Helpful Score: 5
I really enjoyed this book-it was a good match for Tabitha King to finish writing the book for Michael McDowell. It is the story of a young girl, her strange and aloof mother, her father's grisly murder by strangers, and the rest of her weird, troubled family. Part ghost story and part survival story of a young child who has to face adult issues far too early in her short life.
Helpful Score: 4
I liked the "Southern-ness" of this novel. The language, the slang, the places were all dead on. The main character is an absolute delight! However, the story had so much potential that was left untapped. It had supernatural overtones, but not enough was done with those either.
Helpful Score: 4
Excellent and odd....about a young girl and her eccentric mother and their family history.
Helpful Score: 3
Having grown up in the Pensacola area, I found this an interesting read. Story line pulls the reader in from the beginning and doesn't slow down. I have enjoyed all of Michael McDowell books and was glad that Tabitha King had decided to finish this book.....
Helpful Score: 2
this was a really good read. kind of a murder mystery/ghost story. enjoyable and engrossing. there were a few places where the story seemed to drag, but otherwise it was an easy read.
Helpful Score: 2
i picked this up at the supermarket on a clearance sale shelf. i was so surprised when i started reading. you are immediately drawn right into the story with the setting and the characters. i love southern mysteries and i had never read anything by either of these authors. i was immediately hooked and couldn't put it down. it was a great find!
Helpful Score: 1
Intriguing start, slow (bordering on boring) middle, solid ending. I would recommend and would read a sequel.
Helpful Score: 1
Candles Burning started as an engrossing, gothic can't turn the page mystery with supernatural overtones, but unfortunately the ending fell flat. It seemed to change gears halfway through - possibly where authorship changed - and the solution to the mystery was just not satisfying.
Helpful Score: 1
What an unexpectedly terrific read this is! As one reviewer said, it moves at a hypnotic pace, and that perfectly describes this page-turner ... it is quiet but insidious, smart, spooky, and delightful! Definitely recommended!
Interesting tale built on characters you're made to care about,surprising and satisfying.
This one is scary, really spooky--and only after you've finished it and thought for a bit do you realize quite how very scary it is. The story sneaks up on you somehow. The posthumous collaboration is seamless; the two voices weave a spell together and just drag the reader right under, into the dark . . .
From back cover: Known for his chilliing Blackwater series, author Michael McDowell left behind the unfinished manuscript for CANDLES BURNING upon his death in 1999. In the spirit of the ghost stories that Michael loved, Tabitha King has taken up where he left off . . .
Calliope 'Calley' Dakin is no normal little girl. She hears things that maybe a little girl shouldn't hear--and knows things a little girl should never know.
Just seven when her beloved father is tortured, murdered, and dismembered by two women with no discernable motivation, Calley and her mother find themselves caught up in inexplicable events that exile them to Pensacola Beach. There--in a house that's a dead ringer for Calley's late great-grandmother's house--another woman awaits their presence. A woman who understands what Calley is but has no idea just how strong her bond is with her father, even after death...
From back cover: Known for his chilliing Blackwater series, author Michael McDowell left behind the unfinished manuscript for CANDLES BURNING upon his death in 1999. In the spirit of the ghost stories that Michael loved, Tabitha King has taken up where he left off . . .
Calliope 'Calley' Dakin is no normal little girl. She hears things that maybe a little girl shouldn't hear--and knows things a little girl should never know.
Just seven when her beloved father is tortured, murdered, and dismembered by two women with no discernable motivation, Calley and her mother find themselves caught up in inexplicable events that exile them to Pensacola Beach. There--in a house that's a dead ringer for Calley's late great-grandmother's house--another woman awaits their presence. A woman who understands what Calley is but has no idea just how strong her bond is with her father, even after death...
Intriguing, lovely, evocative book.
Excellent book - lots of mystery; spiritual illusions - good descriptions of life in the south and particularly on the beach in the panhandle in the 50's & 60's...
Tabitha King, in my opinion, is as good as her husband. In fact, I enjoy her books even more, but she is not nearly as prolific as Stephen. Engrossing read.
This is a chilling backwater series, ghost story, about a little girl who hears things a little girl maybe shouldn't hear, and knows things she shouldn't know. wonderfully written and very hard to put down. I actually have two copies. This beautiful one to share and one to keep for myself, as i will be wanting to reread this agian. I loved this book.
This is a novel started my Michael McDowell and upon his death, finished by Tabitha King, who is married to Stephen King. From the back cover..."Calliope "Calley" Dakin is no normal little girl. She hears things that maybe a little girl shouldn't hear - and knows things a little girl should never know. Just seven when her beloved father is tortured, murdered , and dismembered by two women with no discernable motivation, Calley and her mother find themselves caught up in the inexplicable events that exile them to Pensacola Beach. There - in a house that 's a dead ringer for Calley's late great grandmother's house - another woman awaits their presence. A woman who understands what Calley is, but has no idea just how strong her bond is with her father - even after death..."
