Gone to See the River Man - Bloody and Dysfunctional Horror
“The people we make suffer stay inside of us longer and more deeply than those who we bring joy, don’t you think?”
I ripped through this book like the violent predator within its pages ripped through his female victims. It was brutal, disturbing, and so entrancing. There were levels to it that crept up, taking me by surprise as each revelation hit. As someone who loves true crime, I found the premise to be brilliant. I always wondered what was going on in the minds of women who write to serial killers and become infatuated with them. This book gives you all that and more.
The writing was smooth and easy. The chapters were often short and easy to devour, which is something I personally love because it keeps me reading and I almost always finish these types of books faster than others. The imagery was on-point. I felt like I could smell and feel what our main characters, the sisters Lori and Abby, were experiencing. As these sisters with a sordid and upsetting past go on the journey initiated by Lori’s love interest, the serial killer Edmund Cox, we get to learn so much about their inner feelings, past actions, and future prospects. Along their journey, we meet the character Buzz, who tells them a little bit about the River Man and the river itself. I couldn’t help but imagine Samuel L. Jackson’s character from the movie Black Snake Moan to be Buzz. A descriptive line spoken by Buzz about the river that Lori and Abby were traversing was, “Things are different ‘round here. This river don’t flow like no other, and this land don’t have the same rules where y’all come from.”
It is clear that Lori, the main character, is highly damaged. “Wanting to please a man, despite how difficult it was for her personally… well, if that wasn’t love, what was?” She believes that Edmund is meant for her, meant to be with her and love her, and that his murderous needs can be overlooked. She makes excuses for him and it is painful to behold, “What most would see as cruelties were actually signs of the deepest affections he could muster. Violence was his love letter. Death was all his soul.”
This was a fantastic read. I felt like it was so real, so intense. After I finished that last page, I had to sit back and let it all seep in, like dead blood settling to the underside of a corpse.
Don’t want to miss anything on the site? Sign up for our newsletter HERE
Want more spooky reads? Just search below.
