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The Narrows
“I can show you how to enter the Narrows to find what you seek.”
Oliver and his friends have returned to their hometown of Shumard, Texas for the funeral of their close friend Noah. They each grapple with the loss in their own ways, trying to understand the strange circumstances of their friend’s unexpected death.
While visiting the site where the body was found, Oliver stumbles across a chilling discovery that he knows must be related to what happened to Noah. Wanting to protect his friends from these newfound horrors, Oliver takes it upon himself to venture into the grotesque otherworld known as the Narrows to learn what happened to his friend and find a way to bring him back.
Entering the Narrows is one thing, but will whatever he finds there allow him to leave?
Oliver and his friends have returned to their hometown of Shumard, Texas for the funeral of their close friend Noah. They each grapple with the loss in their own ways, trying to understand the strange circumstances of their friend’s unexpected death.
While visiting the site where the body was found, Oliver stumbles across a chilling discovery that he knows must be related to what happened to Noah. Wanting to protect his friends from these newfound horrors, Oliver takes it upon himself to venture into the grotesque otherworld known as the Narrows to learn what happened to his friend and find a way to bring him back.
Entering the Narrows is one thing, but will whatever he finds there allow him to leave?
256 pages, Paperback
First published October 23, 2018
45 people are currently reading
380 people want to read
About the author
Travis M. Riddle
17 books397 followersTRAVIS M. RIDDLE lives with his girlfriend in Austin, TX, where he earned his bachelor’s degree in English Writing & Rhetoric at St. Edward’s University. His work has been published in award-winning literary journal the Sorin Oak Review. His novels "Flesh Eater," "On Lavender Tides," and "Spit & Song" were all semi-finalists in Mark Lawrence's SPFBO.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 60 reviews
April 24, 2020
3.5
The death of a friend reunites Oliver and the rest of their circle as they gather to say goodbye and try to come to terms with their loss.
***
Don’t pick this book up expecting a full-on horror story. Don’t get me wrong, there is some nice thick atmosphere that helps set the tone for all the creepy moments and the build to the end, once we meet the Knave, is nicely amped-up (and I thought done very well) but I found this leaves you, not so much horrified but instead with that unsettled feeling that sticks around for days. Of course, my tolerance for horror is pretty high- the other world and some of the more vividly depicted scenes might scare the crap out of a normal person.
For me, if I hadn’t been familiar with one of Travis Riddle’s other stories Balam, Spring, I may not have enjoyed this quite as much as I did if I wanted just a horror story. Knowing that he’s damn good at characters and relationships, and building lives that you feel like you are involved in was something I expected and on that level- this worked especially well.
The story while stepping into the horror side of fantasy has a bit of that slice of life feel that I liked so much in Balam, Spring. The little things that make these people special and feel so realistic are present- from the nostalgia of revisiting the old haunts, to sitting around at the local waffle house reminiscing, or talking about school friends and what they’re doing now, etc. We feel like we are a part of the group- a fly on the wall of their lives as they catch up and try to make sense of their feelings about the death of their friend Noah.
This isn’t the coming age story that you see so often in fantasy; this is what comes after that. It’s all the stuff that hits you when you realize you’ve grown-up and moved on from some of the people who used to know you the best, and they from you. It’s also a story about coming to terms with the regrets of those lost friendships and the grief and that anger that comes from death and loss. Basically, it’s about moving on and what gets left behind in the process.
Like with Balam, Spring, I was left with this sense of sadness in the final pages. But it was a good sadness. The kind that comes from closure and knowing the character's will heal and move on and find happiness. That’s when I know that the characters are done right, if on the closing of the final page- I feel they will be ok.
I listened to the audio version of The Narrows- I enjoyed the reader he was animated when need to be and I liked the little things he added here and there. I generally have no complaints about the narration.
I do tend to notice the repetitive things more in audio, words especially, but I’m hypersensitive to that in any format so it’s kind of a moot point.
I was given a copy of the audio by the author Travis M. Riddle. Thank you very much to Travis M Riddle.
The death of a friend reunites Oliver and the rest of their circle as they gather to say goodbye and try to come to terms with their loss.
***
Don’t pick this book up expecting a full-on horror story. Don’t get me wrong, there is some nice thick atmosphere that helps set the tone for all the creepy moments and the build to the end, once we meet the Knave, is nicely amped-up (and I thought done very well) but I found this leaves you, not so much horrified but instead with that unsettled feeling that sticks around for days. Of course, my tolerance for horror is pretty high- the other world and some of the more vividly depicted scenes might scare the crap out of a normal person.
For me, if I hadn’t been familiar with one of Travis Riddle’s other stories Balam, Spring, I may not have enjoyed this quite as much as I did if I wanted just a horror story. Knowing that he’s damn good at characters and relationships, and building lives that you feel like you are involved in was something I expected and on that level- this worked especially well.
The story while stepping into the horror side of fantasy has a bit of that slice of life feel that I liked so much in Balam, Spring. The little things that make these people special and feel so realistic are present- from the nostalgia of revisiting the old haunts, to sitting around at the local waffle house reminiscing, or talking about school friends and what they’re doing now, etc. We feel like we are a part of the group- a fly on the wall of their lives as they catch up and try to make sense of their feelings about the death of their friend Noah.
This isn’t the coming age story that you see so often in fantasy; this is what comes after that. It’s all the stuff that hits you when you realize you’ve grown-up and moved on from some of the people who used to know you the best, and they from you. It’s also a story about coming to terms with the regrets of those lost friendships and the grief and that anger that comes from death and loss. Basically, it’s about moving on and what gets left behind in the process.
Like with Balam, Spring, I was left with this sense of sadness in the final pages. But it was a good sadness. The kind that comes from closure and knowing the character's will heal and move on and find happiness. That’s when I know that the characters are done right, if on the closing of the final page- I feel they will be ok.
I listened to the audio version of The Narrows- I enjoyed the reader he was animated when need to be and I liked the little things he added here and there. I generally have no complaints about the narration.
I do tend to notice the repetitive things more in audio, words especially, but I’m hypersensitive to that in any format so it’s kind of a moot point.
I was given a copy of the audio by the author Travis M. Riddle. Thank you very much to Travis M Riddle.
July 8, 2019
Last year I read and enjoyed two other books by Travis Riddle: Wondrous and Balam, Spring. Both of those did very well with world-building, at times going into exceptional detail and giving the books a slice-of-life feel. I was not surprised that The Narrows was just as well done, but that that is about the only similarity I can find between this book and those other two. “This is not your father’s Oldsmobile.”
I have heard reviews that compare The Narrows to Stranger Things from Netflix and I think that is fair to a point. The tone is similar (creepy, suspenseful, mysterious, etc), and there is a murderous creature in another dimension. But it is not fair to make the comparison any deeper than that. This story follows a group of twentysomethings who are reuniting after the sudden death of a mutual friend. Their friend has lost touch, had isolated and they have mixed emotions about how they feel about it all.
The book is at its best when it explores some of the deeper aspects of life: living and dying, friendship, loyalty, etc. This book gives plenty for the reader to consider, and the characters were presented going through the gamut of grief and loss. Through it all, the story was seasoned with a heavy amount of reality, acknowledging that we as humans are by nature flawed, and we also can’t help but be affected by the words and actions of others, either for good or ill, whether intentional or accidental.
Personally, I struggled to like the characters. Maybe it’s because I am almost 50 and there is a bit of a generational gap. Maybe it’s that they use a lot more profanity in casual conversation than I do. (Not judging those who do, but I was brought up in a home that restricted its use, and I only use it rarely to this day. I am fine with it in books/movies when it feels like it fits, as long as it is not in excess.) I found it hard to relate to much beyond the deeper topics that I mentioned above. Given the amount of detail that we got for each of these characters’ everyday lives (again, ones that I didn’t feel much connection to) it became a little too much at times.
The extra-dimensional aspects were done well and gradually escalated in suspense and intensity. I think the Knave was a little too “silly” for me and not scary enough, but this might have been deliberate as a way of convincing you to let your guard down. I also think that the resolution to that part of the story happened too quickly for my taste. It was definitely not given the same amount of floor space as the relationship aspects of the book, and it felt at times like a background story, but it was still engaging.
I thought this was good, and it had a lot of very well-done aspects. It just didn’t pull me in personally as much as I hoped it might. I still think a lot of people will enjoy this a lot. It got 3.9 out of 5 stars from me. Thank you to the author for sending me a copy of the audio book in return for my fair and honest review.
I have heard reviews that compare The Narrows to Stranger Things from Netflix and I think that is fair to a point. The tone is similar (creepy, suspenseful, mysterious, etc), and there is a murderous creature in another dimension. But it is not fair to make the comparison any deeper than that. This story follows a group of twentysomethings who are reuniting after the sudden death of a mutual friend. Their friend has lost touch, had isolated and they have mixed emotions about how they feel about it all.
