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A review by cainincarnate
Gone to See the River Man by Kristopher Triana
challenging
dark
tense
fast-paced
1.5
a lot of thoughts about this book so long review incoming.
i guess i’ll start with what i liked. i feel like, a lot of times in horror in general but especially more extreme horror, disturbing topics get thrown around for shock value with no respect to the people who’ve actually lived through these things. very slight, non-specific spoilers, buti do think the subject of incestuous sexual abuse was handled well, and you’re very clearly shown just how mentally damaging it is to the victim. it’s extremely brutal and gut-wrenching to read, which it should be. i don’t think it was used just for shock value at all, which i appreciated, as disturbing as it was to read.
i’ve never really hated a protagonist like i hated lori. she starts off unlikable and annoying and then just becomes downright evil as the story unfolds. yet this never really took away from the reading experience for me, it actually added to it, which can be hard to pull off.
normally i don’t really like point of view switches, but it flowed well in this book. i also enjoyed the timeline jumping around a little bit and the inclusion of the letters between lori and edmund. overall i thought the plot flowed nicely. i also appreciated the writing style, there were some really beautiful descriptions in this book, especially when it came to nature.
i also love the southern gothic plot in general, as well as the whole vibe of the river man and the almost cosmic horror direction the story took with him. i think the supernatural elements of the story were really fun.
what i didn’t like, firstly, was the way the only black character in the story was written. i’m not black so take what i say with a grain of salt, but his dialogue just felt extremely unrealistic, bordering on almost caricature-ish. he was also just the whole “magical black man” trope guiding the main character with his superstitious, folky wisdom. he exists only to help abby and lori (spoiler)and then dies. other people, especially black people, have talked about this trope better than i ever could so i just recommend looking it up and reading about it.
there’s also racism against asian people in this book, especially asian women, which felt unnecessary. i get it’s extreme horror and we’re diving into taboo topics and the worst of humanity, but i was uncomfortable when slurs against asian people were dropped, like, at least five times in two pages. and i get that he’s not a good person at all (to put it extremely lightly), but the fetishism of asian women on edmund’s part just felt weird to read. and the treatment of the asian character niko just felt off to me. i’m not asian either so i’m probably not the best at explaining it, but i figured i’d warn about it regardless. i just don’t see why it was necessary to make the majority of the serial killer’s victims asian, and then give him a backstory as to why.
i also didn’t like how abby’s disability was portrayed as a punishment to lori. i get that lori is an extremely unreliable, selfish narrator, but it did feel like abby was treated more like lori’s burden and ever-present reminder of guilt instead of a human being. i wish she was a bit more fleshed out as a character and had some more of her own narrative moments, i think this would have balanced lori’s selfishness and abby’s humanity. also the sudden r-slur drop in her monologue at one point was very unnecessary. i get that we can explore dark topics without condoning them, ableism included. i also just think we have responsibility as writers when we take on these topics and we have to be conscious of the message we’re sending about disabled people.
then the parts where lori starts calling edmund her king and saying she should bow to him. i think it would have been interesting to explore her descent into obsessive love for him if it was drawn out more, but it comes out of absolutely nowhere. she goes from calling him her friend to being insanely in love with him in the span of a few pages. i guess you could take this as the river man’s realm warping her mind, but i still would have appreciated more time to show that was happening to her.
the ending just fell flat to me, i thought the final dialogue was cheesy and the last few chapters just seemed rushed.
ultimately i think this book would have benefitted from being longer. i think there needed to be more development, especially for abby and lori. i also think all of the issues i’ve listed just soured what could have been a much better book.
i guess i’ll start with what i liked. i feel like, a lot of times in horror in general but especially more extreme horror, disturbing topics get thrown around for shock value with no respect to the people who’ve actually lived through these things. very slight, non-specific spoilers, but
i’ve never really hated a protagonist like i hated lori. she starts off unlikable and annoying and then just becomes downright evil as the story unfolds. yet this never really took away from the reading experience for me, it actually added to it, which can be hard to pull off.
normally i don’t really like point of view switches, but it flowed well in this book. i also enjoyed the timeline jumping around a little bit and the inclusion of the letters between lori and edmund. overall i thought the plot flowed nicely. i also appreciated the writing style, there were some really beautiful descriptions in this book, especially when it came to nature.
i also love the southern gothic plot in general, as well as the whole vibe of the river man and the almost cosmic horror direction the story took with him. i think the supernatural elements of the story were really fun.
what i didn’t like, firstly, was the way the only black character in the story was written. i’m not black so take what i say with a grain of salt, but his dialogue just felt extremely unrealistic, bordering on almost caricature-ish. he was also just the whole “magical black man” trope guiding the main character with his superstitious, folky wisdom. he exists only to help abby and lori (spoiler)
there’s also racism against asian people in this book, especially asian women, which felt unnecessary. i get it’s extreme horror and we’re diving into taboo topics and the worst of humanity, but i was uncomfortable when slurs against asian people were dropped, like, at least five times in two pages. and i get that he’s not a good person at all (to put it extremely lightly), but the fetishism of asian women on edmund’s part just felt weird to read. and the treatment of the asian character niko just felt off to me. i’m not asian either so i’m probably not the best at explaining it, but i figured i’d warn about it regardless. i just don’t see why it was necessary to make the majority of the serial killer’s victims asian, and then give him a backstory as to why.
i also didn’t like how abby’s disability was portrayed as a punishment to lori. i get that lori is an extremely unreliable, selfish narrator, but it did feel like abby was treated more like lori’s burden and ever-present reminder of guilt instead of a human being. i wish she was a bit more fleshed out as a character and had some more of her own narrative moments, i think this would have balanced lori’s selfishness and abby’s humanity. also the sudden r-slur drop in her monologue at one point was very unnecessary. i get that we can explore dark topics without condoning them, ableism included. i also just think we have responsibility as writers when we take on these topics and we have to be conscious of the message we’re sending about disabled people.
then the parts where lori starts calling edmund her king and saying she should bow to him. i think it would have been interesting to explore her descent into obsessive love for him if it was drawn out more, but it comes out of absolutely nowhere. she goes from calling him her friend to being insanely in love with him in the span of a few pages. i guess you could take this as the river man’s realm warping her mind, but i still would have appreciated more time to show that was happening to her.
the ending just fell flat to me, i thought the final dialogue was cheesy and the last few chapters just seemed rushed.
ultimately i think this book would have benefitted from being longer. i think there needed to be more development, especially for abby and lori. i also think all of the issues i’ve listed just soured what could have been a much better book.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Ableism, Eating disorder, Gore, Incest, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, and Murder
Minor: Domestic abuse and War