" who will hunt down anyone for the pleasure of killing them and taking their hands.

[Sadie Hartmann · Rating 5 out of 5]

After reading THE BOTTOMS by Joe R. Lansdale, I had a sneaking suspicion he was using his stories to break my heart and after just finishing EDGE OF DARK WATER, this suspicion has been confirmed. Joe R. Lansdale is indeed trying to break my heart.
He’s coming after my soul.
He’s weaseling into my life and stealing retail space on my bookshelf.
Proof:
The thing is, I have fully surrendered. I’m allowing it. Game on.

EDGE OF DARK WATER is the story of some kids growing up as best they can in rural Texas. The main character, Sue Ellen and her best friend Terry are out fishing with her father and uncle one day when they make a startling discovery that will change the direction of all their lives.
Sue Ellen and Terry immediately tell their friend Jinx and the three of them decide they need to get out of their small town before they end up beat down and used up just like everyone else around them. Unfortunately, because of what they know and what they’ve seen--they will be followed on their perilous journey to California.

So I added three new child protagonists to my reader’s heart. It’s getting crowded in here what with all the kids King has written, the kids from Robert McCammon’s books, all the kids from Summer of Night by Dan Simmons, the child narrator from I CAPTURE THE CASTLE, the family from BETTY by Tiffany McDaniel and the list goes on, and on, and on.
The quickest way to get me to fall in love is to give me some sassy-mouthed, take-no-shit, child protagonists in some kind of danger. My mom’s heart can’t help but fully invest in their story.
EDGE OF DARK WATER is no exception. This is coming of age at its finest. It doesn’t get better than this-sharing space with Lansdale’s THE BOTTOMS, King’s IT, and McCammon’s BOY’S LIFE. Comparisons to HUCKLEBERRY FINN and TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD are not far off-there are strong themes of poverty, classism, racism, and that sad truth of how some children are just unwanted burdens or collateral damage.
Infused into the storyline are laugh-out-loud moments that I have come to expect from Lansdale. The characters are colorful, memorable, and full of life - the things that come out of their mouths sometimes are hysterical.
In contrast, one of the characters, Skunk, is one of the scariest motherfuckers I have ever had the displeasure of reading about. My heart raced every time he made an appearance.
I can’t say enough about how much I enjoyed this book. It made my heart sing with love for these children, fall down into my stomach with fear, and then come to a state of full satisfaction at the end. Lansdale is just the goddamn best.

[karen · Rating 3 out of 5]

this book was just okay.

it's a little east texas huck finn-ette story about a bunch of misfits who take to a raft after their friend is found at the bottom of the river with her hands wrapped in wire and attached to a sewing machine. turns out, she has a map to some buried cash, so they decide to take the money and her ashes to scatter her in hollywood, which is where she would have been headed had she not been, you know, murdered.

so all the misfit toys escape their demons and go on a river trip; the girl fleeing her momma's laudanum addiction and her father's grabby hands, the tough black chick getting outta racistville, the pretty boy homosexual...and then momma emerges out of her stupor long enough to come along. but seems everyone wants in on that cash, and there are several people in hot pursuit of our characters.

it's a fast read, and that might be the problem. there really isn't a lot of character-depth, and the action sequences are about what you would expect.

and i think that is the problem - this book is very expected. not from lansdale; this is my first book by him, but it pretty much turns out the way you know it's gonna, and there is something unformed about its writing. there just aren't a lot of surprises. you do find out who is responsible for may lynn's death, which would've been surprising, but for one early-dropped hint.

i just never felt particularly intrigued by the story, but it is probably because i have read better villains in authors like mccarthy or any number of "crime fiction set in impoverished locales." this one just didn't give me that reader-shake i long for.

too bad, me...

come to my blog!

[Dan Schwent · Rating 3 out of 5]

A teenage girl with Hollywood aspirations's body is pulled out of the Sabine River. Her friends Sue Ellen, Jinx, Terry set out to spread her ashes in Hollywood. Unfortunately, some money the deceased girl's brother stole winds up in their possession and numerous ill-tempered people are on their trail. And a murderer named Skunk has been hired to get the money back at any cost. Will Sue Ellen and her friends survive their river odyssey?

Joe Lansdale weaves a coming of age tale set in east Texas. It's a little like Huckleberry Finn, if Huckleberry Finn involved stolen money, a killer that severs hands, and an opium-addicted mother. It's a pretty gripping tale. Sue Ellen comes to grips with her parents, Terry deals with his sexuality, and Jinx deals with being black. Skunk is a pretty chilling villain and the rest of the people chasing the protagonists are cut from the usual Lansdale cloth of redneck scumbags. I didn't see the identity of May Lynn's killer coming. Overall, I was pretty pleased with it.

However, I only gave it a three because I felt like Lansdale has told the story at least twice before, both in The Bottoms and A Fine Dark Line. It was good but it felt like he was mining familiar territory.

[Andy Marr · Rating 4 out of 5]

Definitely not my favourite of all the Lansdale novels I've read - that honour goes jointly to 'Sunset and Sawdust' and 'The Thicket' - but his work never fails to entertain, and to make me giggle.

[Lou · Rating 5 out of 5]

I must alert you, do you smell something in the air?
No?
Good!
As that would have been a sign that the myth of the Skunk Man is real, his presence is known by a skunk like smell. A legend or a myth, be he what you please, he is a character that Lansdale has created in this story of fiction. He certainly adds a thrill to the tale. Skunk man presents death, a bogeyman like character that one shall tell tales of and our main characters in this story hope to be not true.

Sue Ellen a young woman, sixteen years old, she is a gem of a gal a diamond amongst the rough. Lansdale writes through her eyes, he walks you through her thoughts and uncensored point of view of her harsh and brutal environment. I loved her humorous thoughts and insight.With might and main Sue Ellen and her companions will embark on an journey an odyssey of survival and endurance. They need to do a deed out of goodness of their hearts to a departed soul a soul that was young, talented and beautiful whom died under queer circumstances. Also an important reason for their journey is to escape from brutal hands of evil that men do. A window of opportunity opens up along the course of things, that present a chance of bigger pockets, happier hearts and greener pastures. The other equally wonderful character and gal is Jinx a young black girl who is full of courage and heart, needed in the by gone days of the deep south. Sue Ellen’s mother is a woman who needs to wise up and take care of her daughter her problem is most of the time, when at home with her husband, shes under the influence of an alcoholic concoction called Laudanum.

Lansdale writes with realism of the South, with a prose that’s has vigor heaped with heart.

He immerses you into the heart of darkness with characters that pack plenty heart and gusto. These characters are a rare occurrence to find but when you do you should be the best of friends, ones you could trust your life with. What presents for me great story telling are character’s that leave a mark, coupled with clear and simple writing packed with realism.