The book is at its best when it explores some of the deeper aspects of life: living and dying, friendship, loyalty, etc. This book gives plenty for the reader to consider, and the characters were presented going through the gamut of grief and loss. Through it all, the story was seasoned with a heavy amount of reality, acknowledging that we as humans are by nature flawed, and we also can’t help but be affected by the words and actions of others, either for good or ill, whether intentional or accidental.
Personally, I struggled to like the characters. Maybe it’s because I am almost 50 and there is a bit of a generational gap. Maybe it’s that they use a lot more profanity in casual conversation than I do. (Not judging those who do, but I was brought up in a home that restricted its use, and I only use it rarely to this day. I am fine with it in books/movies when it feels like it fits, as long as it is not in excess.) I found it hard to relate to much beyond the deeper topics that I mentioned above. Given the amount of detail that we got for each of these characters’ everyday lives (again, ones that I didn’t feel much connection to) it became a little too much at times.
The extra-dimensional aspects were done well and gradually escalated in suspense and intensity. I think the Knave was a little too “silly” for me and not scary enough, but this might have been deliberate as a way of convincing you to let your guard down. I also think that the resolution to that part of the story happened too quickly for my taste. It was definitely not given the same amount of floor space as the relationship aspects of the book, and it felt at times like a background story, but it was still engaging.
I thought this was good, and it had a lot of very well-done aspects. It just didn’t pull me in personally as much as I hoped it might. I still think a lot of people will enjoy this a lot. It got 3.9 out of 5 stars from me. Thank you to the author for sending me a copy of the audio book in return for my fair and honest review.
November 1, 2018
The Narrows by Travis M. Riddle is a story that mixes Stranger Things with a more modern setting, older characters, and deep pain for those characters. It’s an interesting read that definitely fits in the slightly spooky holiday reads category.
As always with Riddle’s work, you won’t find simple, flat characters here. The protagonists here are well drawn and believable. What’s more they each—especially Oliver, the main character—struggle with difficulties, pain, questions of friendship and loss. Somehow Riddle manages to craft all of this without seeming melodramatic. In each of Riddle’s novels he has managed to give us characters that are believable and very real. They feel very much like people who might live a few houses down from you. It’s very well done.
There are really only two areas of weakness I can readily point out. The first is that I felt like the book wasn’t quite spooky or creepy enough for me. There were some definite moments that were weird and appropriately creepy. But as a whole I would have liked a little more scariness to the novel. The second area has to do with pacing. The novel is not overly long, but there were sections where Oliver was remembering something from the past and I felt like those actually slowed down the action and plot a little too much for me. Riddle has used this technique in his other books and it has worked for me there, but here it didn’t. It’s possible these two areas are interrelated. The reminiscing may have ratcheted down the tension for me, thus leading to a general feeling of reduced spookiness.
If you’re looking for a quick fall read that is certainly creepy but not too scary, The Narrows may be the one for you. While it isn’t my favorite of Riddle’s novels, it’s a worthy entry—which is saying something coming from someone who generally doesn’t enjoy urban/contemporary fantasy. Also, if one of your characters makes a Legend of Legaia reference, I’m going to be pretty excited about that. 3.6/5 stars.
5 – I loved this, couldn’t put it down, move it to the top of your TBR pile
4 – I really enjoyed this, add it to the TBR pile
3 – I liked it, depending on your preferences it may be worth your time
2 – I didn’t like this book, it has significant flaws and I can’t recommend it
1 – I loathe this book with a most loathsome loathing
As always with Riddle’s work, you won’t find simple, flat characters here. The protagonists here are well drawn and believable. What’s more they each—especially Oliver, the main character—struggle with difficulties, pain, questions of friendship and loss. Somehow Riddle manages to craft all of this without seeming melodramatic. In each of Riddle’s novels he has managed to give us characters that are believable and very real. They feel very much like people who might live a few houses down from you. It’s very well done.
There are really only two areas of weakness I can readily point out. The first is that I felt like the book wasn’t quite spooky or creepy enough for me. There were some definite moments that were weird and appropriately creepy. But as a whole I would have liked a little more scariness to the novel. The second area has to do with pacing. The novel is not overly long, but there were sections where Oliver was remembering something from the past and I felt like those actually slowed down the action and plot a little too much for me. Riddle has used this technique in his other books and it has worked for me there, but here it didn’t. It’s possible these two areas are interrelated. The reminiscing may have ratcheted down the tension for me, thus leading to a general feeling of reduced spookiness.
If you’re looking for a quick fall read that is certainly creepy but not too scary, The Narrows may be the one for you. While it isn’t my favorite of Riddle’s novels, it’s a worthy entry—which is saying something coming from someone who generally doesn’t enjoy urban/contemporary fantasy. Also, if one of your characters makes a Legend of Legaia reference, I’m going to be pretty excited about that. 3.6/5 stars.
5 – I loved this, couldn’t put it down, move it to the top of your TBR pile
4 – I really enjoyed this, add it to the TBR pile
3 – I liked it, depending on your preferences it may be worth your time
2 – I didn’t like this book, it has significant flaws and I can’t recommend it
1 – I loathe this book with a most loathsome loathing
August 5, 2024
Brilliantly captures the ennui of millennial suburban young adulthood
I read this novel in one sitting and I enjoyed every minute. The main character, Oliver, is incredibly relatable, and if you grew up in the suburbs, you'll be nodding along to everything he experiences, both internally and externally. The horror elements are beautifully weaved in. Just a banger.
I read this novel in one sitting and I enjoyed every minute. The main character, Oliver, is incredibly relatable, and if you grew up in the suburbs, you'll be nodding along to everything he experiences, both internally and externally. The horror elements are beautifully weaved in. Just a banger.
May 21, 2019
3.5/5 RTC
April 17, 2021
I’ve read a fair number of books by this author, and I’m always so surprised by each book. They are all so wonderfully different from each other, you never really know what you’re going to get.
This is an urban fantasy/horror set in Texas in 2018. Three friends have gone back to their hometown after one of their childhood friends dies. He supposedly committed suicide by taking too many of his anti-depressants and was found in his car. Oliver, the main character of the story, doesn’t quite believe that. His friend Noah had never been known to have serious bouts of depression or suicidal tendencies, but what other explanation could there be? They had fallen out in the couple years preceeding his death, and because of that, Oliver has a whole host of battling emotions, he’s not even really sure if they were still friends when he died, they hadn’t spoken in so long.
Oliver goes back to the site where his friend passed, and discovered something horrifying. A man was convulsing on the ground in erratic ways, and he wasn’t sure if he was on some drugs or having a serious medical emergency. Before he could do anything to really help, since he didn’t have his phone to call for an ambulance, the man started throwing up bright flourescent orange liquid, then he started to melt like ice cream until there was nothing left. This is not a world where magic is supposed to exist, or monsters, or demons, or anything remotely like that. This is just like our world, so Oliver flips his shit but doesn’t tell anyone because maybe he’s just haveing a psychotic break.
Turns out, one of his friends is experiencing oddities, like someone’s distorted screams outside her bedroom window. They go to investigate but only Oliver sees something unusual, a monster on top of a house… except the house isn’t really the one he was supposed to be looking at. It’s like there’s another layer of reality or a different dimension sharing the same space. Honestly, just think of Stranger Things and it’s kind of like that. His friend didn’t see this, but she can tell by how distraught he is that he wasn’t making it up. What Oliver has stumbled upon is called The Narrows, and it’s a land of horrors and monsters.
I liked Oliver from the start, he’s just a nice relatable character that’s going through a major loss. I found his grief, mixed emotions, and process of dealing with loss very believable. I basically deal with death for a living, and not in a clinical and more typical doctor/nurse kind of way. A caretaker sits with a person all day long and hears stories of their lives, sees their decorations in their house, learns their likes and dislikes etc. After that I see what happens to the family when their loved one is gone and there are a wide range of reactions, but once you see it dozens of times over they fall into certain categories. I get hung up on a character if they have an odd or not-quite-right reaction to a major loss. There weren’t many characters in this story which gives it an intimate feeling. I liked the other side characters well enough, but I feel like I really only got to know Oliver and Ash.
This author has a way of making the prose flow so easy breezy that I barely notice I’m reading, if that makes sense. I get just enough description to get a picture in my head without focusing so much on it gets bloated and clogs the story. The dialogue is natural and believable and fades into the background. Good writing means that I’m not getting hung up on weird dialogue and clunky descriptions that pull me out of the story.
