A review by jesssicawho
Gone to See the River Man by Kristopher Triana

challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.0

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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