The River at Night by Erica Ferencik

So I picked out this book because I’m extremely fond of a little movie called The Edge, which is a thriller-in-the-wilderness movie that seriously has a bear attack or something incredibly exciting every 8 minutes. It’s not a movie I rewatch and rewatch, but it sticks in my head as a very memorable ride, and the description of The River at Night sounded like the sort of adventure movie I loved. It’s a story about a group of four female friends in their late thirties who embark on a whitewater rafting trip in northern Maine (nice way to work on my USA Fiction challenge reading).  I immediately thought Deliverance, I immediately thought something bad happens in the wilderness (the narrator I assumed was a survivor, since she narrates the story in the past tense), and after a brief but not too brief introduction, the paddling begins.

The River at Night is a brisk little book that is definitely an adventure story that doesn’t spend forever on characterizations. The characters aren’t flat but not perfectly round either. I could have used a little more rounding of the villain, but I say that about lots of books. The writing is quite lovely despite how menacing the plot becomes. I just wish that the people living in the hinterlands weren’t so menacing minus one character.

The River at Night by Erica Ferencik

Gallery/Scout Press, January 2017

Disclosure: I received a review copy from the publisher.