The pacing was a little slow for the first third of the book, it was giving a lot of context and relationship building between the characters and not much was happening with the plot. It did pick up speed and continue to go faster until it hit a crescendo right before the end. I also feel like the story was wrapped up nicely, it doesn’t say that this is part of a series on the Goodreads page, so I assume that this is a stand alone book. If so, there is a big unanswered question about his friend Noah that’s left ambiguous, and that never fails to drive me insane. It’s done on purpose and mimics life in that many times when we lose someone, we don’t get closure the way we want to, and we just have to deal with that and find a way to cope.
If you’re looking for a frightening horror that keeps you creeped out and scared, this is not that. This is something more similar to Stranger Things in that it’s creepy but not horrifying. If you like that kind of more nuanced horror/fantasy then I would definitely recommend this.
TLDR Snapshot:
Tropes: group of friends, seeing things no one else can, monsters
Tags: LGBT friendly, slow burn, character driven, spooky, good audio
Genre: Horror/urban fantasy
CW: Suicide
Ratings:
Plot: 11/15
Characters: 12.5/15
World Building: 11/15
Writing: 12.5/15
Pacing: 11/15
Originality: 11/15
Personal Enjoyment: 7/10
Final Score: 76/100 or 3.8/5 on Goodreads
This is an urban fantasy/horror set in Texas in 2018. Three friends have gone back to their hometown after one of their childhood friends dies. He supposedly committed suicide by taking too many of his anti-depressants and was found in his car. Oliver, the main character of the story, doesn’t quite believe that. His friend Noah had never been known to have serious bouts of depression or suicidal tendencies, but what other explanation could there be? They had fallen out in the couple years preceeding his death, and because of that, Oliver has a whole host of battling emotions, he’s not even really sure if they were still friends when he died, they hadn’t spoken in so long.
Oliver goes back to the site where his friend passed, and discovered something horrifying. A man was convulsing on the ground in erratic ways, and he wasn’t sure if he was on some drugs or having a serious medical emergency. Before he could do anything to really help, since he didn’t have his phone to call for an ambulance, the man started throwing up bright flourescent orange liquid, then he started to melt like ice cream until there was nothing left. This is not a world where magic is supposed to exist, or monsters, or demons, or anything remotely like that. This is just like our world, so Oliver flips his shit but doesn’t tell anyone because maybe he’s just haveing a psychotic break.
Turns out, one of his friends is experiencing oddities, like someone’s distorted screams outside her bedroom window. They go to investigate but only Oliver sees something unusual, a monster on top of a house… except the house isn’t really the one he was supposed to be looking at. It’s like there’s another layer of reality or a different dimension sharing the same space. Honestly, just think of Stranger Things and it’s kind of like that. His friend didn’t see this, but she can tell by how distraught he is that he wasn’t making it up. What Oliver has stumbled upon is called The Narrows, and it’s a land of horrors and monsters.
I liked Oliver from the start, he’s just a nice relatable character that’s going through a major loss. I found his grief, mixed emotions, and process of dealing with loss very believable. I basically deal with death for a living, and not in a clinical and more typical doctor/nurse kind of way. A caretaker sits with a person all day long and hears stories of their lives, sees their decorations in their house, learns their likes and dislikes etc. After that I see what happens to the family when their loved one is gone and there are a wide range of reactions, but once you see it dozens of times over they fall into certain categories. I get hung up on a character if they have an odd or not-quite-right reaction to a major loss. There weren’t many characters in this story which gives it an intimate feeling. I liked the other side characters well enough, but I feel like I really only got to know Oliver and Ash.
This author has a way of making the prose flow so easy breezy that I barely notice I’m reading, if that makes sense. I get just enough description to get a picture in my head without focusing so much on it gets bloated and clogs the story. The dialogue is natural and believable and fades into the background. Good writing means that I’m not getting hung up on weird dialogue and clunky descriptions that pull me out of the story.
The pacing was a little slow for the first third of the book, it was giving a lot of context and relationship building between the characters and not much was happening with the plot. It did pick up speed and continue to go faster until it hit a crescendo right before the end. I also feel like the story was wrapped up nicely, it doesn’t say that this is part of a series on the Goodreads page, so I assume that this is a stand alone book. If so, there is a big unanswered question about his friend Noah that’s left ambiguous, and that never fails to drive me insane. It’s done on purpose and mimics life in that many times when we lose someone, we don’t get closure the way we want to, and we just have to deal with that and find a way to cope.
If you’re looking for a frightening horror that keeps you creeped out and scared, this is not that. This is something more similar to Stranger Things in that it’s creepy but not horrifying. If you like that kind of more nuanced horror/fantasy then I would definitely recommend this.
TLDR Snapshot:
Tropes: group of friends, seeing things no one else can, monsters
Tags: LGBT friendly, slow burn, character driven, spooky, good audio
Genre: Horror/urban fantasy
CW: Suicide
Ratings:
Plot: 11/15
Characters: 12.5/15
World Building: 11/15
Writing: 12.5/15
Pacing: 11/15
Originality: 11/15
Personal Enjoyment: 7/10
Final Score: 76/100 or 3.8/5 on Goodreads
June 11, 2019
A unique and satisfying contemporary fantasy story
The Narrows is a quick, fairly short standalone that tells the story of a group of friends returning to the small town they grew up in for a funeral. The writing is fairly polished, aside from the occasional odd phrasing. I have only a mild complaint about how many plates of food were described in these 200 pages. Nitpicks aside, the writing was very smooth and successfully sets the tone for the story. The mystery of The Narrows is introduced fairly early, and yet no real action on that front happens until after the halfway point of the book. Though it seems like that would make for a rather slow start, I was actually surprised to discover I was that far along. The characters were so real and engaging to me that I didn’t mind that so much of the story was unrelated to the supernatural events.
The Narrows takes place in a small town in Texas where our main characters grew up together. The town is cozy and presented with lots of nostalgia from our characters, noting the park where they used to hang out and the neighborhoods where friends lived, as well as new additions that feel out-of-place and foreign. The author does an excellent job of conveying these feelings through the characters, making them very relatable. It’s easy to parallel one’s own hometown nostalgia with the characters’ simple observations. However, this small town also hides an alternate reality of sorts, which our main character discovers quite accidentally. This alternate reality is called The Narrows, and is home to strange and frightening creatures. This is where the horror elements are born.
Oliver is our main character, and we follow his perspective as he and his two friends, Davontae and Sophia, return to their hometown to bury their childhood friend, Noah. All three friends are very different people, who have gone their own ways in life but remained close friends. This story leads the reader to explore many ideas about what it means and what it takes to remain friends with one’s childhood group into adulthood. It is the characterization of these three friends, as well as supporting characters in the story, that really were this book’s highlight for me.
This would best be categorized as small scale story, I think, and I would recommend it to those looking foremost for a story about characters. Though it has some horror elements, I would only categorize a few scenes as explicitly “horror”, while the rest is more of an atmospheric feeling of eeriness. Ultimately, this book is a story about its characters, their friendship, and dealing with the loss of one of their own. If you're looking for a unique contemporary fantasy story about some characters that you'll feel you know personally, check out The Narrows.
The Narrows is a quick, fairly short standalone that tells the story of a group of friends returning to the small town they grew up in for a funeral. The writing is fairly polished, aside from the occasional odd phrasing. I have only a mild complaint about how many plates of food were described in these 200 pages. Nitpicks aside, the writing was very smooth and successfully sets the tone for the story. The mystery of The Narrows is introduced fairly early, and yet no real action on that front happens until after the halfway point of the book. Though it seems like that would make for a rather slow start, I was actually surprised to discover I was that far along. The characters were so real and engaging to me that I didn’t mind that so much of the story was unrelated to the supernatural events.
The Narrows takes place in a small town in Texas where our main characters grew up together. The town is cozy and presented with lots of nostalgia from our characters, noting the park where they used to hang out and the neighborhoods where friends lived, as well as new additions that feel out-of-place and foreign. The author does an excellent job of conveying these feelings through the characters, making them very relatable. It’s easy to parallel one’s own hometown nostalgia with the characters’ simple observations. However, this small town also hides an alternate reality of sorts, which our main character discovers quite accidentally. This alternate reality is called The Narrows, and is home to strange and frightening creatures. This is where the horror elements are born.
Oliver is our main character, and we follow his perspective as he and his two friends, Davontae and Sophia, return to their hometown to bury their childhood friend, Noah. All three friends are very different people, who have gone their own ways in life but remained close friends. This story leads the reader to explore many ideas about what it means and what it takes to remain friends with one’s childhood group into adulthood. It is the characterization of these three friends, as well as supporting characters in the story, that really were this book’s highlight for me.
This would best be categorized as small scale story, I think, and I would recommend it to those looking foremost for a story about characters. Though it has some horror elements, I would only categorize a few scenes as explicitly “horror”, while the rest is more of an atmospheric feeling of eeriness. Ultimately, this book is a story about its characters, their friendship, and dealing with the loss of one of their own. If you're looking for a unique contemporary fantasy story about some characters that you'll feel you know personally, check out The Narrows.
