Title: Those Across the River Author: Christopher Buehlman
Published: September 6, 2011
Genre(s): Horror
Page Count: 357
Rating:
Summary from Goodreads:Failed academic Frank Nichols and his wife, Eudora, have arrived in the sleepy Georgia town of Whitbrow, where Frank hopes to write a history of his family's old estate-the Savoyard Plantation- and the horrors that occurred there. At first, the quaint, rural ways of their new neighbors seem to be everything they wanted. But there is an unspoken dread that the townsfolk have lived with for generations. A presence that demands sacrifice.
It comes from the shadowy woods across the river, where the ruins of Savoyard still stand. Where a longstanding debt of blood has never been forgotten.
A debt that has been waiting patiently for Frank Nichols's homecoming...
If you are in search of horror novel that’s far more tedious than it is terrifying, look no further than Those Across the River. Honestly, Buehlman storytelling in this book was just boring. A good premise that was lackluster in presentation basically equals a lifeless, drab text. That’s really all there is to it.
For one thing, nothing truly “scary” happens until the last third of the book; the rest of it is extremely dull, bucolic scenes of a man moving to Georgia to reconnect with his slave-owning ancestors, small-town happenings, and post-WWI shell-shock. Now, those things might actually make for an interesting novel in and of themselves…if this weren’t supposed to be a scary book. Which it’s not.
So, to cut to the chase: here there be werewolves. They live like animals in the burned-up plantation and have an interesting social dynamic. I would have loved to learn more about them, but Buehlman didn’t touch on those things. It was all of a sudden, “oh no scary werewolves doing sexually deviant things and killing people” for about 20 pages and then the end of werewolves. Really? Really?!
I was just so underwhelmed by the “horror” factor in Those Across the River, it’s not even funny.
What probably didn’t help was Frank’s first-person, humdrum narration. It was very bland and factual, with all emotions being told to the reader rather than shown through action/reaction. And that really didn’t work, since a horror novel is supposed to appeal to the reader’s sense of fear and suspense. Because that didn’t happen in any way with this novel, I was left very…bored.
And, even if the author didn’t intend for Those Across the River to be a legitimate horror novel, it’s still not good. The pace is too slow, the paranormal elements don’t show up until too late in the game, and the conclusion lacks adrenaline. No no no. This is not how one rights an engaging story.
Christopher Buehlman’s combination of simplistic prose, emotionless narration, and underdeveloped paranormal elements created a very boring reading experience in Those Across the River. Whatever genre this was supposed to be, it failed. I have nothing nice to say about this book.
