My First Introduction to "The River" by Peter Heller

 

Literary Discussion In PonyTown.

    I was hanging around the PonyTown docks when another player, let us call them W, began talking in the open about how they love to read books, so I sat down with them and asked them what they were currently reading that had them so hyped. The enclosed interview is the exact conversation that ensued, however brief it may be.

 

Q: "What are you currently reading that has you feeling this way especially?"

A: "'The River' by Peter Heller. Though I've actually just finished reading it."

 

Q: "What are your thoughts on it?"

A: "It's good but it's also sad. The ending especially surprised me."

 

Q: "What was your favorite part of the book?"

A: "I loved Wynn and Jack's friendship. I wish it had been a romance instead, though. I felt that Wynn and Jack were very much queer characters."

 

    That was as far as we got before W was disconnected from the server and did not return. In my personal experience, I have not seen a lot of fiction literature that features LGBTQ+ characters, so of course, my curiosity was piqued. I've done some reading around online and yes, even without having read the full book, I get the feeling that the two main characters could have been a 'thing', so to speak. 

 

    The story is about Jack and Wynn, two college students who are very good friends that decide to take a canoe trip together down a river near the village of Wapakh, when a forest fire breaks out. While making their way down river, they encounter a few drunks whom they pass and a married couple who are mid-argument. The next day, the husband finds them and tells them he thinks the drunks took off with his wife, so Jack and Wynn go to investigate and discover a heavily injured Maia. Jack immediately suspects her husband, Pierre of being her attacker. They immediately try to leave with her, to get her proper medical treatment, only to find that Pierre is on their trail and the wildfire is moving too fast for them to outrun it. Their canoe capsizes in whitewater and they are forced to make camp in the already burned area of the forest. When Maia explains to them that Pierre likely would not just give up following them due to jealousy over her expertise in geochemistry and overwhelming greed for the amount of money that she is set to inherit, the situation only becomes more urgent. So we are given a juxtaposition of attempted murder set against natural disaster. Deliberate and calculated versus random chance, two very different flames, but flames nonetheless. Flames of anger versus flames of fire. The damage in the wake of the forest fire likely mirrors the damage left behind in Jack's and Maia's lives due to Pierre's actions. If I'd read the novel myself, of course, I would probably be able to explore that a bit more. Regardless, I think I can say already that I do like how that is set up just from the summaries alone. Actions and events have consequences, often powerful and lasting ones. 

 

    Also, I love the closing imagery of Wynn's little hand carved canoe floating back to stay with Jack. It reminds me of Richie and Eddie from Stephen King's "IT", in the sense that symbolically, in spirit, they could not be separated in the end, plus there's also the image of something small, akin to Georgie's paper boat, floating in a controlled way (Pennywise, are you there?) that really drives that vibe home for that closing scene. Something else that I like a lot is the fact that one of the book's reviewers commented that the author's prose was confident, intense, poetic, descriptive and absorbing. Always telltale signs of a very good author that knows how to handle their stories well. I am personally not an outdoorsy type so at a glance, the theming would not have appealed to me had I first encountered the book in a physical store but the comparison between man and natural disaster, as well as the framing of the villain being somewhat of a misogynist and the dynamic between Jack and Wynn all attract my interest. There was one complaint that I found about the pacing because the author apparently really enjoyed writing asides about the functions of various outdoor equipment but as someone who grew up preferring to read educational texts, that will probably be something that I enjoy if I pick this book up.

 

If you'd like to purchase of a copy of the book, here is the Amazon link.

 

Warnings for younger readers: If you are under 18, I absolutely DO NOT recommend this text. This text features some very mature themes that include but are not limited to alcohol consumption, m*rd3r and r*p3.  

 

Sources: 

 

https://supersummary.com 

https://thebibliophile.com

 July 22, 2025 PonyTown Interview