“I don’t know if I’ve ever read a story quite like Tim Waggoner’s DEEP LIKE THE RIVER. With its high emotional and metaphysical content and weird, surrealistic imagery, it reads a bit like Algernon Blackwood’s “The Willows” with Kafka collaborating and Carl Jung offering occasional advice. Or maybe it’s an adventure story that’s taken a sudden turn into The Twilight Zone. However you characterize Waggoner’s approach, the result is a fine piece of writing exploring the mysteries of a mind struggling with the guilt, pain, and terror of grief.” — Steve Rasnic Tem, author of Blood Kin
“A descent into the madness of a ruined psyche, ‘Deep Like the River’ puts Waggoner’s talent for the eerie, desolate, and unpredictable in the spotlight. A must-read for those who like their horror tinged with desperation and guilt.” — Ronald Malfi, author of Cradle Lake
“Waggoner is a divine force in contemporary writing. Every new book of his I read takes me down dark and unruly passageways that bristles my fur and rattles my chains in ways that Ididn’t think possible. He’s as much a stylist as he is a storyteller. DEEP LIKE THE RIVER is certain to usher you into the realm of the dynamically Begotten.” — D. Harlan Wilson, author of Peckinpah: an Ultraviolent Romance
“Waggoner’s new work is a new high water mark for him. Its chilling waters will take you into dark places…and weirdly enough you’ll have a great time. Recommended. Wear a life jacket.” — John Shirley author of Doyle After Death
“The river down which the protagonist of Tim Waggoner’s strange, startling novella canoes with her sister flows from southern Ohio to the heart of a very personal darkness. What begins as an exercise in sisterly bonding travels into something more surreal and sinister, as the landscape around Alie and her sister, Carin, reflects and refracts their innermost memories and fears. The river in these pages might be called the Little Clearwater, but as the sisters learn, it is tributary to streams with names such as Styx and Acheron. With Deep Like the River, Tim Waggoner fixes his gaze on the winding course of human pain and misery, charting the flow of sin and sadness from one generation to the next, and does not look away. It’s fine, powerful work.” — John Langan, author of The Wide, Carnivorous Sky and Other Monstrous Geographies
