Review: Those Across the River

3 stars. Wow, what a wild ride. I absolutely worship Christopher Buehlman, darling of Reddit's horrorlit community, and have not lost an ounce of respect for him, even if this one didn't hit me perfectly. I will continue to savor his catalog - while all of his books are so, so distinct from each other, there's just something about his storytelling that hits so, so consistently hard.

Frank Nichols and his ex-student almost-wife Dora are looking for a fresh start after their affair and her subsequent divorce. He is a vet of the Great War, walking around with physical and mental scars, but he loves Dora and is excited to begin a life with her in an inherited house in a very small town in the Deep South. Who cares if his aunt told him to stay away? Who cares if the town feels a little backwards, and his writing isn't going well? Who cares if he gets a very, very bad feeling about the woods, and the river, and those who dwell across it?

I did have to dock a star for a UDD (had tears rolling down my cheeks on the Metro), but mostly I didn't give this 5 stars because it felt so... off-kilter. Uneven. I can't decide if it's because we barely caught a glimpse at who actually was on the other side of the river - but this had to have been intentional, right? Was the intention to create more of a character study, or an intimate portrait of a small town? Characters kind of came and went without much to anchor them - and so they felt expendable.

And while I don't agree with the way other reviewers have mocked some of the writing, and some of the characters, I truly am curious why so much ink was dedicated to certain proclivities of our heroic couple. Not offended - just a little bored. Maybe he did it to establish not just character but also the phase of their relationship; maybe to thicken or strengthen a sort of primal thread running through the book; maybe to just explore and make more interesting their dynamic; maybe to appeal to horny horror trope lovers who want at least one boob in-between all the slashing and maiming...

The racism, though, I feel more sure about: this is a piece of historical horror, and Buehlman doesn't shy away from the beliefs and atrocities of its time. Check TWs accordingly and just stay away if you prefer. It is uncomfortable. It is awful. But I don't agree that racism shouldn't exist in books because it's racist. Not to say whatever he tried to do here wasn’t clumsy, or easily misinterpreted, but racism is part of the point, I think.

ANYWAY. Mediocre Buehlman is miles and miles above everyone else. If you're looking for a dark, graphic, violent, bloody piece of historical werewolf horror with a vivid showdown and an ELECTRIC ending that crackles like lightning - look no further.

Those Across the River on: Amazon | Bookshop.org | Goodreads | StoryGraph