Book Review | Ghost River

Ghost River by Chad Ryan

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I just finished reading this, so I need to gather my thoughts now, as there are so many. I'd been working my way through this book for the better part of a year or more before starting over, mostly because of my own darkness getting in the way. And Dark is a prison.

Ghost River is a world of pain, suffering, dirt, grime, and pig men. Demi gods, pocket universes, and heroes you wouldn't expect to be heroes. And no one is perfect here. Everyone is messed up and dark in their own way, and not a single person is wholly good. They're mostly horrible people, but when a Hellish life of the worst traumas is all you have, you work with what you're given. You might even rise above it someday.

Esther and Minister, who is aptly named, have their share of the worst life possible. They're both raised in a small town where Father Pig, an ancient grotesque god, takes over chosen men to breed more children with boons, which are his children with special powers that can manipulate others or cause destruction. Snakes, which is what Minister is, can crawl into someone's head with a look alone, and it's a form of mind control.

Esther is just a poor woman who got caught up in all of it. She and Minister are there for each other though, and while Minister is the best man he is capable of being, despite being one of Father Pig's chosen, Esther is badass, strong, and doesn't deal with grief from anyone. She's hardened against the worst things in life, and I fell in love with her even throughout some of the truly dark stuff she does.

Delora, who is the head of Orphan Rock, is a shaper of worlds. She has a small army of broken children, which are husks from the children she kills, who are reborn into monstrous, lifeless horrors. This is her way of showing love, through pain, and she is a lover of children. Everything she does is to water the Grim Seed, which is fed with misery and suffering. And the Grim Seed grows beneath the chapel on the mound, just waiting to sprout forth...

Personally, Esther and Liz, who's a little girl who plays such a huge role in the story, stole my heart and I couldn't let them go. I still can't even after finishing. This story absolutely destroyed me emotionally by the end and it was difficult to get through. Not because of the gratuitous gore, gross-out stuff, or difficult scenes of very heavy trauma, but because of the underlying message that finally became clear to me when I reached the end. Not only was the reoccurring phrase, 'Dark is a prison' something that I understand, but near the end there were a few lines that got me pretty choked up with emotion because of how close to home they hit for me:

“Not trying is what cowards do. Even if you aren't special or have any destiny that brings any good to the world, you had a life. That was something. It wasn't what you had to do to survive that mattered; it was how you lived...even if you failed and sank into the shit anyway.”

I loved this book. So damn much. It was a gift (literally and metaphorically), and I've never read anything like it before. At times poetic, which I didn't realize tough and gritty horror could be, Ghost River stays with you. And for being Chad's first book, it's impressive. I've been recommending it to my friends and family who love horror. So if you can handle gross-out stuff, gore, and some extremely heavy subject matter (there is a trigger warning page at the beginning, which I greatly appreciated), definitely take the time to read this. I'm really looking forward to reading more of Chad's books.