Review: The River at Night by Erica Ferencik

The River at Night by Erica Ferencik
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Wini,Pia,Sandra and Rachael have been friends for over fifteen years and have been there for each other through life's ups and downs like divorce,death,cancer and alcoholism.No matter what is going on in their lives once a year they get together and go on whatever mad adventure Pia has planned for them but what starts out as a fun long weekend of bonding,hiking and white water rafting soon turns into a life threatening living nightmare.First there is a rather uncomfortable encounter with one of the locals in a remote shop then it turns out that there might be another more selfish reason why pia has chosen this particular adventure and that bonding with her friends is the last thing on her mind.After a freak accident leaves the women stranded without a raft or any of the equipment,food and other supplies that they need to survive they stumble across a ramshackle camp and find that they have survived one nightmare only to find themselves caught up in another one.As the friends fight for their lives and try to find a way back to civilization alliances switch back and forth and old resentments and secrets surface that could tear the group apart just when they need each other the most.

There is a slow build up to this book,it takes until well over 40% in before the action really starts,in the first part of the book you learn about the women's friendship and personalities.As with anything that is about a group of people you have the usual mixed bag of personalities,there's the adventurous one,the nasty one,the likeable one who always ends up dead and the timid one who always ends up coming out of their shell and being the bravest of the group.Once the action starts you don't have time to take a breath as the women stumble from one dangerous situation to the next.The descriptions of the forest and the remote location is breath taking and stunning but also scary and creepy when night falls and the women are terrified and trembling with fear,scared out of their minds by every sound and movement that they hear in the forest around them.

I did enjoy this book which is quite surprisingly considering I normally lose interest in stories that take a while to get going and I didn't like most of the characters.For a debut book it is very well written and researched and I look forward to reading more books by this author in the future.

Many thanks to gallery books for a arc of this book via netgalley in exchange for a honest review