Lansdale's story is reminiscent of the works of Faulkner, Twain and Harper Lee and It will last the course of time as a classic alongside ‘To Kill a Mockingbird.’

Joe R. Lansdale remember that authors name because he is about to break down genre barriers and surpasses tags of fitting into certain book readers categories. A book for both the male and female reader alike that will make a mark on all ages down to young teens as a must read for 2012. This is definitely one to make my best of published work in 2012 list so early on in the year.

A river story that once you embark upon the tale you will not want to finish and gone on and on until the sea ends. A story to savor and cherish. Don’t miss it pre-order it now.

“I sat on the shore and looked at May Lynn’s body. It was gathering flies and starting to smell and all I could think of was how she was always clean and pretty, and this wasn’t anything that should have happened to her. It wasn’t like in the books I had read, and the times I had been to the picture show and people died. They always looked pretty much like they were when they were alive, except sleepy. I saw now that’s not how things were. It wasn’t any different for a dead person than a shot-dead squirrel or a hog with a cut throat hanging over the scalding pot.”

“I’d be on it like stink on a dead possum.”

“Laudanum= an alcoholic solution containing morphine, prepared from opium and firmly used as a narcotic painkiller.”

An interview i had with the great writer in March 2012 featured @ http://more2read.com/review/interview-with-joe-r-lansdale/


The review is also featured at my webpage here along with small documentry on the author.

[LA · Rating 3 out of 5]

Imma quote Clairee's famous line from that play set in the magnolia-dotted, small Louisiana town: if you don't have anything nice to say... come sit by me.

Pull up a chair, darlin.

Lansdale seems to be loved by lots of southern literary fans, but Im sorry to say that this second of his books that Ive read doesn't count me as one of them.

The story is narrated by a 16 year old East Texas gal back in the Depression era. Her two best friends and her Cure-All sipping mama accompany her in this road-trip tale, and although the author takes great pains to 'specifically tell' the reader that the male friend has perfect diction, grammar, and a huge vocabulary, he slips up occasionally and has the articulate young man toss off "ain'ts" like the two girls in the story. The boy's speech (when there are not editing errors written into it) is awkwardly stilted now and then, even for someone trying very hard to elevate his language. It was a major distraction that kept pulling me out of the story, particularly when the teenage girls, by contrast, constantly used every quaint Southern idiom known to the English.

While Im griping, in the story's first section, we find the mama half passed out drunk from Cure-All with her hair spilled across her pillow like honey. Four chapters later, when some stranger spies her in all of her beauty, the daughter remarks on the gorgeous gloss of her mother's shining black hair. Honey or black? Pick a color.

Okay, so maybe the copy editor was drinking a lil Cure-All him- or herself and missed these boo-boos. But Im not ready to let the cliches slide.

The drunken, lazy, teeth-missing, wife-beating, daughter-groping, black-besmirching, gay-taunting, fish-dynamiting, redneck daddy might seem a bit of a stereotype as we meet him in the very first chapter. I regularly judge a story by how well developed the villains are, but I just rolled my eyes and rolled along. He and two other bad guys unfortunately were total cartoons...he starts his role like this:

Redneck Daddy is using big ole tow-sacks of green walnuts to poison fish in a slow turn of the Sabine River (catching dinner with a hook and pole takes too long). He is making his daughter and her "sissy" bestie haul out the half-dead fish along with the big heavy bags of walnuts, as they can be used again downriver to kill some more.

They have some trouble hauling in their lines, and a dead classmate of the teenagers is reeled in, all bloated and hogtied with wire. She has further been weighed down by a sewing machine. Obviously, someone took great pains to hide her body.

But because these people are rednecks from East Texas, we are led to believe that nobody cares whether a killer may be on the loose. Redneck Daddy and his brother want to just push her back in after retrieving their walnuts, but the kids object. The men are too busy gathering the dead fish and drinking to even ride the kids into town to contact the sheriff, so the boy is forced to walk all the way in to get law-enforcement out there. The sheriff asks immediately - how come y'all didn't just push her back in? Yeah - so believable. Without so much as contacting the dead girls wastrel of a father, she is thrown into a pauper's grave.

Other stuff ensues such that the kids and mama end up on the run. Traveling down the Sabine River, they encounter strangers who each has a story to tell. I mean - their entire life stories. Like, 10 minutes after knowing them. We get - hey, nice to meet ya, lemme explain how we lived through the dust bowl and went off to pick oranges in Cali and rode boxcars to get here (insert The Grapes of Wrath summary here). Or how my daddy owned slaves and bought me a lil colored girl to play with and Imma shoot you dead if you dont chop me some wood.

There are eight dead bodies by the end of the story, but law-enforcement has no interest in investigating any of these deaths. Add to the clunky plotline numerous repeated gross descriptions of axe attacks, the disinterment of bodies (with parts falling off and out of), pus filled infections that squirt you in the face when lanced, eyeballs removed with a spoon, amputations, disembowelments, and you might find a poor imitation of a young Quentin Tarantino.

Shadowing this whole adventure on the lam is a mysterious, mentally deranged assassin who smells so bad he is called Skunk, and gosh-golly. This guy is like the Terminator. Shoot him, stab him, whatever - but he'll be baaaaack.

The initial and final straw - that bugged me for the entirety of the novel - was that there are aspects to the story (published in 2012) that seemed like a plot-line rip off of Mark Childress' Crazy in Alabama- a southern book that I adored and was written in 1993.

At any rate, because I had heard such great things about this author's work, this was a pretty big disappointment. Thanks for having a seat and letting me say nothing nice.

[Melki · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Mama, if you had a friend got drowned, and you found her body, and she always wanted to go to Hollywood to be a movie star, would it be wrong to dig her up after she was buried, burn her to ashes, take them down to Gladewater in a jar, catch a bus, and take her out to Hollywood?"

Yeah...strange as that sounds, the above paragraph is, in a nutshell, the plot of this book.

Poor May Lynn! An East Texas girl with only one dress to wear, she had big dreams of being a star, but she ended up dead in the muddy river, her body weighted down by a Singer sewing machine.
Now her three friends will risk just about everything to get her to that promised land known as California. They'll face cretins, snakes, whirlpools and a legendary monster who may just be real after all.

If this book were the first novel by a brand new author, I think critics would be hailing it as a great effort by a promising talent. Since this is Lansdale, however, expectations are higher, and this is certainly not his best work. BUT, there is much to like here. It's a fun adventure with great suspense and I was never completely sure what would happen next. Though I went "Ewwww!" several times, there were some surprisingly sweet moments as well. Plus, I loved that sassy, smart-ass named Jinx.

This is not a fantastic book, but it's a pleasant and entertaining enough way to spend a few hours on a muggy summer afternoon.

