Review | The River by Peter Heller

Wynn and Jack are best friends on a break from college. Their love of canoeing, mountains, nature and fishing leads them to the forests of Northern Canada. Their plan is for a relaxing journey through the waters of Maskwa River. But news of a wildfire and an unexpected encounter with a man and a woman changes everything. Between the perils of nature and threats from men, what is meant to be adventure of a lifetime turns into a desperate fight for survival.

In the farthest distance, over the trees, was an orange glow. It lay on the horizon like the light from banked embers and it fluttered barely so they wondered if it was their eyes and they knew it was a fire.

The River feels like a love letter to nature than a thriller. The writing is more literary and descriptive than I expected. There are passages I enjoyed, and I did feel immersed in the survival aspect of man versus nature. The author has previously written non-fiction adventure books which comes clear in the prose. Little things like setting up camp, preparing to fish, picking blueberries are all described in detail. While this helps set the scene, there is too much information at times. At one point, a list of camping equipment takes 3 pages and I didn’t think it adds anything to the story.

As a thriller, it starts out strong but falters as it goes on. The plot is basic and the conflict feels weak. I’m not a fan of stories where bad things happen because people don’t communicate and this book has examples of that. I think the main issue is I found it hard to connect to the two main characters, Jack and Wynn. They sound more mature than the college-age guys they’re supposed to be and their dialogue is made up of taciturn exchanges that don’t show much. We mainly get flashbacks of their friendship, and I didn’t really get the sense of their love for each other. While the ending wraps up everything neatly, I wanted more punch to the story in order to make me feel moved. I actually felt more emotional during scenes of a mother bear and her cubs fleeing the forest fires. The book gets that part perfectly right, how forest fires affects flora and fauna.

The River is not a fast-paced action thriller. Rather it’s a melancholic, nature-focused survival story with some action scenes. If the latter is more your flow, you will definitely enjoy this.

Note: contains scenes of animal deaths

About the author: Peter Heller

Photo by Laura Lefurgey-Smith