November 2, 2018
A good introduction to the author. It is exciting and written in such a way that 20-somethings will identify greatly with the characters.
August 24, 2019
Full review is here on my blog!~
This is the story of Oliver, who is recently back in his hometown to attend the funeral of one of his best friends from high school. What Oliver discovers when he is visiting the place in which his friend Noah allegedly committed suicide is a man melt into a gross mushroom-filled orange liquid accompanied by a loud buzzing sound. All this culminates into Oliver discovering another world known as The Narrows, and he knows that this place and its creepy denizens are responsible for the death of his friend. And so he goes to investigate.
This one has a real good Stranger Things vibe in the latter half, as The Narrows seem quite similar to The Upside Down. It takes place in the present day and follows people who are in their mid-twenties, but the creepy-other-world vibe is very strong.
I actually have a bit of a fortunate advantage here, in that this story takes place in a made-up suburb of Houston, and I also live in a suburb of Houston (albeit on a different side of the city than the city this is based on). This means I get a lot of little things about living here that this book lays out there. Kolaches, for example, are mentioned quite a lot here (making me want some), and will either be an unfamiliar phenomenon, or mean different things depending on where you live (especially if you are from Europe). They are a huge thing in this particular part of Texas, and in this context refer to a sweet bread usually filled with things like sausage, cheese, egg, and/or jalapeño. It sounds a little silly, but this familiarity made me a little more at home in the setting, because I can quite literally imagine myself in it, lol. ^_^
That said, the underlying creepiness of The Narrows was easy to imagine, and the horror-fantasy atmosphere was really gripping. This was a very well written story, and I found myself immersed right in it. There is a pretty diverse cast of characters, with characters of all kinds of races, genders and sexualities. Most of the characters were well fleshed out and had unique quirks and personalities. I listened to the entire thing in two days. I cheered for Oliver, and hoped for him to save the day and find out what happened to his friend.
The narrator, Scott R. Smith did a pretty great job. He brought each character to life. My only real issue with the audiobook as a whole was that at times, you could hear things in the background of the audio recording. Usually birds tweeting, which… wasn’t necessarily the worst thing one can hear in the background of an audiobook, but it was certainly distracting from time to time.
So all told I liked this one a lot. An Urban-Fantasy-Horror which felt like a modern-set Stranger Things with more Waffle House, BBQ, and Kolaches. I’m on board with those things, and so I had a good time with this one.
This review is based on a review copy of the audiobook. Thanks to the author for the review copy!
This is the story of Oliver, who is recently back in his hometown to attend the funeral of one of his best friends from high school. What Oliver discovers when he is visiting the place in which his friend Noah allegedly committed suicide is a man melt into a gross mushroom-filled orange liquid accompanied by a loud buzzing sound. All this culminates into Oliver discovering another world known as The Narrows, and he knows that this place and its creepy denizens are responsible for the death of his friend. And so he goes to investigate.
This one has a real good Stranger Things vibe in the latter half, as The Narrows seem quite similar to The Upside Down. It takes place in the present day and follows people who are in their mid-twenties, but the creepy-other-world vibe is very strong.
I actually have a bit of a fortunate advantage here, in that this story takes place in a made-up suburb of Houston, and I also live in a suburb of Houston (albeit on a different side of the city than the city this is based on). This means I get a lot of little things about living here that this book lays out there. Kolaches, for example, are mentioned quite a lot here (making me want some), and will either be an unfamiliar phenomenon, or mean different things depending on where you live (especially if you are from Europe). They are a huge thing in this particular part of Texas, and in this context refer to a sweet bread usually filled with things like sausage, cheese, egg, and/or jalapeño. It sounds a little silly, but this familiarity made me a little more at home in the setting, because I can quite literally imagine myself in it, lol. ^_^
That said, the underlying creepiness of The Narrows was easy to imagine, and the horror-fantasy atmosphere was really gripping. This was a very well written story, and I found myself immersed right in it. There is a pretty diverse cast of characters, with characters of all kinds of races, genders and sexualities. Most of the characters were well fleshed out and had unique quirks and personalities. I listened to the entire thing in two days. I cheered for Oliver, and hoped for him to save the day and find out what happened to his friend.
The narrator, Scott R. Smith did a pretty great job. He brought each character to life. My only real issue with the audiobook as a whole was that at times, you could hear things in the background of the audio recording. Usually birds tweeting, which… wasn’t necessarily the worst thing one can hear in the background of an audiobook, but it was certainly distracting from time to time.
So all told I liked this one a lot. An Urban-Fantasy-Horror which felt like a modern-set Stranger Things with more Waffle House, BBQ, and Kolaches. I’m on board with those things, and so I had a good time with this one.
This review is based on a review copy of the audiobook. Thanks to the author for the review copy!
June 20, 2019
I couldn’t tell whether the stronger vibe here was that of Stranger Things, or IT. A group of friends, a death, an entirely creepy parallel universe of decay - all combined to make The Narrows an eerie and yet somehow relatable plunge into darkness.
Riddle’s real strength here is his characterisation. Each deeply affected by the death of their friend, each dealing with their own stuff, and each as expertly cast as the other, Riddle spends an important amount of time on them, and it pays off. As the characters return to their hometown for their friend’s funeral, we see them visit the places they grew up in, reminiscing and remembering their childhood. It worked really well to reinforce their personalities and motivations, and the mention of Mario Kart 64 definitely tweaked a heartstring or two for me.
I enjoyed the exploration of childhood, and the study of the characters’ relationship changes more than I did the supernatural aspect of the book. It’s a relatively short novel, and the actual level of horror scenes is a small offering in comparison to the heavier feeling of doom and foreshadowing which pervades the majority of the novel. Nevertheless, Riddle’s execution was excellent, his creation and release of tension employed well, and the ambiguous ending was a masterstroke.
My life has recently been overtaken by Stardew Valley, and I imagined the knave as a distorted version of this guy:
Please let me know if that’s somehow a sacrilege; it seemed fitting and amusing at the time.
A definite contender for someone who’d like something quick and creepy - a real must for those who like to analyse relationships, emotion, and nostalgia for things we no longer possess.
Riddle’s real strength here is his characterisation. Each deeply affected by the death of their friend, each dealing with their own stuff, and each as expertly cast as the other, Riddle spends an important amount of time on them, and it pays off. As the characters return to their hometown for their friend’s funeral, we see them visit the places they grew up in, reminiscing and remembering their childhood. It worked really well to reinforce their personalities and motivations, and the mention of Mario Kart 64 definitely tweaked a heartstring or two for me.
I enjoyed the exploration of childhood, and the study of the characters’ relationship changes more than I did the supernatural aspect of the book. It’s a relatively short novel, and the actual level of horror scenes is a small offering in comparison to the heavier feeling of doom and foreshadowing which pervades the majority of the novel. Nevertheless, Riddle’s execution was excellent, his creation and release of tension employed well, and the ambiguous ending was a masterstroke.
My life has recently been overtaken by Stardew Valley, and I imagined the knave as a distorted version of this guy:
Please let me know if that’s somehow a sacrilege; it seemed fitting and amusing at the time.
A definite contender for someone who’d like something quick and creepy - a real must for those who like to analyse relationships, emotion, and nostalgia for things we no longer possess.
February 22, 2019
I was almost halfway through The Narrows before I realized I was almost halfway through and it dawned on me that by normal definitions, maybe not a lot had happened. I say this not as a criticism but as a kudos to how the author can draw you in without a lot of action and you won't even notice the lack!
A creepy slice-of-life and portal fantasy to a world you definitely don't want to go with characters you absolutely care about.
A creepy slice-of-life and portal fantasy to a world you definitely don't want to go with characters you absolutely care about.
October 29, 2018
*4.5
What a fantastic story! Once again, if the plot and writing style somehow aren't enough to grab you, then the characters most definitely will.
Find this review at Forever Lost in Literature!
The Narrows is a spooky little horror story that combines a myriad of components to create a compelling, imaginative, and highly entertaining story. This is a great book to read for the Halloween and holiday reading period, as it has a wonderfully mysterious atmosphere that pervades the entire book as well as contains that post-holiday feeling of indifference that we all know and expect.
My favorite thing about Riddle's writing is how he slowly feeds information about the characters and the plot in small, essential doses--it's just enough to prompt you to understand something or cause you to ask more questions, which in turn makes for a book that is impossible to put down. He's also so a master at writing characters that I actively wanted to hear more about, including their background and minute details about them.
The horror aspect was done really well. It was more of a quiet spookiness for the majority of the story, rather than something blatantly and obviously horrifying. There were, of course, some very overt and outrageous moments, but the rest of the time was more about wondering about the unknown and trying to figure out just what sort of crazy things were happening to Oliver and the town of Shumard.