[Gianfranco Mancini · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mia nonna, quella vecchiaccia malefica che per fortuna è morta, sosteneva che papà avesse quella che lei chiamava la «Vista», che possedesse delle doti soprannaturali tali da fargli vedere nel futuro, o qualcosa del genere.
Per come la vedo io, fosse stato vero, ci avrebbe pensato due volte prima di maneggiare la dinamite da sbronzo e rimetterci due dita.

Sue Ellen è una sedicenne che vive col brutale e ambiguo padre Don e la madre Helen, quest'ultima dipendente da un medicinale che la rende apatica ma che le consente di sopportare violenza e degrado familiare.

La cosa che m'infastidiva era che mamma credeva di meritarsele, le botte. Era convinta che fosse l'uomo a comandare e che a lui spettasse sempre l'ultima parola. Stava scritto nella Bibbia, secondo lei. Non era servito altro, per farmi smettere subito di leggerla.

La giovane Sue Ellen ed i suoi amici, l'effeminato Terry Thomas e la linguacciuta nera Jinx Smith, sapevano da sempre che May Lynn desiderava diventare una stella del cinema.
Per questo motivo, dopo che la ragazza viene trovata annegata nel fiume con una pesante macchina per cucire legata alle caviglie, decidono di dissotterrare il corpo, bruciarlo, e portarne le ceneri ad Hollywood.

Mio padre tentò di convincermi a sedere vicino a lui, al caldo, ma io rimasi dov'ero. Gli piaceva allungare le mani, nei posti bui, e questo mi faceva sentire strana e a disagio.
Secondo lui i padri lo facevano, con le figlie. Jinx mi aveva detto che non era vero, ma non ci voleva certo lei a spiegarmelo, dentro di me sapevo bene che era una cosa brutta.

Se May Lynn non potrà mai più diventare una star, che almeno i suoi resti vengano sparsi per la terra dei suoi sogni.

- Non sono una bambina, - risposi, abbassando la testa e strizzando gli occhi per difendermi dalla luce. - Ho sedici anni.
- Ah, be', - disse l'agente, muovendo il raggio di luce fin sui miei piedi. - Non sei piú quella che mi ricordavo, lo vedo bene.
Non saprei spiegarlo, ma quella luce che mi percorreva dall' alto in basso non era molto diversa da una lingua calda e gialla, e mi venne quasi da vomitare.

Questo Acqua Buia di Joe R. Lansdale è un avvincente racconto di formazione ambientato in Texas, durante il periodo della grande depressione lungo il fiume Sabine, con protagonisti tre giovani e le loro sconvolgenti avventure, in una splendida storia dove amicizia, povertà, razzismo ed orrore, la fanno da padroni.

- Sue Ellen, non è escluso che tu abbia ragione. Dobbiamo andare subito a controllare, potrebbe essere il nostro colpo di fortuna.
- La fortuna o te la cerchi con un piano o ti arriva addosso per caso, - risposi. - E noi abbiamo un piano.

Quasi una rilettura in chiave pulp ed orrorifica delle avventure di Tom Sawyer ed Huckleberry Finn di Mark Twain; non a caso il terribile Skunk che dà la caccia al terzetto di memorabili protagonisti, in fuga verso la dorata California ed alla ricerca di un tesoro nascosto insieme alla madre di Sue Ellen, unitasi al gruppo per sfuggire alle violenze coniugali e da una vita stordita dall'alcool e dalle medicine, non é altro che una sorta di 'Joe l'Indiano' da incubo, una delle più spaventose e spietate carogne di cui abbia mai avuto il piacere di leggere.

Io e Jinx non avevamo fazzoletti e potevamo solo strizzarci la faccia con la mano cercando di pensare a qualcos'altro. Comunque entrammo tutte e due nel buco e tirammo fuori May Lynn. Nel farlo un braccio le si staccò e dovetti tornare fuori a vomitare per la seconda volta. Quando mi calai di nuovo, Jinx stava vomitando nella tomba.

Un gran bel libro che si legge in fretta e tiene incollati fino alla fine, ma nel quale finale e sorprese sono abbastanza prevedibili, ed i cui protagonisti avrebbero necessitato di qualche pagina in più relativa alla loro caratterizzazione.

Mentre pulivamo, con la coda di un occhio controllavo la vecchia e con quella dell'altro guardavo l'ascia e l'accetta. Non che avessi voglia di aggiungere l'omicidio alla lista delle mie attività criminose, ma ancora meno avevo voglia di essere ammazzata, cosa che poteva benissimo rientrare nei piani della vecchia.

A parte questo, una lettura se la merita indiscutibilmente se siete fan del prolifico scrittore texano.

[Trish · Rating 4 out of 5]

Is there a more prolific writer of westerns than Joe Lansdale? Endlessly inventive, Lansdale has both a series featuring Hap & Leonard, and a slew of standalones in which he shares the way even good people can get themselves in a bad way in a world with evil in it.

In this novel, published in 2012 by Mulholland Books, 16-year-old Sue Ellen is narrating. She lives in a small southern town and has two friends her age: a white gay boy named Terry who is reluctant to let anyone know his inclinations, and Jinx, a black girl friend since childhood. Lansdale is so natural in his use of skin color that he can teach us things we never knew we needed to know.

Sue Ellen, Terry, and Jinx discover the town’s beauty, May Lynn, killed and submerged in the river, tied by the ankle with wire attached to a sewing machine. None of the grown men in the town seem to want to pursue the matter, but merely shove the body in a casket and cover up the evidence. We get a bad feeling, but mostly we sense any sixteen-year-olds ought to pack up & leave that place, so when the kids decide that’s what they’re going to do, we’re onboard.

They’re floating, by the way, on a wooden raft, and along the way they pick up more than one who decides to go with them. Seems like practically everyone who knows their plans—to go to Hollywood—wants to go with them, if not the whole way, at least far enough to get out of town. There’s a posse of folks, more than one, following behind, looking for them, so it gets hectic and dangerous and the hangers-on fall off, one by one.

Lansdale always seems to get the tone right, however, and when there is a chance for evil to thrive he makes us question whether or not that’s the way we want things to play out. After all this is kind of a crime novel, kind of a police procedural, kind of a mystery, but it’s got heart…more heart than we’ve come to expect of the genre. I like the way people think and make choices that seem fair and right and good.

Lansdale himself is really kind of a standalone guy. As far as I know there isn’t anyone else doing this kind of crossover writing with lessons on race, human nature, and on right and wrong. It is never sappy, often funny, and always deeply thoughtful. He is not religious: “I got misery enough in my life without adding religion to it,” says a character in one of his later novels. The language he uses is country, and can be extremely descriptive, if not entirely proper: “Expectations is a little like fat birds—it’s better to kill them in case they flew away” or “certain feelings rose to the surface like dead carp.”

