I like to re-read this every few months because it didn't scar me enough the first time.

3.5 Good cosmic horror with some very interesting insight put into the antagonist.

Holy fuck this was so exceedingly harrowing and bleak, I don't think I've ever experienced dread of this calibre from a book before. Despite the outlandish plot points, everything felt correct and on theme, and it all fed into this idea of the River Man and what he represented. The gore was gnarly, and the outlandishness was so.. it will definitely keep me up at night.

so many thoughts

Didn't move me at all. I thought the atrociousness of this book sounded too pretentious. At times, I like how the story is written, it has a good premise but overall could just be summarized into a book that's all about to "wow" my pants off but failed to. I don't particularly like the main character and the whole thing was easy to predict to the point I've just been dragging myself through the mud to finish the book even though I know what exactly would happen in the end. Overall, I was disappointed because I was looking forward to seeing the same "it's horrible!" experience but instead got something that has only underwhelmed me to the core.

Shock for the sake of shock

WHAT THE HECK?!? That's all i am gonna say.

It did what it needed to do I guess

bruh what a gross and fucked up story, though i would have wanted a bit more originality to the serial killer's backstory cause the author literally used richard ramirez childhood word for word.