As much as I loved the main horror plot, the other main area in which Riddle shines is with his characters. This is something that I started to realize when I read my first book from Riddle (Balam, Spring), but that really stood out to me as I read this book. There's something exceptionally authentic and realistic about the characters Riddle creates, something that brings them to life in different ways than a lot of books seem to do. Every character somehow feels like someone I would actually meet or interact with on a regular basis. They aren't boring by any means, but they're wonderfully normal and simply living their lives like any normal person would, complete with complex relationships and, you know, the occasional otherworldly experience.
Oliver was a great protagonist. He's intelligent and caring, but as with any human, he can easily make mistakes or jump to conclusions. I did appreciate that he seemed rather open-minded about both people and the crazy things happening in this book, which made him someone I actively liked as a person. Oliver is a bit stubborn about doing dangerous things that he probably shouldn't be doing, but it wasn't overdone and he actually had good reasons for doing them most of the time, so I didn't really find myself annoyed with him at all. The rest of the characters in this book are all equally interesting and had strong, well-developed personalities. I thought that Riddle's inclusion of a transgender character was one of the best I've seen. It was very intelligently done in a manner that, although was very clear and highlighted this person's character, was still somewhat subtle and felt very natural. It's handled with a deftness that almost made it stand out more in a positive way than I expected.
Another great part about these characters was the friendships and various relationships among them all. Riddle created some strong and in-depth, complex friendships between different characters and examined the good and bad of those relationships, both of those that have lasted and those that have fallen apart.
I also have to mention how I loved the ending immensely. I can't actually say why I loved it because of spoilers, but suffice to say it made me enormously pleased and I had a huge smile on my face because of how Riddle chose to end it. And lastly, I just have to mention that I think the cover is fantastic and could not do a better job at representing the story. It's a bit creepy and unnatural and the details also reflects details of the story extremely well.
Overall, I've given The Narrows 4.5 stars!
What a fantastic story! Once again, if the plot and writing style somehow aren't enough to grab you, then the characters most definitely will.
Find this review at Forever Lost in Literature!
The Narrows is a spooky little horror story that combines a myriad of components to create a compelling, imaginative, and highly entertaining story. This is a great book to read for the Halloween and holiday reading period, as it has a wonderfully mysterious atmosphere that pervades the entire book as well as contains that post-holiday feeling of indifference that we all know and expect.
My favorite thing about Riddle's writing is how he slowly feeds information about the characters and the plot in small, essential doses--it's just enough to prompt you to understand something or cause you to ask more questions, which in turn makes for a book that is impossible to put down. He's also so a master at writing characters that I actively wanted to hear more about, including their background and minute details about them.
The horror aspect was done really well. It was more of a quiet spookiness for the majority of the story, rather than something blatantly and obviously horrifying. There were, of course, some very overt and outrageous moments, but the rest of the time was more about wondering about the unknown and trying to figure out just what sort of crazy things were happening to Oliver and the town of Shumard.
As much as I loved the main horror plot, the other main area in which Riddle shines is with his characters. This is something that I started to realize when I read my first book from Riddle (Balam, Spring), but that really stood out to me as I read this book. There's something exceptionally authentic and realistic about the characters Riddle creates, something that brings them to life in different ways than a lot of books seem to do. Every character somehow feels like someone I would actually meet or interact with on a regular basis. They aren't boring by any means, but they're wonderfully normal and simply living their lives like any normal person would, complete with complex relationships and, you know, the occasional otherworldly experience.
Oliver was a great protagonist. He's intelligent and caring, but as with any human, he can easily make mistakes or jump to conclusions. I did appreciate that he seemed rather open-minded about both people and the crazy things happening in this book, which made him someone I actively liked as a person. Oliver is a bit stubborn about doing dangerous things that he probably shouldn't be doing, but it wasn't overdone and he actually had good reasons for doing them most of the time, so I didn't really find myself annoyed with him at all. The rest of the characters in this book are all equally interesting and had strong, well-developed personalities. I thought that Riddle's inclusion of a transgender character was one of the best I've seen. It was very intelligently done in a manner that, although was very clear and highlighted this person's character, was still somewhat subtle and felt very natural. It's handled with a deftness that almost made it stand out more in a positive way than I expected.
Another great part about these characters was the friendships and various relationships among them all. Riddle created some strong and in-depth, complex friendships between different characters and examined the good and bad of those relationships, both of those that have lasted and those that have fallen apart.
I also have to mention how I loved the ending immensely. I can't actually say why I loved it because of spoilers, but suffice to say it made me enormously pleased and I had a huge smile on my face because of how Riddle chose to end it. And lastly, I just have to mention that I think the cover is fantastic and could not do a better job at representing the story. It's a bit creepy and unnatural and the details also reflects details of the story extremely well.
Overall, I've given The Narrows 4.5 stars!
October 25, 2021
3.5 There’s a very specific suburban millennial angst coursing through this book. A group of friends, post college find themselves getting jobs and moving on with life when they hear about the suicide of an old friend. The main character reflects on his own privilege and the people who they grew up playing Mario Kart with, grilling with suburban moms and suspiciously missing dads. In his journey to understand what had become of his friend, Oliver happens upon a creepy alternate dimension and a sinister gatekeeper. There’s some urban fantasy and a little horror but also a heartfelt mediation of why some people can move on while others are left behind. Rich characterization overcomes an undercooked story with some unique world-building.
December 28, 2019
Travis M. Riddle delivers a dark and creepy exploration into the memory of place and friendship in The Narrows.
I actually read The Narrows as part of my Spooky Reads back in October. As sometimes *often* happens with me one thing led to another and I am just now getting to write-up this review. But maybe it’s fitting since the book is set around Christmas. Thankfully I took notes as I read.
The Narrows is told from a single point of view; that of Oliver. He has just returned home for the funeral of his childhood best friend Noah who was recently found dead in his car. Nobody knows why or even knew Noah was in town. Oliver has a lot of unprocessed anger and resentment toward his old friend because of the way they drifted apart after high school. As Oliver begins to unpack his thoughts and feelings he becomes aware of something off in his hometown, something supernatural, an alternate world hidden behind a veil in reality. When Noah passes through that veil he discovers a chilling secret and perhaps an explanation for what happened to his friend.
While Oliver tries to figure out the secret horrors of The Narrows he simultaneously struggles with the events of the past. The book alternates between Oliver’s past memories of his friends growing up, time in college, early adulthood, and specifically the way he and Noah drifted apart. It’s obvious Oliver has been holding on to these feelings for a while but now it’s too late to talk to Noah about them because he’s gone. Oliver must sift through not just his sadness at his friend’s death but his anger; anger about the past and anger that Noah’s gone. All of this drives him to find out the truth about what is going on in his town, in The Narrows, and about his friend’s death.
What struck me almost immediately during my read of The Narrows was it’s sense of place and friendship. Specifically the sense of place and friendship in one’s memory. You know that old adage, “you can never go home again?” The idea that once you leave a place for an extended period of time everything is different when you come back? All the changes that happened in the intervening time serve to cut you off from that place in such a way that it never feels right again; it will always feel wrong. That’s exactly what Oliver is feeling and going through and the reader is taken down that path with him as he tries to navigate his way back to some sense of normalcy. Yet the past can’t be brought into the future and memory is painful when there is no closure.
Riddle brings that sense of place and friendship to the fore in familiar ways. The Narrows is set in Texas but I felt like it could have been describing my hometown in North West Florida, right down to the Waffle House the characters love to eat at. In fact the story starts in a Waffle House as the characters arrive back in town and head out for a bite to eat. If you’ve never eaten at a Waffle House I don’t know that I can adequately describe the experience in this review, but Riddle brought it all home to me. I felt just like I was there with a group of friends eating greasy diner food and drinking coffee after a night of doing nothing. And in that opening scene I could already feel the longing Oliver has for things to be the way they used to be. Riddle latches onto the familiar feelings and regrets all of us have about old friends and hometowns and uses that to set a tone and mood for the entire book. He then takes that tone and mood and goes a little darker with it.
I’ve seen a number of reviewers compare The Narrows to Stranger Things. I don’t know if that’s an apt comparison or not because I’ve only watched a few episodes of season 1 of Stranger Things. You can yell at me later. What I CAN say is The Narrows is definitely creepy and dark. In fact I did say that up at the top. Once Oliver begins to get a sense of The Narrows that mood gets ratcheted up. It gets darker and darker as he explores this alternate reality and realizes just how much everyone may be in danger. His one glimmer of hope is that just maybe he can bring his dead friend back from the other side.
The Narrows isn’t a terrifying book. I label it as supernatural and horror, but like many horror novels it doesn’t scare the pants off you. Instead it takes a theme and explores the darker side of our mind’s thoughts about it. That being said, I was hoping the book would have frightened me a little more. At 256 pages this isn’t a long book and there was definitely the potential for more to be done in this regard without making it overly dense. All the elements were there and Riddle did go down that path, but by the end I felt we’d taken a short-cut, that he’d spared us the long way through the neighborhood so to speak.