The Hap & Leonard series has been made into a TV series starring Michael Kenneth Williams and James Purefoy. It is a rich stew of southern storytelling, darkened by reality but leavened with laughter. I don’t think I need to state how difficult it is to create new characters, new language, and new situations every year (sometimes more than once a year? is it possible?) and hit the bell each time. I’m a fan.

[Bandit · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm really becoming a fan of Lansdale. Starting to think that his Drive In books were just a one off, since all other books I've read by his were excellent. This one reminded me of The Bottoms. Same lyrical quality. Always the same location, and, while I may never develop appreciation for East Texas or see its charms, it certainly makes for a good story setting. This one takes place somewhere in the 1930's and there is something incredibly powerful and honest about the way Lansdale describes the poverty and the living conditions at the time. But the real stars here are the characters, what a wild bunch, such personalities and so sympathetic despite their faults. The writing is absolutely top notch, the man just has a way with words, perfect rhythm, perfect cadence for this southern tale (or is it a southern gothic), not quite sure, but the book alternates between a mystery, a rollicking adventure and a slasher. It's sort of like a dirty south version of a Tolkien quest. Very dirty, OCD twitching south conveyed through some cinematically vivid and realistic descriptions. Lansdale wit and humor really shine here. Great read. Highly recommended.

[Steve Lowe · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great characterization, good plot, took me a bit to really get into it, but once they got moving down the river I was hooked (see what I did there?)

Bonus points for a scene that literally made me jump. This is no hyperbole, and I honestly can't remember the last time I was scared bad enough to flinch while reading a book (14 years old reading the tunnel scene in THE STAND maybe?), but there's a scene toward the end, one paragraph in particular, that made me catch the vapors. It was so bitchin'.

This really is an excellent book, but having just finished Donald Ray Pollock's THE DEVIL ALL THE TIME (which was just nominated for a Shirley Jackson award for best novel), it was hard not to compare the two side by side since they are of similar genres and gothic motifs. No, that's not fair, but it is what it is. And that's a testament to how fucking amazing TDATT is. Read that book, and read this one, too. And then get Tom Piccirilli's The Last Kind Words next month and just revel in the awesomeness.

[Иван Величков · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ще започна с това, че Дан Симънс е писал въведението към книгата. При цялото ми уважение към литературата на г-н Симънс, за пореден път се убеждавам, че не може да пише въведения. Колкото и да хвали произведението на Лансдейл, сравненията с Хък Фин на Твен са пресилени, нереалистични и напълно излишни. В случая създават погрешни очаквания и водят до заблуда и донякъде разочарование. Нито река Сабейн е Мисисипи, нито началото на депресията е колонялната епоха, нито локалния конфликт в „Бряг край мътни води” може да се сравни с голямото приключение на Хъкълбери. Единствено съм съгласен, че езикът на Лансдейл не отстъпва по нищо на този на именития му колега.

Книгата е много добра, но все пак не съм сигурен доколко е подходяща за запознаването на родния читател с титан като Джо Лансдейл. Може би целта отново е била да се подбере нещо с по-умерен тон, но личното ми мнение е, че така се разочароват и хорър феновете, и тези които искат нещо приключенско без изродщини.

Сю Елън е момиче от юга, което няма мечти и перспективи. Когато нейна приятелка е брутално убита, тя решава, заедно с още двама приятели, да изпълни част от мечтата и. Хлапетата тръгват на абсолютно непланирано пътуване към Холивуд, за да разпръснат там праха на Мей Лин. Кураж им дава и една сума откраднати от банка пари, които изравят от пресен гроб. Пари, които доста хора ще търсят и ще им създадат големи проблеми.
Пътуването по реката до най-близкия град притежаващ автобусна спирка се проточва в многоседмична епопея оклепана с болка, смърт, загуба, страх и разбити надежди. По пътя компанията се среща с насилници, корумпирани ченгета, психопати, самотници и други типични за времето и мястото образи. Представени са правдиво и простичко, но влияят изключително силно на въображението.

Лансдейл отново успя да ме изуми как чрез описване на най-лошите страни на хората и природата в южните щати, все пак успява да вмъкне любовта си към и към едните, и към другите между редовете. А безразличието на героите към сексуално и физическо насилие, смърт и осакатявания направо ми скъса сърцето. Също, отново, успява да потопи читателя в онова южняшко спокойно безвремие, в което, ако не са подсказките, няма как да разбереш дали действието се развива в началото или края на 20 век. И естествено, отново се убеждаваме, че няма по-голям кошмар от истинския живот и по-големи чудовища от хората.

[Diane Barnes · Rating 3 out of 5]

3 stars because I kept turning pages to see what would happen, and because the voice of the narrator and her two friends were wonderful (especially Jinx). But there were a lot of inconsistencies in this story and a remarkable dead body count in 300 pages, with law enforcement either part of it or looking the other way out of laziness. A nice entertainment for a warm afternoon on my screened porch, but nothing more.

[Josh · Rating 5 out of 5]

An atmospheric period piece which unearths the diluted humanity of a time where equal stature regardless of gender, race, and sexual preference was unheard of rendering one class above all with the rest left to fight for scraps. The trials and tribulations of the underclass documented within ‘Edge of Dark Water’ are confronting, raw, and powerful. For Sue Ellen, living amongst the perpetual weary dream-like trance of her parental figures who either ignore or pay her too much unwanted attention, life by the Sabine River is hard. Upon discovering the bloated corpse of her friend May Lynn, she embarks on a journey which aims to fulfill May's dream of making it to Hollywood (not as a movie star as she had intended in life but scattered ash in death) and presents an opportunity to see the world for more than her poverty stricken situation.

Lansdale captures the eerily emotionally deep and thought provoking characterisation perpetuated by a horrific myth turned true through the eyes of teenagers Sue Ellen, Jinx, and Terry - friends bonded by circumstance and solidified through death.

A survival horror of sorts underpinned by a Woodrell-like place setting which borrows all the good bits from 'The Bottoms' while adding more urgency and natural hurdles to compound the the trio's plight. 'Edge of Dark Water' is all consuming, mixing multiple elements to form a well rounded novel sure to terrify and keep you guessing. From Skunk, the evil child grown to man and murderer for hire, a murder mystery with a slight touch of the 'whodunit', a coming of age through discovery of self, and family drama rolled into one - 'Edge of Dark Water' is the complete package. 5 stars.

[Cody | CodysBookshelf · Rating 5 out of 5]

Having finished this book, one will know they did not just read a novel — they had an experience.

