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

I’ve now proven that splatterpunk, extreme horror is not for me. I don’t understand how or why people like reading about the most depraved, disgusting, truly upsetting things you can imagine. I wish I had checked the trigger warnings before buying this because there are certain no-go areas for me (and this book crossed several lines).

In addition, I can’t help but think there’s some (maybe) subconscious racism on display with the way the author writes the only black character. I understand regional dialects and slang but I’ve never heard an actual person speak in such a cartoonish way.

I thought maybe the book would have a redeeming end, but it did not. There’s no hope, or even petty redemption (like if the “wronged” character rose up and took revenge). It feels like shock and horror for the sake of shock and horror.

I’ll give it a star for the cool descriptions of the river and river man. By this point I was skimming to get to the end but there were some neat cosmic horror adjacent scenes but overall not worth the rest of the journey.

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arieslofi's review against another edition

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dark funny tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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nyquilcryptid's review against another edition

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dark sad tense medium-paced

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

4.5

The novel-length version of that joke in Natural Born Killers. "Look bitch, you knew I was a snake."
Absolutely mind the trigger warnings on this one, very explicit content ahead. But the writing is wonderful, and the story is so, so good.

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curlysushi's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

It’s an average horror story, the ending is way too predictable if you think about the role of each character. Could be better, not the absolute worst. It’s a good fast read, took me about 2 hours

Personally, I’m familiar with horror stories in movies and literature so this was just way too predictable. Content wise it’s pretty depraved, but it’s not the absolute craziest stuff IF you frequent this genre often. Character development is definitely present, so don’t listen to the reviews saying no. It’s simply not developing in the morally upstanding direction. Lori certainly changes, as well as Abby.

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lepurush's review against another edition

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dark tense fast-paced

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

4.0

I made the mistake of reading this book all in one sitting and it actually emotionally destroyed me for a while, I had to take a break from both reading and dark media. Though the topics are handled sensitively and discussed without glorification, it was still extremely sickening.

The writing was amazing and the psychology of the characters was interesting too. I wish I’d read it across a few days but it was really gripping.

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