When I first finished the book I wasn’t sure what to make of the ending. It felt a little unsettled. After having sat on it a while between my reading of it and this review I’ve come to realize the end does fit. I won’t give it away except to say Riddle sticks with that theme of place and friendship and whether you can ever really go home again. In the end perhaps the horror of the story isn’t in whether it terrifies you, but rather in whether it leaves you in that unsettled place wondering if things can ever be the same again.
3.5 of 5 Stars
I actually read The Narrows as part of my Spooky Reads back in October. As sometimes *often* happens with me one thing led to another and I am just now getting to write-up this review. But maybe it’s fitting since the book is set around Christmas. Thankfully I took notes as I read.
The Narrows is told from a single point of view; that of Oliver. He has just returned home for the funeral of his childhood best friend Noah who was recently found dead in his car. Nobody knows why or even knew Noah was in town. Oliver has a lot of unprocessed anger and resentment toward his old friend because of the way they drifted apart after high school. As Oliver begins to unpack his thoughts and feelings he becomes aware of something off in his hometown, something supernatural, an alternate world hidden behind a veil in reality. When Noah passes through that veil he discovers a chilling secret and perhaps an explanation for what happened to his friend.
While Oliver tries to figure out the secret horrors of The Narrows he simultaneously struggles with the events of the past. The book alternates between Oliver’s past memories of his friends growing up, time in college, early adulthood, and specifically the way he and Noah drifted apart. It’s obvious Oliver has been holding on to these feelings for a while but now it’s too late to talk to Noah about them because he’s gone. Oliver must sift through not just his sadness at his friend’s death but his anger; anger about the past and anger that Noah’s gone. All of this drives him to find out the truth about what is going on in his town, in The Narrows, and about his friend’s death.
What struck me almost immediately during my read of The Narrows was it’s sense of place and friendship. Specifically the sense of place and friendship in one’s memory. You know that old adage, “you can never go home again?” The idea that once you leave a place for an extended period of time everything is different when you come back? All the changes that happened in the intervening time serve to cut you off from that place in such a way that it never feels right again; it will always feel wrong. That’s exactly what Oliver is feeling and going through and the reader is taken down that path with him as he tries to navigate his way back to some sense of normalcy. Yet the past can’t be brought into the future and memory is painful when there is no closure.
Riddle brings that sense of place and friendship to the fore in familiar ways. The Narrows is set in Texas but I felt like it could have been describing my hometown in North West Florida, right down to the Waffle House the characters love to eat at. In fact the story starts in a Waffle House as the characters arrive back in town and head out for a bite to eat. If you’ve never eaten at a Waffle House I don’t know that I can adequately describe the experience in this review, but Riddle brought it all home to me. I felt just like I was there with a group of friends eating greasy diner food and drinking coffee after a night of doing nothing. And in that opening scene I could already feel the longing Oliver has for things to be the way they used to be. Riddle latches onto the familiar feelings and regrets all of us have about old friends and hometowns and uses that to set a tone and mood for the entire book. He then takes that tone and mood and goes a little darker with it.
I’ve seen a number of reviewers compare The Narrows to Stranger Things. I don’t know if that’s an apt comparison or not because I’ve only watched a few episodes of season 1 of Stranger Things. You can yell at me later. What I CAN say is The Narrows is definitely creepy and dark. In fact I did say that up at the top. Once Oliver begins to get a sense of The Narrows that mood gets ratcheted up. It gets darker and darker as he explores this alternate reality and realizes just how much everyone may be in danger. His one glimmer of hope is that just maybe he can bring his dead friend back from the other side.
The Narrows isn’t a terrifying book. I label it as supernatural and horror, but like many horror novels it doesn’t scare the pants off you. Instead it takes a theme and explores the darker side of our mind’s thoughts about it. That being said, I was hoping the book would have frightened me a little more. At 256 pages this isn’t a long book and there was definitely the potential for more to be done in this regard without making it overly dense. All the elements were there and Riddle did go down that path, but by the end I felt we’d taken a short-cut, that he’d spared us the long way through the neighborhood so to speak.
When I first finished the book I wasn’t sure what to make of the ending. It felt a little unsettled. After having sat on it a while between my reading of it and this review I’ve come to realize the end does fit. I won’t give it away except to say Riddle sticks with that theme of place and friendship and whether you can ever really go home again. In the end perhaps the horror of the story isn’t in whether it terrifies you, but rather in whether it leaves you in that unsettled place wondering if things can ever be the same again.
3.5 of 5 Stars
October 27, 2018
Oliver, Sophie and Davontae have returned to their home town of Shumard, Texas for the funeral of their friend, Noah. Each are dealing with the shock and loss in their own way, but things take an unexpected turn when Oliver gets a glimpse of a world parallel to their own. Visited by a dark being known as the Knave, Oliver soon finds himself dragged into a chilling adventure and questioning what really happened to Noah.
First things first, I have to say I adore the cover of this book. It’s a beautiful piece of artwork and it represents the story very well. I also adore Travis’ writing, and this one certainly did not disappoint. The Narrows bears some close similarities to Stranger Things with it’s dark, mysterious ‘other’ world (and I have to admit, I was a little bit sceptical about this shared theme when I started reading) but it’s such a different story and actually very original.
Although it is, essentially, a horror story, this book also contains a lovely story of friendship, with fantastic and realistic relationships between the group. It also deals – very sensitively, I thought – with the aftermath of suicide and the way people process the loss of a friend to suicide. The Narrows is a book filled with heart, alongside the creepiness and gore.
Oliver was a great character. He, of course, does the typical lead-character thing of heading off into the danger alone, which is usually something that really frustrates me, but his reasons for not including his friends are properly explained and completely understandable. Plus, he does go to them for help eventually. My personal favourite character, however, was the Knave. He’s super creepy and evil, and just generally fabulous.
One of the characters, Sophie, is transgender and this element was pulled of incredibly well. It was great to see the representation, and it wasn’t forced at all (as these things can often be). The fact that Sophie used to be a boy is mentioned only for context and fitted in perfectly without becoming a focal point for the story.
I actually can’t think of a single thing I didn’t like about this book. Read it.
I received a copy of this book from the author in exchange for an honest review.
First things first, I have to say I adore the cover of this book. It’s a beautiful piece of artwork and it represents the story very well. I also adore Travis’ writing, and this one certainly did not disappoint. The Narrows bears some close similarities to Stranger Things with it’s dark, mysterious ‘other’ world (and I have to admit, I was a little bit sceptical about this shared theme when I started reading) but it’s such a different story and actually very original.
Although it is, essentially, a horror story, this book also contains a lovely story of friendship, with fantastic and realistic relationships between the group. It also deals – very sensitively, I thought – with the aftermath of suicide and the way people process the loss of a friend to suicide. The Narrows is a book filled with heart, alongside the creepiness and gore.
Oliver was a great character. He, of course, does the typical lead-character thing of heading off into the danger alone, which is usually something that really frustrates me, but his reasons for not including his friends are properly explained and completely understandable. Plus, he does go to them for help eventually. My personal favourite character, however, was the Knave. He’s super creepy and evil, and just generally fabulous.
One of the characters, Sophie, is transgender and this element was pulled of incredibly well. It was great to see the representation, and it wasn’t forced at all (as these things can often be). The fact that Sophie used to be a boy is mentioned only for context and fitted in perfectly without becoming a focal point for the story.
I actually can’t think of a single thing I didn’t like about this book. Read it.
I received a copy of this book from the author in exchange for an honest review.
December 7, 2018
This book was absolutely amazing, horror books have to be some of the hardest books to write but Travis really outdid himself. All of the characters were well written, especially Oliver and Ash. Throughout the book I was able to either feel for or somewhat relate to Oliver and/or Ash.
Spoilers start here!
Around the middle of the book, when Oliver first entered the Narrows with the knave, the most obvious outcome of this would be Oliver getting attacked. What amazed me is that this part of the book was written in a way that gave you a sense of security with the knave, you were too busy thinking about Noah to even realise that the knave was about to kill Oliver. I actually had to take a second to stop and wonder why the hell I didn’t realise that was going to happen when it was so obvious.
Another part that I loved about this book was how Oliver was frequently talking to Noah. I thought this concept was incredible; It helped the reader to understand Oliver and his line of thinking.
There were also a lot of events that really shocked me, such as Oliver revealing that he actually found Noah’s gem in the knave’s lair. It was hard not to come up with theories for why he didn’t tell anyone he found it, or why he didn’t take it.