East Texas, 1933. A teenaged girl’s corpse is found, tied, in a river. After her burial, her three friends decide to exhume and cremate her body and transfer it to Hollywood — the Land of Dreams, especially in 1930s rural America — where their now-deceased friend always dreamt of going. She wanted to be a star.

And that’s only where the story begins.

Out from there unravels a mystifying tale of murder and coming of age. Complicating matters is a nice bundle of cash, and the tough redneck crooks on this group’s tail.

I was not expecting this book to scare me as much as it did. The villain, Skunk, is the stuff of nightmares: he nearly rivals Pennywise the Dancing Clown, for me. I was almost screaming in terror, and had to put the book down a couple times. This one doesn’t seem to be marketed as one of Lansdale’s horror works, but it definitely falls in that camp. Is this thing scary! But it’s full of heart, too. The best combination for a horror novel.

I recommend this to everyone. It’s a bucket of fun, all told by a true master wordsmith.

[Carmine R. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Viaggio per Hollywood

"Scorrevano, lungo il fiume, tutti quei sogni che erano stati sognati su un'acqua buia e senza luna."

Joe Lansdale alla ribalta con un romanzo di formazione, vantante forti venature pulp, ambientato nel Texas della grande depressione.
I punti di riferimento - Mark Twain, Stephen King, John Steinbeck - si individuano tranquillamente e ciò non ridimensiona quella che è una buona lettura d'intrattenimento, che forse paga il fatto di esser sulla falsariga di alcune prove precedenti dello stesso autore texano.
Tra vecchiette con il fucile carico e assassini inarrestabili con il feticismo per le collane di mani umane, la storia si snoda con un impianto classico "on the road" e riesce nel messaggio di orgogliosa emancipazione di chi cerca di smarcarsi dall'inedia di un destino segnato.

[Peter · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the first book that I have read by Joe R. Lansdale. Sue Ellen wants to dig up her friend(May Lynn) body and burn it to ashes. She wants to take May Lynn ashes to Hollywood. Sue Ellen and her friends, need to come of with a solution on how to transport her ashes from Texas to California. There is only one kinda of transportation, which is a raft and the Sabine River. The friends hope to reach the city of Gladewater, there they can buy a bus ticket and be on there way. Nothing is ever that easy! There were many twists and turns along the way.This story takes place in the 1930's, during The Great Depression

[Holly (The GrimDragon) · Rating 5 out of 5]

“I figure when you got right down to it, we weren’t fresh thieves after all, but had had plenty of practice in the cane fields and watermelon patches. Heck, I had started my life of crime sometime back, but had just then realized it. The natural move forward would be to take stolen bank money and spend it on a trip to Hollywood with a dead girl burnt up in a jar.”

Edge of Dark Water is a coming-of-age tale told in the way that so few can. Alongside authors like King, McGuire and McCammon, Champion Joe is in rarified company. Each with their own signature style, yet capturing that essence of nostalgia and carrying the reader deftly through self-discovery. It’s not just a coming-of-age story, but an actual experience.

Taking place in Depression-era East Texas, Edge of Dark Water begins when May Lynn Baxter’s body is pulled from the Sabine River, her ankles tied to a sewing machine. Sue Ellen, her father, uncle and her friend Terry were fishing when they made the shocking discovery. Not wanting to get involved with what is clearly a murder, her father and uncle would rather push the body back and be on with their day. However, Terry and Sue Ellen refuse and what starts out as a murder mystery quickly turns into quite the adventure.

Joined by their friend Jinx and Sue Ellen’s alcoholic mother, the group set out to dig up May Lynn’s body with intentions of burning her, then storing her ashes in a jar and traveling to Hollywood to scatter them, because that is where May Lynn was hoping to one day end up. The elaborate plan is made that much more enticing when they locate a bag of money that was hidden by May Lynn’s dead brother, who just so happened to be a bank robber.

Stealing a raft, they make their way down the river on a journey to California with a hired killer named Skunk tracking their every move.

“I’m sitting here considering on my life of crime and how it could help me buy a lunch for a bus trip.”

Stolen bank money, dug up dead girls, bad guys and a Hollywood trip gone wrong. Huckleberry Finn this is not. Goddamn.

Lansdale effortlessly weaves a spellbinding, bullet-fast narrative with incredible range in Edge of Dark Water. He has this unique ability to create banter out of just about any subject. These characters will be trading quips about deliriously dark subjects and you cannot help but chuckle. Sue Ellen is especially brilliant as the sarcastic, strong-willed protagonist with a quick wit! Sue Ellen may be the central character, but she is who she is in part because of her friends, Terry and Jinx. They are fucking sublime in their own right. I absolutely adored Jinx, Sue Ellen’s black best friend. She has had to endure horrific racism, but it has only strengthened her resolve to become something more than what her options are if she were to remain in the small town she grew up in. Terry has had to face difficulties of his own, coming to terms with the fact that he is gay in a time where it’s seen as evil to be such.

The characterizations here are truly some of the best to ever come from Lansdale, which is high praise indeed! The way he is able to capture a feeling, of evoking a certain vibe? It’s fucking masterful!

Edge of Dark Water contains some of the most atmospheric writing that I’ve ever had the pleasure to read. I was immediately thrown into the setting. Walking through the watermelon patches, chewing on a sugar cane in the blistering heat, sticky like molasses.

Edge of Dark Water is a mashup of genres, navigating between macabre humor, murder mystery and horror. It’s a powerful look at racism, abuse, friendship and facing barriers that try to hold you back.

Lansdale will wrench your insides in a clenched fist.

[Berengaria · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good Lord, can Joe Lansdale write! The images he manages to evoke of the deep South (alright: East Texas) at the start of the Depression are so vivid and majestic, you can smell the rot and feel the snakes slithering over your shoes.

And that's exactly where he's aiming you.

Edge of Dark Water (dt:Dunkle Gewässer) is a mix of a few genres.

1. The traditional "river narrative" that is meant as a metaphor for the course of life itself. "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" being the most well-known of these. In fact, a number of elements and even Sue Ellen's final thoughts at the end are very Twain.

2. Southern Gothic. This genre highlights the decay, the loss, the poverty and antiquated lifestyle of the postbellum South, as well as issues of birth (illegitimacy, birth defects) and insanity. A full round of applause from me there, as Lansdale manages to include ALL of those points!

3. The Southern "supernatural" tale. The American South abounds in legends of wild men and "is it a demon or what?" creatures, from the terrifying whodothey to the humorous jackalope. The character of Skunk in this novel fills that role: a supernatural creature with very natural roots. He's an excellent metaphor for the South itself: a real thing with a strong supernatural aspect to it. (see: decay and insanity)

and then

4. Horror. Which doesn't need any explaining. I'll just say: "arm amputation" and we can all look somewhere else for a few pages.

