Reviews with content warning for Racial slurs - Gone to See the River Man

Unflinching and in your face, this is one of those novels that I would only recommend to hardcore horror fans.

That said, I believe the execution and storytelling were excellent. Some scenes were difficult to get through, but that was kinda the point. That said, at a certain point it felt like it was introducing more disturbing content just so it could. The

brother's death served virtually no purpose whatsoever

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jasreads__'s review

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dark sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

TW: Incest, Sexual Abuse, Racist slurs (based off typical county folk) - Obviously detailed gore and murder.

Summary:
Lori has no freedom in her life. She hasn't for years because she's taking care of her disabled sister Abby. The only true stability and freedom from her waking life is writing to a sadistic serial killer in prison; Edmund Cox. She's gone to the extent of creating this relationship with him, visiting him, sending him letters and even now going as far as accepting a task from him.

Lori is sent to Edmund's cabin in the woods of Killen where she must obtain a key from a chest and deliver it to The River Man. With no other choice she must bring her sister with her on this treacherous journey of proving her love for this murderer.

Thoughts:
What the fuck. This book kind of shook me. I used to never read horror books as much as I have been lately but I've been so intrigued by them and picked this one up from BookTok... I was honestly so disgusted at moments but like what the fuck. I had to keep reading it.

⤍ What I liked:
The gore was vivid enough but not too extreme. The story was captivating and although fucked up it kept you embraced in it. First book that actually churned something in me.

⤍ What I disliked:
I personally didn't like the jumping of current time to the past. I felt really confused about why their lives were the way they were at the beginning and just wanted to get that part out of the way. It made sense why it wasn't up front but for me I was meh about it. Thus the 4.5 rating.

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noelle1121005's review against another edition

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dark tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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cchiste's review against another edition

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dark medium-paced

Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

Honestly should have DNF’d this but it was like a train wreck I couldn’t look away from.

using incest and rape for shock value is not a substitute for a plot or character development

Literally felt so gross after reading that I took a shower and made some tea. I don’t mind disturbing content if it feels like there’s a real story or a fucking purpose for it beyond shock value.

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bkmason's review against another edition

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dark fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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celleuloid's review against another edition

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dark medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

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zea_d_writing's review

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challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

I cannot recommend this book to anyone. Check trigger warnings and definitely do your research before deciding whether or not to read this book.

I went into this knowing it was an extreme horror novel: which means I knew that its sole purpose was to be horrific, vile, disgusting, sick, revolting, shocking purely to be shocking, and potentially even offensive. I knew it would likely delve into taboo topics, as these kinds of books often do.

And I wasn’t wrong.

This book wasn’t actually as graphic as I expected. Don’t get me wrong…there are absolutely very graphic, very disturbing, sickening scenes and themes depicted in this book. It just wasn’t as over the top as I expected given what I had heard about this book.
And I actually found the lore of this book really interesting and thought the storytelling itself was very effective.

But this book is absolutely disgusting, sick, and offensive.
I hated Lori, the main character. She’s vile in every way conceivable. Which is exactly how you’re supposed to feel about her - especially by the end.

This book features pretty severe racism and the fetishization of Asian women. It uses slurs (g slur) and describes very graphic violence and SA towards these groups. There is also severe blatant ableism (both in how the disabled character is depicted and how the other characters treat, talk to, and talk about the disabled character. The r slur is used more than once…as well as other derogatory terms.
The book features graphic incest and SA, murder, torture, dismemberment, violence and abuse, eating disorders, and a whole host of other triggers warnings.

Its dark. Its graphic. Its offensive. Its sick. I found the story itself weirdly interesting despite how twisted it was and the lore and worldbuilding were actually very intriguing.

I’m giving this three stars because it did what it intended to do and at no point was anything written within treated like it was supposed to be anywhere near normal or moral or okay. Its an extreme horror novel and everything and everyone within was entirely fucked up.

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georgey1809's review against another edition

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challenging dark medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Loveable characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

This book is... wow... it's intense and certainly throws some curveballs that I was not expecting!

Lori is abominable and I hated her - starting just because she's wingey but it soon develops further.

I can understand why people would struggle with this book

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