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

This book was really good starting off, I really enjoyed the short and well-paced chapters, as well as the little flashbacks and snippets that broke the main plot up.
I didn't know much about the book going into it and when some of the themes of this book emerged, I felt very put-off. But that's on me for not checking TW's.

>SPOILER< Something that completely broke the tone of the novel for me, and felt borderline ridiculous, was the scene of Lori and Abby finally getting into the River Man's hut. The flaming footsteps, the pool of blood, the heavy metal guitar-playing old demon dude. It felt silly and didn't have an impact on me other than confusion.

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l_prelas's review against another edition

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challenging 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

4.0

Content Warnings

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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