Gone to See the River Man

Go into this book blind.That’s what I did and yikes. Lol.This book was such a unique book.The characters have you feeling all sorts of feelings. You go from liking a character to absolutely hating them! There’s some uncomfortable moments in this book but that didn’t take away from the incredible writing too much. I enjoyed this book. It was a short read but it packed one heck of a punch!

This is what extreme horror should be - well written with a decent story and incredibly haunting. This book actually creeped me out. Like all the extreme horror I've encountered though, there is brutality here that should be considered if someone were interested in reading this book. R*pe, murder, and straight up gore and horror. It's not for everyone, but the story is well worth the time to read if you think you can handle it.

“River Man ain’t wantin’ nobody’s soul. What he wants is for your soul to be as bad as his. Ya get what ya want without havin’ to do anythin’ for him, but somehow he just brings out the worst in ya. Ya go rotten in your heart after dealin’ with The River Man. That’s what I growed up believin’. Everybody knew somebody that done made a deal with him, and they got their wish but ended up doin’ terrible things too, not because they owed it to him, but because he sorta, ya know, inspired them.”There is no scarcity of works, both fiction and non-fiction, about people, female and male, becoming enamored, even sexually and romantically, by real-life serial killers. Such delusional attraction is the basis of Kristopher Triana’s recently released GONE TO SEE THE RIVER MAN (2020). Triana, however, takes his story to far different and more very terrifying places than most.Thirty-nine-year-old Lori’s “interest in true crime books and documentaries was a hobby turned obsession. It was her one escape from the dullness of her own reality, the emptiness of everyday life… Killers, of all people, made her feel alive.” Her hobby leads her to a fascination with an imprisoned Edmund Cox—a killer of twenty-one young females he has brutally raped and mutilated. Beginning with letters to Cox—letters to which she receives answers and which become more and more explicit—to visitations with the intense and “very masculine” killer in Varden Prison, Lori begins to feel a bond with the man—a bond that begins to become an obsession. Cox demands Lori go to his shack, his “sanctum,” in Killen, “a rural river town with a population under five hundred” and retrieve a key, not for him, but to take to a “mystery man,” known as the “River Man” who lives further down river from Cox’s long-hidden abode. It is Lori’s chance to prove herself and come out ahead of Cox’s other female admirers. On the trek to the hovel, Lori takes her older, brain damaged sister, Abby, as she cannot be left alone and leaving her with anyone else would be mortifying for her. But nothing is as horrifying as the excursion the two sisters find themselves upon through isolated, wild, rugged terrain in search of Cox’s dilapidated cabin and key—and their attempt to find the River Man.Triana, author of eight novels, is known for his ability to write some very mesmerizing, startling, and at times gruesome fiction. FULL BRUTAL (2018) is a prime and unforgettable example. In GONE TO SEE THE RIVER MAN Triana displays a greater depth and variety to his writing than ever before, with superb character development, command of an evocative and unsettling setting, and carefully crafted technique.The suspense the author creates in the work is exceptional. Triana cleverly intersperses his chronicle of the two sisters in the woods with letters previously written by Lori and Cox bringing to life in first person the escalating relationship between the two. More dramatically, the author inserts flashbacks detailing Lori’s history with her parents and especially with Abby and their younger brother Pete. There are only a minimal number of additional, exceptionally well-drawn characters who appear in the novel along with intriguing, haunting, atmospheric moments of southern blues music.With each revelation Triana provides, the story becomes darker; petrifying secrets are revealed and the novel becomes more foreboding as does the two women’s foray through the wilderness to a fate unknown but most likely pernicious.The concluding pages of GONE TO SEE THE RIVER MAN ooze with incredible malevolence as the truth about the River Man as well as Cox and Lori’s fate are spelled out in startling, disturbing detail. Readers will close the novel’s cover in amazement of the disturbing journey Kristopher Triana has taken them. For lovers of horror, GONE TO SEE THE RIVER MAN is a well written, captivating, modern apex of the genre.

This book was really great. It’s a page turner that you have no idea what the outcome is going to be and everything that you guess while the story is unfolding is nothing of what it actually ends up being! I wouldn’t recommend any young readers as it has a lot of adult content in it but it is definitely a good book for older readers.

Lori is obsessed with Edmund, a serial killer, who kills his victims (all females) as gruesomely as possible. Now in prison, Lori writes to Edmund and visits, all in hope that he would fall in love with her. She has stiff competition with other ladies writing to him, and she would do anything for Edmund…anything.I’m obsessed with this story just as much as Lori is obsessed with Edmund. The story moved like a movie in my head – the red water, the bleak surroundings, the shacks in the woods, the rope swing. I could picture it all so crisply. Every scene just got more nightmarish as the story goes on.Lori surprised me. To me in in the beginning, she seemed like the stereotypical woman who falls in love with a murderer – lacking something in her brain that makes her feel like he wouldn’t kill her if he was out of prison. Her character shifts as we get deeper and deeper into the story. You’ll see how incredibly messed up she is and goes from meek to someone you want to stay clear of. Lori has no limits and will do what she can just to put Edmund under her spell.I don’t want to write too much about this book, but it deserves the hype around it. Go into this story blind and let yourself be carried away on Lori and Abby’s adventure to find the River Man. This is perfect reading for spooky season, and I am already looking forward to a repeat read.

I wasnt sure what to expect from this as the synopsis only tells part of the story...but wow, just wow. This is truly a dark tale of someone who will do anything for their own greed. I feel it also shows the reader a bigger story of how hatred can eat you up and burn people around you (not literally!).Excellently written. Very visual but not overly so, i had a clear image in my head of the happenings (where's that MiB pen to erase my memory!) but they didnt bog down or hamper the story being told.Do yourself a favour and dive into the river that is this tale. But don't look to hard, you may see The River Man.

I wanted to know if all the hype about this novel was true and it didn’t let me down. Absolutely brutal and a few twists to the plot that I didn’t see coming. A few that I did but they didn’t spoil the story, they enhanced it. This book isn’t for the squeamish or those that like a generic love story. This book is for those that like to be shocked. A proper jaw dropper!

Just this second finished reading and oh my god I absolutely loved it! It was the perfect mix between disturbing themes, horror, vivid unsettling imagery and an incredibly interesting story. I read it over two sittings and when I wasn’t reading it, I found myself thinking about it! Kept me guessing throughout, enjoyed every second of this read. Reminded me a lot of the series The Haunting of Hill House in terms of imagery and descriptions. The story made me think I was experiencing a nightmare and I couldn’t have loved it more.

Wow! What a ride! I read it in 2 sittings, but only because I had to go to bed not long after starting it! Atmospheric, creepy and brutal, this kept me hooked from the word go and gave me goosebumps throughout! Triana is for sure one of my fave new authors.....on to the next 🖤

Although this was so well written it's tone is a bit depressing and I didn't enjoy it as much as I wanted too maybe it was my frame of mind. I'm not a big fan of metaphors in books if that was what was intended with this but it is a solid read my score is 3 1/2 but not enough to score a 4 IMO.