An intensely moving tale of survival, loss, and madness along the river’s edge. A father and son fishing lesson becomes a nightmarish voyage to the sea in this visionary testament to the lengths we will go for those we love.

The simple story of a father and son going fishing somehow morphs into a soul-shattering tale of anxiety, loss, and vengeance wrapped in a surreal narrative about the things that can keep a person between this world and the next. Johnson is a maestro of the weird and one of the best writers in crime and horror, but this one erases all of those genres and makes him simply one of the best.

PANK Magazine

This is superb fiction with a raw, throbbing, aching heart at its core that is far too big to be contained within the book’s pages but that is, by some bizarre magic, still there.

Vol. 1 Brooklyn

In the River is a brilliant offering; the pain and strange beauty of it will wash over you and sweep you away.

Scream Magazine

Gripping, horrifying, surreal…Think The Old Man and the Sea meets The Pearl meets Pet Sematary…But, dare I say it, In the River takes you to even darker places…

Verbicide