THOSE ACROSS THE RIVER - Christopher Buehlman

From the back of the book: The debut novel that has everyone talking and scared.

Haunted by memories of the Great War, 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 under the facade of summer socials and small-town charm, 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 the Savoyard Plantation still stand. Where a long-smoldering debt of blood has never been forgotten.....

Where it has been waiting for Frank Nichols....

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WOW!

I cannot get over how utterly frightening this book was to read. Perfect Southern Gothic horror with excellent pacing to draw you in to the story. I had to read this either in the daytime or at night, but surrounded by people in a lit place.

It is definitely more than a horror story. The story is the sensual relationship of Frank and Eudora, how they came to be a couple and move to Whitbrow, Georgia. They could easily let everything that happens to them overwhelm them, but they take everything in stride for as long as they can.

Atmosphere was everything throughout the book. Dark, bleak, frightening, you-do-not-want-to-go-in-those-woods atmosphere.

I feel like if I say more, it will be filled with spoilers. What I can absolutely do is definitely recommend this read-in-the-daytime horror Gothic novel.

Thank you LibraryThing (http://www.librarything.com) for sending this book to me! I won this from their August Batch of Books for Early Review.

Five darkly sparkling horror diamonds....