I also thought that it was clever how Travis decided to keep Eric dead, I thought that it really added to the story. Even though I barely knew anything about Eric, I felt like I should mourn for him after he was unable to come back. This ESPECIALLY made you feel for Ash.
Alright, last point. The ending was spectacular, it was completely unexpected. I remember at one point I was actually terrified that Oliver would kill himself in the same place Noah had. It was written in such a way that I was unsure whether Oliver had become suicidal or not. Then the CLIFFHANGER, that really got me. I had to sit and think about my life after that cliffhanger for awhile. The cliffhanger was completely unexpected and honestly, I think it tied up the book well. I feel like it’s completely open for a sequel, or it could be left open for the readers to come up with theories. Either way, it was set up well and I loved it.
In conclusion to this long review, I loved every second of this book. I have not yet read any of Travis’s other books, but now I can’t wait! Overall I thought the book was extremely well written and clever, and I could go on about this for hours without getting tired of it. Thank you for writing such a spectacular book Travis.
Spoilers start here!
Around the middle of the book, when Oliver first entered the Narrows with the knave, the most obvious outcome of this would be Oliver getting attacked. What amazed me is that this part of the book was written in a way that gave you a sense of security with the knave, you were too busy thinking about Noah to even realise that the knave was about to kill Oliver. I actually had to take a second to stop and wonder why the hell I didn’t realise that was going to happen when it was so obvious.
Another part that I loved about this book was how Oliver was frequently talking to Noah. I thought this concept was incredible; It helped the reader to understand Oliver and his line of thinking.
There were also a lot of events that really shocked me, such as Oliver revealing that he actually found Noah’s gem in the knave’s lair. It was hard not to come up with theories for why he didn’t tell anyone he found it, or why he didn’t take it.
I also thought that it was clever how Travis decided to keep Eric dead, I thought that it really added to the story. Even though I barely knew anything about Eric, I felt like I should mourn for him after he was unable to come back. This ESPECIALLY made you feel for Ash.
Alright, last point. The ending was spectacular, it was completely unexpected. I remember at one point I was actually terrified that Oliver would kill himself in the same place Noah had. It was written in such a way that I was unsure whether Oliver had become suicidal or not. Then the CLIFFHANGER, that really got me. I had to sit and think about my life after that cliffhanger for awhile. The cliffhanger was completely unexpected and honestly, I think it tied up the book well. I feel like it’s completely open for a sequel, or it could be left open for the readers to come up with theories. Either way, it was set up well and I loved it.
In conclusion to this long review, I loved every second of this book. I have not yet read any of Travis’s other books, but now I can’t wait! Overall I thought the book was extremely well written and clever, and I could go on about this for hours without getting tired of it. Thank you for writing such a spectacular book Travis.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 11, 2019
I received a copy of the book from the author in exchange for an honest review
The Narrows by Travis M Riddle is a short and enjoyable supernatural mystery/horror novel with engaging and interesting characters
In The Narrows, a group of friends has returned to their hometown for the funeral of an old friend. They reminisce and catch up with old acquaintances, but the main character sees or hears a number of disturbing things that cast doubt on the circumstances of his friend’s death, and becomes embroiled in supernatural events as he investigates.
The best part of this book was the characters and the interactions between them. The way the characters and their actions were described made them all seem very realistic and multifaceted. Their interactions and group dynamics supplemented by stories of the group’s history made them all very enjoyable to read. The behavior of the characters was very reasonable under the conditions of the story and there were no instances of individuals behaving out of character to move the plot a certain way. There was a solid balance between serious and comic conversations, allowing the plot to move forward but not sacrificing characterization to do so.
The supernatural element of the book was my least favorite part, since while I felt that the suspense and horror elements were built up well over the course of the book, I wasn’t satisfied with their final execution or the way that aspect of the story concluded. Despite that, the supernatural elements were sufficiently explained that what was happening was understandable, and the way the characters interacted with the supernatural elements mitigated some of the things I didn’t enjoy.
The conclusion of the story as a whole gave good closure to the characters, but I would have liked to see a bit more of a wrap-up of the supernatural side of the story.
I don’t really read much horror, but I still enjoyed The Narrows since the horror isn’t too scary or creepy, mainly slightly disturbing at times. Overall, the strength of this story was definitely in its well-crafted characters, and I would definitely recommend giving this book a try.
4/5
The Narrows by Travis M Riddle is a short and enjoyable supernatural mystery/horror novel with engaging and interesting characters
In The Narrows, a group of friends has returned to their hometown for the funeral of an old friend. They reminisce and catch up with old acquaintances, but the main character sees or hears a number of disturbing things that cast doubt on the circumstances of his friend’s death, and becomes embroiled in supernatural events as he investigates.
The best part of this book was the characters and the interactions between them. The way the characters and their actions were described made them all seem very realistic and multifaceted. Their interactions and group dynamics supplemented by stories of the group’s history made them all very enjoyable to read. The behavior of the characters was very reasonable under the conditions of the story and there were no instances of individuals behaving out of character to move the plot a certain way. There was a solid balance between serious and comic conversations, allowing the plot to move forward but not sacrificing characterization to do so.
The supernatural element of the book was my least favorite part, since while I felt that the suspense and horror elements were built up well over the course of the book, I wasn’t satisfied with their final execution or the way that aspect of the story concluded. Despite that, the supernatural elements were sufficiently explained that what was happening was understandable, and the way the characters interacted with the supernatural elements mitigated some of the things I didn’t enjoy.
The conclusion of the story as a whole gave good closure to the characters, but I would have liked to see a bit more of a wrap-up of the supernatural side of the story.
I don’t really read much horror, but I still enjoyed The Narrows since the horror isn’t too scary or creepy, mainly slightly disturbing at times. Overall, the strength of this story was definitely in its well-crafted characters, and I would definitely recommend giving this book a try.
4/5
February 24, 2022
The Narrows by Travis Riddle
Please give my Amazon review a helpful vote - https://www.amazon.com/gp/customer-re...
Oliver is in his mid-twenties, just starting his career, when his best friend, Noah, from his hometown commits suicide. Oliver returns home for the funeral. His childhood friends Davontae and Sophia also return for the funeral. This is a melancholy occasion for Oliver. He and Noah had unresolved issues when they last saw each other.
Oliver becomes convinced that Noah's death was not a suicide. Odd things are happening in the small Texas town of Shumard. For example, Oliver watches a high school dissolve in a suburban street. He catches a glimpse of another reality across a small river. Oliver begins to inquire and, eventually, discovers an odd character who calls himself "the Knave."
Up until the introduction of the Knave, the book has largely been uneventful, to the point of boredom. Oliver is fairly mopey, which is a fair condition to be in when a friend dies, but it doesn't move the story along. I also found myself not very interested in his friends Davontea and Sophia, who seemed interchangeable, except that Sophia was a female. There might have been an interesting backstory in how a girl joined the three male friends, but, apparently, in a bit of "check the woke boxes," Sophia was born Simon and came out as trans in college because, you know, trans were a big deal in 2020. But it was a meaningless detail; apart from mentioning that Sophia was Simon nothing further was made of this detail and it added nothing to the story.
The story picks up the pace with the introduction of the Knave. I will credit the book for giving answers, but, frankly, the Knave betrayed the tone of the book. Up until the Knave appears, the book is presenting a story with potential dimensions of cosmic horror. However, the Knave is simply a monster who collects jewels from people and keeps them in a house in the alternate version of Shumard across the Narrows. The story turns into a narrative about fighting the monster with no cosmic horror in sight.
This book had promise. The characters had some depth. The opening created a slow burn. However, the ending was a kind of fizzle.
Please give my Amazon review a helpful vote - https://www.amazon.com/gp/customer-re...
Oliver is in his mid-twenties, just starting his career, when his best friend, Noah, from his hometown commits suicide. Oliver returns home for the funeral. His childhood friends Davontae and Sophia also return for the funeral. This is a melancholy occasion for Oliver. He and Noah had unresolved issues when they last saw each other.
Oliver becomes convinced that Noah's death was not a suicide. Odd things are happening in the small Texas town of Shumard. For example, Oliver watches a high school dissolve in a suburban street. He catches a glimpse of another reality across a small river. Oliver begins to inquire and, eventually, discovers an odd character who calls himself "the Knave."
Up until the introduction of the Knave, the book has largely been uneventful, to the point of boredom. Oliver is fairly mopey, which is a fair condition to be in when a friend dies, but it doesn't move the story along. I also found myself not very interested in his friends Davontea and Sophia, who seemed interchangeable, except that Sophia was a female. There might have been an interesting backstory in how a girl joined the three male friends, but, apparently, in a bit of "check the woke boxes," Sophia was born Simon and came out as trans in college because, you know, trans were a big deal in 2020. But it was a meaningless detail; apart from mentioning that Sophia was Simon nothing further was made of this detail and it added nothing to the story.
