Those Across the River is a bone-chilling read.

Orville Francis “Frank” Nicholas and his wife, Eudora move to Whitbrow, Georgia. Frank has inherited a house from his mother’s sister. Though before his Aunt passed away, she wrote Frank a letter instructing him to sell the house instead. Frank gave the letter a very brief thought but the offer was too good to pass up, especially when Eudora would have a teaching job if they moved.

When Frank and Eudora arrive,, the townsfolk seem nice enough. Though, they do warn Frank and Eudora to not cross the river and go into the woods, especially at night or you will never be seen again. The warning does nothing for Frank. He does venture into the woods and there he meets a strange boy, who is buck naked. After this incident, Frank does not go into the woods again.

I did not find this book to be horror scary as so much as I did more like creepy scary almost psychological. There was a lot of build up and hinting as to who and what exactly the people across the river were. Yes, you read right. I said “what” when describing the people across the river. This is all I am going to say about this matter as I don’t want to give away anything else about this book. You will just have to read it for yourself.

This book had elements that made me think of M. Night Shyamalan’s movie, The Village. Only this book was way better than this movie. My only complaint and it is minor is that the people across the river were mentioned throughout the story but they did not make their appearances until the last third of the book, except for that one incident when Frank did venture into the woods and met one of the people…a young boy. That was a little bit of a disturbing moment. Those Across the River is a bone-chilling read. One that you don’t want to read right before bed or you could be up all night!