Not Flesh Nor Feathers, by Cherie Priest

Not Flesh Nor Feathers
Cherie Priest
Tor: 2007


With her third and presumably final Eden Moore offering, Cherie Priest says goodbye to Chattanooga. Not Flesh Nor Feathers opens with two children escaping from a flood in Chattanooga. While they are trapped in the attic of the old armory they hear sounds of...things...below them, something trying to get out. They survive, of course, and grow up to be Eden’s mother and aunt, but the memory remains and informs the rest of Not Flesh Nor Feathers.

This is important, the memory of the things that came out of the water decades prior.

As a reminder, Eden Moore can communicate with ghosts. She’s had a couple of previous ghost related adventures which were detailed in Four and Twenty Blackbirds and Wings to the Kingdom (two excellent novels, I might add). Now, in her mid 20’s, Eden is ready to move out of her aunt’s house and into an apartment of her own. The place she has chosen is down by the river. Lu, her aunt, is adamant that Eden not move there because the river might flood. Lu doesn’t explain her true fear, though, about the things that came out of the water from the last flood. Eden is warned by one of the town crazies that the new construction has stirred something that shouldn’t be disturbed, and that some of the transients have disappeared. Nick, a reporter we first met in Wings to the Kingdom, asks Eden to come with him to the Read House because of increased activity by legendary local ghost, the White Lady.

Things have begun, the rains are about to come, and the Tennessee River will rise.

Unlike Four and Twenty Blackbirds or Wings to the Kingdom, Cherie Priest has made Chattanooga downright scary this time out. Most of the action of Not Flesh Nor Feathers takes place during the flooding of the Tennessee River. Using the word “Flooding” does not entirely capture how high the river rises, how much of Chattanooga is covered, and just how frightening Chattanooga becomes. Priest does an outstanding job with description in this novel, with the fear of the ghosts, with the fear of the residents, with the fear of what comes out from the water, what the construction and the flooding has disturbed. Cherie Priest blends local history with a nearly iconic use of setting that makes the Chattanooga so real we can smell it, we can taste the river and the fear.

Not Flesh Nor Feathers reads as if Priest is saying goodbye. During the writing of the novel Priest moved from Tennessee to Oregon, but the combination of the flood and the destruction caused by the flood and just how Eden Moore speaks about the city in the novel really get the point across that this is goodbye. Not Flesh Nor Feathers closes the trilogy on Eden Moore, though as a reader who has been captivated by Eden Moore and Chattanooga, I hope that Priest decides to revisit Eden, if not Chattanooga.

I suspect this is why writers work in series (even loose series of related novels), because the readers fall so much in love with the characters and the setting that they are willing to buy more and more of these books. Creatively Cherie Priest may need to step away from Eden Moore, and if so, Not Flesh Nor Feathers was a perfect way to close the door on Eden and Tennessee.

Oh. Did I mention the exploding zombies? Not Flesh Nor Feathers has zombies, folks! How much better can this get?


Previous Reviews:
Four and Twenty Blackbirds
Wings to the Kingdom

Not Flesh Nor Feathers: Chapter One

I have Not Flesh Nor Feathers checked out from the library. Here is Chapter One of Cherie Priest's third Eden Moore novel.

Wings to the Kingdom, by Cherie Priest

Wings to the Kingdom
Cherie Priest
Tor: 2006

In Cherie Priest’s debut novel Four and Twenty Blackbirds Eden Moore encountered and confronted the ghosts of her past. Literally. Eden is one of a gifted few who can see ghosts. Eden wishes to keep a low profile, but word gets outs and things happen (as things generally do). Eden lives in Chattanooga and there are urban legends about a local Civil War battlefield, not about regular ghosts but about some sort of guardian known as Green Eyes.

Where there were once only rumors and legends of Green Eyes on the Chickamauga battlefield visitors are now seeing ghosts and they point off in the distance to something nobody can see. The city of Chattanooga has brought in two celebrity paranormal investigators to get to the bottom of the ghost sightings, but some people wish Eden to get involved.

There are ties to the family issues from Four and Twenty, but Wings to the Kingdom is a much less personal story for Eden but rather one where she just wants to know what is going on at Chickamauga and about Green Eyes.

There may be some carry-over from Four and Twenty Blackbirds, but Cherie Priest has done another excellent job in creating for her readers a sense of Chattanooga. Because the location is so vivid, and the battlefield so fog covered eerie, Wings to the Kingdom carries atmosphere into the actual narrative. Cherie Priest builds the mystery of why the ghosts are appearing at the Chickamauga battlefield, the threats to citizens visiting the park (or sneaking into the park), Eden’s reluctance to get involved in something and raise her public profile, Eden’s family relationships, the mystery and legend of Green Eyes, and other paranormal investigators. Priest wraps everything together, though not in a neat little package where everything is explained and resolved. The result is a novel improved over her debut. Wings to the Kingdom is better than the already excellent Four and Twenty Blackbirds and should pretty well cement Cherie Priest’s status as an author to watch.

Four and Twenty Blackbirds, by Cherie Priest

Four and Twenty Blackbirds
Cherie Priest
Tor: 2005



First off we will heap praise on the beautiful cover art for Four and Twenty Blackbirds. Heap. Heap. Now, about the book. Cherie Priest starts off her debut novel with a young girl in her first years of elementary school. Eden has to free draw something and as she explains to the teacher, the three grey figures are ghosts. Skip forward a few years and a few years again. The opening chapters of Four and Twenty Blackbirds give background on Eden, about what she sees, and about what other people know or suspect about her. About the young boy who tried to kill her, thinking she was somebody long dead. Skip forward a few more years when Eden is an adult but still living with her aunt in Chattanooga. This is when the main thrust of the story begins, though everything that came before is essential to who Eden is and what this is about. Eden Moore can see ghosts, her cousin believes that she is the reincarnation of some evil ancestor, the ghosts can see Eden, and Four and Twenty Blackbirds weaves family history, southern traditions, ghosts, horror, genealogy, a young woman discovering who she is, and people trying to keep things hidden so the hurt can’t get out. In short, Four and Twenty Blackbirds is one impressive debut.

Cherie Priest takes us from the mountains of eastern Tennessee to the swamps of Florida, with a stop in Georgia for good measure. These are locations, places that Priest brings to life. Through her description the city of Chattanooga becomes a real place and more than a dot on a map or a name on a sign. There is a sense of history and connection to the region. Having driven past Chattanooga to get to I-75 I recognized some of the names of the mountains and historic attractions, but Priest makes them sing. Somehow Cherie Priest also made the ghostly / supernatural aspect feel natural, though more than a little creepy. Eden’s fear and unease jumps off the page and lodges in the middle of the reader’s chest. Details are revealed in their own time, in a manner that perfectly fits the story. Four and Twenty Blackbirds lets the story spin out like a hot southern night. Slow and easy, but at a pace that works.

It is not until the near the conclusion of the novel that Four and Twenty hits anything that might be construed as a wrong note. When the big confrontation occurs things get a bit confused. What, exactly, is happening? How? Why? I felt disjointed in those last chapters. The actual events make sense in terms of Eden’s actions and what she experienced, but in terms of story the conclusion confused.

With that said, the whole of Four and Twenty Blackbirds was a beautiful, haunting (literally) novel that gave a definite sense of place and a strong lead character in Eden Moore. This is the sort of ghost story I want to read more of. Good thing there are two more Eden Moore novels.

Time to go find the next volume at the library.

Well worth my time, and yours.