Lansdale does a remarkable job weaving all of these together into an adventure story that has you turning the pages and jumping onto the raft with Sue Ellen and her friends for a ride through the Southern psyche at the dawn of the 20th century. It may not seem too original or "deep" to non-Southern readers or those unfamiliar with the different plot elements, and the inclusion of black and gay characters might also rub, but that's Lansdale territory and commonly found in his work.

I loved it.

[Suzy · Rating 4 out of 5]

reread review October, 2018
I enjoyed this as much the second time around as the first. I really believe that listening is the way to go with Edge of Dark Water. Angele Masters is true to her name - masterful! This starts out seeming like a straight-forward story about people living in poverty in 1930's depression-era deep east Texas and the quest of three teenagers to get out of town. But it develops to include local swamp folk tales, best told round the campfire. Is Skunk - the ugly stinky evil man who roams the river bottoms - real or a folk legend, someone to be actually feared, or just a story to make your hair stand on end? Will the three teenagers who set out to go to Hollywood in honor of their dead friend make it or will they be done in by their harrowing trip down the Sabine River to get the bus to California? Find out the answers to these and other questions by picking up Lansdale's book - preferably in audio! Recommended!


original review April, 2013
This is my first Joe R. Lansdale book, but won't be my last. Atmospheric, suspenseful, scary, touching. Part coming of age story, part murder mystery, part Steven King-like scary - I loved it! Loved the depression-era East Texas river bottoms setting, loved the teen characters who are at the center, loved the sometimes spine-chilling adventure. Lansdale's writing is awesome. He captures deep East Texas and liberally sprinkles humor throughout a truly suspenseful book. Angele Masters was excellent, really nailing Sue Ellen's perspective and all the voices.

[Kim Kaso · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thoroughly enjoyed this book, the voices of the young people were distinctive, & the phrases they used made me laugh out loud. The pacing was good, many threats to overcome. It slowed a bit while they resided with the pastor, but the arrival of their various pursuers, particularly Skunk, got things moving right along. I cared about Sue Ellen, Jinx, and Terry, and found their irreverent and pragmatic views on life and their relatives quite refreshing. Some thought this was not Lansdale’s best, but even a second tier Lansdale is better than many writers’ best efforts. This was, coincidentally, my second book with young people being pursued down a river within a few days of each other, a weird synchronicity in my reading life. Echoes of Huckleberry Finn and other great Southern novels, but very distinctively Lansdale at the end of the day. A very enjoyable book with appealing characters. I went into it without any real expectations, which works better for me these days, and was happy with my experience. Highly recommended.

[Lukasz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Joe R. Lansdale needs no introduction. He’s a brilliant storyteller with a flair for characterization and plotting. Edge of Dark Water is a compelling coming-of-age story full of adventure and suspense.

Set in East Texas during the Great Depression, it tells the story of a group of friends trying to honor their friend. And to survive. Mae Lyn, the prettiest girl in the county, has always dreamed of going to Hollywood. And maybe she would if someone hadn’t murdered her and thrown her into the river with a Singer sewing machine tied around her ankles. Her three closest friends decide to dig up her body, burn it, and take the ashes to Hollywood.

The three kids discover a cache of hidden money that Mae Lyn’s dead brother stole from a bank. It’s only a thousand dollars, but in those days when even ten dollars was a lot of money, and many people would have killed you for much less. Bad guys want this money as much as our protagonists.

Each of the young protagonists has a reason to run away from home and set out to honor Mae Lynn. Each of them is an outsider: Sue Ellen is basically a tomboy, Jinx is black, and Terry has a reputation for being a “sissy” The story is set in the South, during the Depression - the good ole days were only good for a selected few.

Without going into too much detail, the friends and their companions make their way down the river and some nasty characters follow them. Everyone wants money. Lansdale builds suspense and tension with skill and focuses on building momentum. Twists and reveals come with perfect timing and more than one punch to the gut; They show how fragile life and friendship are.

Edge of Dark Water contains both lighter and darker moments and touches on potentially triggering themes (racism, child abuse, alcohol abuse, prejudice). Above all, though, it’s an arresting tale with fully developed characters, an excellent plot, and palpable suspense. Joe R. Lansdale is a brilliant writer and this book may be one of his best works.

[Gavin Armour · Rating 4 out of 5]

Man hat vielleicht vier Seiten von Joe R. Lansdales DUNKLE GEWÄSSER (EDGE OF DARK WATER; erschienen 2012) gelesen, da ist man so tief in einen Sumpf aus Alkohol, häuslicher Gewalt, Sexismus, Rassismus und Menschenverachtung geraten, daß man für das, was später folgen wird, vollends gewappnet ist. Unter den vielen, vielen düsteren Geschichten, die Lansdale in seinen mittlerweile über vierzig Romanen und Short Story-Sammlungen erzählt hat, darf diese einen der vorderen Plätze für sich beanspruchen. Selten führte Lansdale seine Leser von Beginn an in eine solch düstere und hoffnungslose Welt, wie diese.

Angelegt ist das in Ost-Texas, Lansdales bevorzugtem Hintergrund für seine prosaischen Moritaten, dort, wo Rassismus, Armut und alltägliche, nahezu selbstverständliche Gewalt hart um die Ränge menschlicher Abgründe kämpfen. Irgendwann in den Jahren der Großen Depression wird hier die Leiche von May Lynn aus dem Wasser des Flusses gezogen. Aufgedunsen und den Flußbewohnern offenbar als Festmahl gereicht, wurde sie doch mit einer Nähmaschine derart beschwert, daß sie das Licht der trüben, heißen Tage nicht mehr erblicken sollte, liegt die einstmals so schöne May Lynn nun am Ufer. Dort blickt ihre Freundin Sue Ellen voller Entsetzen auf die Überreste und muß noch entsetzter feststellen, daß weder ihren Vater, der das tote Mädchen geborgen hat, noch ihren Onkel oder den herbeigerufenen Constable Sy, die lokale Polizeiautorität, sonderliches Interesse dafür aufbringen, wer für den Tod von May Lynn verantwortlich sein könnte. Und so beschließen Sue Ellen, die uns die Geschichte dessen, was in der Folge passieren sollte, erzählt, und ihre Freunde Terry und Jinx, die Asche von May Lynn dorthin zu bringen, wo die Verstorbene immer hinwollte, an den Ort all ihrer Sehnsucht: Hollywood im weit, weit entfernten Kalifornien.

