So Cold the River by Michael Koryta
I have to be honest, So Cold the River didn’t really work for me. The weirdness (or supernatural) was so subtle that it was practically non-existent. It’s a safe supernatural book for your mom or for those readers who haven’t had a lot of exposure to genres (magic realism, fantasy, horror) or story types (supernatural stories, intrusion into our world stories, alternate secret/occult history stories) that travel more frequently down these roads.
In the way that all the characters just are accepting of the present supernatural elements and psychic abilities it’s almost like a magical realism lite novel. Anne is like a character from a Tim Powers novel. There is an interesting lack of motivation that is noticeable for much of the book. Josiah doesn’t know what he wants beyond the vague “what’s owed me” and Campbell’s motivations are a secret from the reader for much of the book. If these are the antagonists then shouldn’t we know what their intentions and desires are so that we can feel whatever menace that we are supposed to?
So your mileage may vary.
Citrus County by John Brandon
I find this a hard book to write about in some ways because it is a wholly unique story in the crime fiction genre.
The characters are fully developed middle school aged whose motivations and actions are complex and extraordinarily dark who then are afforded a measure of true growth and change.
The plot is something else. The schools misfit kid kidnaps another girls younger sister. This has unexpected effects on both of the kids. He becomes more focused and goal/achievement oriented and she becomes more and more distraught and rebellious.
An excellent book with some of the most interesting characters you’ll have the privilege of meeting that doesn’t go where you expect it to.
Recommended
Audition by Ryu Murakami
Murkami is a Japanese writer who offers critique of modern Japanese culture. His books can straddle a weird line between horror and psychological crime fiction. I don’t know if folks are calling this horror or crime fiction, either way it’s a dark work.
It’s very creepy with an escalating sense of dread that builds and builds and builds toward one prolonged and shocking violent act/sequence, much in the way that In the Miso Soup did.
I haven’t seen the movie adaptation of the book and I am really only familiar with it from the Top 100 scariest moments list that Bravo did years ago. But based off what little clips they showed it seems that the movie deviates from the book and the movies manages to be even creepier. But again I haven’t seen the movie so my impressions are limited.
Audition is interesting but not everyone’s cuppa.
Recommended
I got the same mileage as you on SO COLD. And when Koryta’s new book had “supernatural” stamped all over it by page 3, I released that one into the wild.