Gone to see the River Man by Kristopher Triana
179 pages
Released in 2023 from Bad Dream Books,
Released in 2020 from Cemetery Dance, and Grindhouse Press
Horror / Extreme Horror
The reputation of this book preceded itself. That reputation being that it was a great entry point into Triana’s work if you could not get a copy of Full Brutal. I’m sure other ideas of the exploitative or deplorable cross your mind when you think of this books reputation, but in some corners it is well loved. I am in that corner.
Indeed, I was late getting to the story of Lori and her quest to appease her incarcerated serial killer penpal. I had an idea of the premise where she is to retrieve a key from a killers neglected rural shack and bring that key, on his behalf, to the River Man. I’d even known that she takes her sister with her, the sister who suffered a traumatic brain injury who she had been entrusted to care for. Entrusted may be a stretch here, as we learn more about their family, but I digress…
What I had not anticipated is how quickly I became submerged in the world here. Between general storytelling and horror itself, there is a bluesy thread, a rhythm of the river, and an ebb and flow between naive hope and depravity that I absolutely love reading. The bleakest fiction is fine, but it is no fun at all without a glint of hope somewhere – to be drowned swiftly, over and over.
I’ll have to read the next one now, and his previous work Full Brutal. This was really as dark as people made it out to be, and at the same time very balanced. It was gruesome and poetic, grounded and fantastical, darker and… then darker still. Really good if you like extreme style horror and haven’t got to it. I now see why it was so highly recommended.
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