Lansdale berichtet nun von dem Fluchtversuch dieser drei, wie kurzerhand Sue Ellens Mutter die Gelegenheit ergreift, um endlich ihr Leben zu ändern und sich anschließt, und wie die kleine Truppe versucht, auf einem Floß bis in die nächstgrößere Stadt zu gelangen, um von dort mit dem Bus gen Westen aufzubrechen. Dabei konfrontiert er den Leser mit einer solchen Ansammlung von Unwahrscheinlichkeiten und grausigen Details – May Lynn wird von ihren Freunden ausgebuddelt und verbrannt, weil sie als Asche natürlich leichter und unauffälliger zu transportieren ist, eine Menge Geld aus einem Raubüberfall spielt eine Rolle und der nahezu mythisch anmutende Killer Skunk heftet sich an ihre Fersen; außerdem machen die Vier die Bekanntschaft einer Menge seltsamer und seltsamerer Leute und der Tod ist immer in ihrer Nähe, lauert scheinbar nur darauf, auch sie mitzunehmen auf seine lange Reise – daß der Leser bald nicht mehr weiß, wo ihm der Kopf, wo der Magen steht.

Lansdales Tempo ist rasant, das ist man von ihm gewohnt, er lässt nichts aus und bietet hier eine moderne und grausige Version von Huckleberry Finns Reise auf dem Mississippi mit seinem Kumpel Jim. Und wie Huck sich einst als Mädchen verkleidete, um an Informationen zu gelangen, streift sich Lansdale die Ich-Erzählerin Sue Ellen über, um aus der Sicht einer Frau von all dem zu berichten, was er zu berichten hat. Und das ist – auch das ist man von Lansdales besseren und besten Erzählungen gewohnt – weitaus mehr, als pure Gewalt und unwahrscheinliche Begebenheiten, also schlichte, triviale Genreliteratur. Denn es gelingt dem Autor immer wieder, lyrische Passagen einzustreuen, in denen in recht profanen Worten sehr tiefe Gefühle wie Freundschaft oder auch die Liebe heraufbeschworen werden, aber eben auch solche, in denen, wie nebenbei, ohne darum sonderlich dramatisches Getue darum zu machen, von den extrem harten Lebensbedingungen vor allem jener berichtet wird, die an diesen Orten in Ost-Texas nicht männlich oder weiß sind. Besser: Männlich und weiß.

Die Gewalt und der Hass, die immer die Grundierung von Lansdales Geschichten sind, scheinen hier so alltäglich, daß die Ungeheuerlichkeiten, die in den spezifischen Erzählungen berichtet werden, keineswegs übertrieben wirken. Genau darin besteht Lansdales Kunst: Er entwirft sehr genau Panoramen der sozialen Bedingungen, des Umfelds, der Gesellschaft, in denen seine Protagonisten leben und in denen sie sich zurechtfinden müssen. Diese Menschen, vor allem, wenn sie weiblichen Geschlechts sind, schlimmer: weiblich und schwarz, wie Sue Ellens Freundin Jinx, oder – ganz schlimm – möglicherweise homosexuell, wie Terry, müssen sich in einer ihnen grundlegend feindselig gesinnten Umgebung behaupten. Nicht nur daheim gegen saufende und dann prügelnde Väter und Ehemänner, die sie meist viel zu früh heiraten, sondern auch gegen Gerüchte und Verleumdungen, gegen eine Staatsmacht, die in diesen gottverlassenen Gegenden fast ausschließlich durch die Polizei, bestenfalls noch den Friedensrichter, der meist ein Schwager oder Vetter des lokalen Sheriffs ist, repräsentiert wird und die in der Auslegung der Gesetze sehr eigenwillige Maßstäbe an den Tag legt. Hier bedeutet das Leben eines Menschen, letztlich auch das eines weißen Mädchens von vielleicht siebzehn Jahren, nicht viel, erst recht nicht, wenn er oder sie einen Ruf hat. Beispielsweise den Ruf einer ‚Schlampe‘ oder eines ‚Taugenichts‘ oder den einer ‚Schwuchtel‘. In solchen Fällen wird gern einmal überlegt, ob man die gefundene Leiche nicht einfach wieder dahin zurückpacken soll, wo man sie gefunden hat. Soll sich halt ein anderer drum kümmern. Wen kümmert´s?

Geprägt durch diese Alltagsgewalt und den überall herrschenden Rassismus, geprägt durch Armut und den früh im Leben schon begonnenen Kampf um so ziemlich alles, was das Leben lebenswert macht, wirkt das, was diese Figuren dann im Lauf eines Plots, wie er hier vorliegt, kaum mehr außerordentlich auf sie. Es sind letztlich nur die verschärften Bedingungen, unter denen man so oder so sein Dasein fristet.

Lansdale ist ein moderner Noir-Autor, seine direkten Vorfahren waren solche Meister des Düsteren wie Jim Thompson oder James M. Cain. Anders als sein entfernter schriftstellerischer Verwandter James Ellroy, wird Lansdale allerdings nie zynisch. Man darf das, was er erzählt, nicht mit seiner Haltung verwechseln. Die Welt aus der er erzählt mag eine zynische sein, eine rohe und raue, aber der Autor berichtet immer von Menschen, die sich allergrößte Mühe geben, sich diesen Widrigkeiten nicht hinzugeben, sich zu widersetzen, ihre Menschlichkeit zu bewahren und füreinander einzustehen. Deshalb sind Lansdales Geschichten oftmals auch große Freundschaftsepen. Er macht seine Figuren aber auch nicht besser als sie sind. Gerade in DUNKLE GEWÄSSER gelingt das exemplarisch – niemand hier, auch nicht die Erzählerin Sue Ellen, ist frei von Egoismen, keiner hier hat keine Fehler begangen. Und manche tragen Schuld mit sich. Und Lansdale gelingt es auf bewundernswerte Weise, diesen Menschen eine Sprache zu geben, die ihnen angemessen ist, die sie weder überhöht, noch entfremdet. Hier reden einfache, oft auch ungebildete Menschen miteinander und nutzen dabei eine einfache Sprache, in der sie gelegentlich sehr komplizierte Dinge, solche Dinge wie Gefühle bspw., auszudrücken versuchen. Und diese Versuche muten manchmal naiv oder oberflächlich, manchmal unbeholfen und verstockt an, aber Lansdale versteht es, uns die Träger dieser Sprache so zu charakterisieren, daß wir immer verstehen, weshalb sie so reden und nicht anders.

Einmal mehr verstecken sich in dieser scheinbar so trivialen Genreliteratur große Geschichten und tiefere Weisheiten, die uns von der Conditio humana künden. Wie so oft in der amerikanischen Literatur, liegt das Große im Kleinen, im Genre, in den genauen Beobachtungen der Alltagskultur, versteckt zwischen wilden Stories, manchmal lustigen Begebenheiten und in einem schnellen und actionreichen Plot. Lansdale ist in der Gegenwartsliteratur einer der Meister dieses Fachs.

[Amos · Rating 5 out of 5]

Yet ANOTHER home run by Mr Lansdale, an author only discovered by moi recently who has firmly landed in my top ten all-time, and is quickly gaining on the few top spots above him. We have heartbreak, murder, hope, TENSION, adventure, blood, terror and fantastic dialog from scene-stealing characters all wrapped up in a wonderfully crazy, yet realistic (sorta), coming of age story (sorta). Hands-down, I straight up loved this one!

5 Serpentine Stars

[Janelle Janson · Rating 5 out of 5]

SO SO GOOD

[Maddy · Rating 5 out of 5]

PROTAGONIST: Sue Ellen Wilson
SETTING: Depression era East Texas
SERIES: Standalone
RATING: 5.0

Have you ever finished reading a book and found yourself having to fall back in your chair and take a deep breath while you marvel at its wonderfulness? That’s what happened to me when I read EDGE OF DARK WATER; moreover, I felt that somehow it had become part of my very being. I was amazed to find myself loving EDGE so much. It’s been a few years since I’ve had that experience; I feared that I had become a cynical and critical reader and was very happy to be proved wrong.

Sue Ellen Wilson is a 16 year old whose family life is quite dysfunctional. Her mother spends most of her time in bed, as she is addicted to a potion called a “cure all”. Her stepdaddy is a drunk who regularly beats her mother. Sue Ellen has to lock and barricade her bedroom door to resist his advances. She has two best friends—Jinx, who is a feisty black girl, and Terry, a well-spoken “sissy” (gay) boy. When one of their acquaintances, May Lynn, is murdered, they decide that they will fulfill one of her dreams by cremating her and taking her ashes to Hollywood. They plan to travel by raft to a nearby town and take the bus from there, thereby eluding their kin, who are intent on taking some money that had been buried by May Lynn’s dead brother and found by our intrepid trio. Getting away from their unhappy living circumstances is a nice side benefit.

Sue Ellen’s mother unexpectedly joins the group. Their journey is fraught with adventure. The worst trouble is not from the miserable lot of husbands, fathers and uncles searching for them. Their greatest danger comes from a legendary woods creature named “Skunk”. They are uncertain whether he really exists; supposedly, he enjoys torturing his victims and chops off their hands as keepsakes.

Joe Lansdale is a master story teller. Usually I prefer a straightforward narrative and don’t have much patience for digressions. That wasn’t the case for EDGE; I found each of them to be interesting in its own right, whether an accounting of the Oklahoma dust storms by a homeless family or the sad story of Skunk. This book reminded me quite a bit of two of Lansdale’s other standalones, THE BOTTOMS and A FINE DARK LINE. Each of these books was set in Depression-era East Texas, and each was narrated by a young person. The dialogue was pitch perfect, and the characters wonderfully drawn.

EDGE OF DARK WATER is the rare book that I have given an A+ rating to. I know that it is not a flawless work, but I didn’t care about that at all. It met all my criteria for a great read, and it won’t be a book that I forget. Now I can only hope to have this experience again before a few more years pass!

[Stephanie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not the best Lansdale has to offer but still good.

"Edge of Dark Water" is the story of three friends who embark on a journey down the Sabine River in east Texas. Their reason for going is ostensibly to take the ashes of their dead friend, May Lynn, to Hollywood because she always aspired to be an actress and make it big in Hollywood. The underlying reason for their trip is to escape the confines of their lives, and each of the three suffers in different ways. Sue Ellen is the narrator of the story and she is trying to escape from a drunk and too-grabby father and her "cure-all" addicted mother. Terry is a handsome young man who is trapped in a home with his new step-father and all his new younger siblings. Terry also struggles with his sexuality and is trying to come to terms with being a "sissy". Jinx is a feisty black teenager who is best friends with Sue Ellen and Terry. This story is set in the Depression era and in deep east Texas which was not a good time to be an outspoken young woman, especially one of color. Jinx longs for any opportunity that will get her out of east Texas. Taking May Lynn to Hollywood may be their only shot at escape.

This book was very atmospheric and conveyed all the beauty and danger of life along the bayous and rivers of Texas and Louisiana. I had hoped for more as far as the story itself went but we get no further than Gladewater and I was left wondering what happened after they got on that bus. So many things happened and so little was resolved, in my opinion. I enjoyed the book and the last half was very good.

[William Thomas · Rating 3 out of 5]

There is no truer American experience than the Southern American experience. And for all of those who have captured it with a clarity, depth and brilliance- Harper Lee, Truman Capote, Mark Twain, Flannery O'Connor- thank you, for that. Joe R Lansdale, this book doesn't put you on that list no matter how many nods and winks to those authors you make.

I had to really restrain myself from giving this fewer stars. I kept reminding myself that it wasn't his fault that almost every reviewer was misquoting Dan Simmons review of this book in regard to it being likened to Huck Finn. It isn't Huck, ain't a damn sight close, neither.

The story lacks any kind of depth and suffers from ridiculously weak characterization. Lansdale instead swaps out those things for a complete and total understanding and use of Southern vernacular and a lax, conversational tone. Those things are its saving graces and laid out in this book masterfully. Really, those are the only things the book has going for it, and about half way through, even that wears thin because you'll be rolling your eyes at every over the top simile something the likes of 'he was ornery as a cat after a bath'.

Once you get past the initial charm of the book, there just ain't much else there to keep you reading. It becomes quickly apparent that Lansdale has a very weak or vague understanding of his secondary characters and knows next to nothing about writing from the vantage of a 16 year old girl (no matter the period or setting).

I don't really think he took this book very seriously, to be honest and its a might disappointing for that. The fact that everyone else is head over heels for it makes me wonder just exactly how much power and influence those little review blurbs on the covers of books really have. How much sway they hold over a reader while they read. Because I see it more and more, just a regurgitating of those blurbs or a blind agreement.

Give it a whirl. I loved it for the things it did right. I hated it more for the comparisons everyone else was making. Just because there's a river and a raft doesn't mean the damn book is a modern day Huck Finn. Thinking that is just a might foolish.

[Marvin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Joe Lansdale seems to be in a rut lately. Fortunately it is a good rut. His last two books, not counting the brief Hap and Leonard novellas, featured children on the run. All the Earth, Thrown to the Sky is considered YA and so is, I believe, Edge of Dark Water. But it's pretty rough and unusual YA if it is that.

He also seems to be channeling Mark Twain. This novel has a lot of similarities to Huckleberry Finn right down to the raft and various racial issues. The novel takes place in East Texas in the Great Depression. Lansdale always had a feeling for this period and he catches the time and place perfectly.

This is definitely in the top ten of Lansdale's novel yet I removed a star due to the sameness of it when compared to the formerly mentioned book and other great Lansdale novels like The Bottoms.