The story picks up the pace with the introduction of the Knave. I will credit the book for giving answers, but, frankly, the Knave betrayed the tone of the book. Up until the Knave appears, the book is presenting a story with potential dimensions of cosmic horror. However, the Knave is simply a monster who collects jewels from people and keeps them in a house in the alternate version of Shumard across the Narrows. The story turns into a narrative about fighting the monster with no cosmic horror in sight.
This book had promise. The characters had some depth. The opening created a slow burn. However, the ending was a kind of fizzle.
January 16, 2019
“Like Stranger Things but with adults. Also Mario Kart.” 5/5
This is a book about friendships as you age, grief, and a hidden supernatural world. This book really nailed all of these areas. I honestly would have read a version of this book without the supernatural elements, the other parts feel that strong. The author's description of the world of the Narrows just adds that much more.
The story takes place around the main character Oliver as him and his friends gather back in their hometown to mourn the loss of a childhood friend they had grown apart from. Oliver spends most of his time in the story with his best friends Davontae and Sophia. The interactions between these characters feel real and really draws you into to caring about them.
Oliver as a character is someone I really connected with. His thoughts of grief and how he reflected on relationships he neglected hit home for me. Through his thoughts and reactions, I could clearly remember being in the same spot in my own life. The additional touch of coming back to a town you grew up in but moved away from did wonders to combine our experiences.
The last part of this book is the supernatural aspect. I ended up enjoying this part of the book more than I thought I would but felt we could have started to explore these aspects a bit earlier. It isn’t until later in the book that you really get into the meat of this alternative plane called The Narrows.
Overall, I love this book and would recommend it to anyone. If you are a fan of stranger things and supernatural urban fantasy I would recommend it even more.
This is a book about friendships as you age, grief, and a hidden supernatural world. This book really nailed all of these areas. I honestly would have read a version of this book without the supernatural elements, the other parts feel that strong. The author's description of the world of the Narrows just adds that much more.
The story takes place around the main character Oliver as him and his friends gather back in their hometown to mourn the loss of a childhood friend they had grown apart from. Oliver spends most of his time in the story with his best friends Davontae and Sophia. The interactions between these characters feel real and really draws you into to caring about them.
Oliver as a character is someone I really connected with. His thoughts of grief and how he reflected on relationships he neglected hit home for me. Through his thoughts and reactions, I could clearly remember being in the same spot in my own life. The additional touch of coming back to a town you grew up in but moved away from did wonders to combine our experiences.
The last part of this book is the supernatural aspect. I ended up enjoying this part of the book more than I thought I would but felt we could have started to explore these aspects a bit earlier. It isn’t until later in the book that you really get into the meat of this alternative plane called The Narrows.
Overall, I love this book and would recommend it to anyone. If you are a fan of stranger things and supernatural urban fantasy I would recommend it even more.
January 20, 2019
Do you like suburban fantasy horror about friendship and grief?
You will now!
First off, it's amazing Riddle crams all of that into such a short book. The fantasy and horror genres both have a reputation for bloated narrative in pursuit of being "epic" -- something Riddle expertly avoids in The Narrows. This book is an exercise in restraint; the story feels distilled to its most potent and emotionally powerful components. I never thought I'd describe a story that involves this much goo as "elegant," but here I am.
This is the kind of book that stays at the back of your mind for a while and colors the way you read other books. That effect is probably a combination of atmospheric prose and a legitimately chilling plot. Parts of this book feel so comfortable and familiar, with the story's themes about the fragility of friendships and the passage of time, but these parts are in constant interplay with some weird, twisted, truly novel stuff.
It’s also been really interesting to see themes and patterns throughout Riddle’s delightfully varied body of work. His books build worlds within worlds, richly detailed but never heavy-handed, with plots that are satisfying but never too clear-cut. Each of his novels is unlike anything I've read before, and I'm thrilled The Narrows was no exception.
You will now!
First off, it's amazing Riddle crams all of that into such a short book. The fantasy and horror genres both have a reputation for bloated narrative in pursuit of being "epic" -- something Riddle expertly avoids in The Narrows. This book is an exercise in restraint; the story feels distilled to its most potent and emotionally powerful components. I never thought I'd describe a story that involves this much goo as "elegant," but here I am.
This is the kind of book that stays at the back of your mind for a while and colors the way you read other books. That effect is probably a combination of atmospheric prose and a legitimately chilling plot. Parts of this book feel so comfortable and familiar, with the story's themes about the fragility of friendships and the passage of time, but these parts are in constant interplay with some weird, twisted, truly novel stuff.
It’s also been really interesting to see themes and patterns throughout Riddle’s delightfully varied body of work. His books build worlds within worlds, richly detailed but never heavy-handed, with plots that are satisfying but never too clear-cut. Each of his novels is unlike anything I've read before, and I'm thrilled The Narrows was no exception.
November 20, 2023
I had the pleasure of reading "The Narrows" over the past few days. This is the first of Travis M. Riddle's works I've read, and it definitely has convinced me to check out his other works in the future. I purchased a physical copy based on its artwork, and I'm happy to say I don't regret it.
My synopsis:
'"The Narrows" is a very real-feeling horror-fantasy story about a group of young adults processing the sudden death of an estranged high school friend named Noah. The events take place in their hometown which our central character, Oliver, has since moved away from. This familiar-yet-unfamiliar location has a peculiar feeling to it given the circumstances and how much it has changed since the friends spent their high school days together. However this is nothing compared to how it feels when Oliver discovers its chilling alternate-universe version, known as The Narrows, at the site of his former friend's death. This leads him to believe that there may be something more sinister behind the tragedy. It's up to Oliver to investigate, and if his suspicions are correct, he could even bring Noah back from the dead.'
My true rating for this book is four and a half stars, however as that wasn't an option I opted to pick four stars on the scale.
I'll touch on the negative briefly, as I have much more positive commentary than negative.
The reason I docked half a star was because here and there I found myself a touch pulled out of the story due to the frequency of short, segmented scenes; I noticed this most through the middle/later half of the story. This may not be much of a disruption to other readers and is definitely not any reason to skip this story, but it eventually became something I couldn't ignore. I'm happy to say that this didn't affect or interrupt the climax of the story for me.
My only other complaint (if you could call it that) is that sometimes the colloquialism used seemed a bit awkward at times, or at least difficult to read on paper compared to how natural it might sound in regular speech. This wasn't anything bad enough to fully take me out of the narrative, but it was noticeable here and there.
Now onto the positives!
Riddle did a fantastic job of fleshing out his characters without an overuse of exposition. Though the character we learn the most about is Oliver, through him, we're able to get a feel of who his friends and acquaintances are.
As an LGBTQ+ person myself, I was very happy to see a transgender character in Riddle's work, especially one whose identity was casually presented rather than used as a major plot point. The most significant effect her being trans had on the story was her opting out of dinner with a friend's parent whom she hadn't seen since she was pre-transition, due to the uncomfortable conversation that was sure to ensue had she decided to show up. This is a very real and relatable predicament in my own personal life, and is a course of action I choose personally to make my life a little bit more comfortable.
Details like this brought a rich depth and realism to the characters. They're not just tools to move the plot along; every character in "The Narrows" has their own unique life and feelings outside of the main conflict they are enveloped in throughout the novel.
I did feel some very strong discomfort during Oliver's flashback of their childhoods together; the trans character's name given at birth was revealed and she was referenced as male, but I don't necessarily consider that a negative point in the story. It's uncomfortable to me because it's realistically how a lot of non-trans people view their history with their trans friends, or even how they present that history to others, and that's not an easy thought to confront. In an ideal world people would forget that we used to go by different names and pronouns, but that's also not the case for every trans person either. This is more of a personal point than anything else. I hope the author can take that bit of opinion/personal insight into consideration for future characters, and when it comes to navigating their identities and what needs/doesn't need to be disclosed, and what effect that may have on the audience. Regardless of my discomfort around that issue I really am very pleased to find myself represented, especially unexpectedly. It was still very tastefully done in my opinion.
In terms of plot, I found this horror-fantasy story was more grounded in realism than its synopsis may imply. While it is undoubtedly an otherworldly adventure, most of its content surrounds the complexities of death and how it affects the people around it. At its core, "The Narrows" is an exploration of grief and the many forms it takes. I found it to be a truly delightful combination of real-life struggles and those our imaginations conjure up to distract us, even though Oliver's experience was not imagined.
As someone who thoroughly enjoys fantasy, I particularly enjoyed reading about Oliver's experiences in The Narrows. I found that the way Riddle fleshed out the environment, like with his characters, allows for us to feel the true scope of things; this world and these people do not exist solely for our consumption and cease to exist when the story ends. The Narrows are a vast and almost entirely unexplored universe. Snippets of information show that we're only really seeing the tip of the iceberg through Oliver's experiences. There's so much more we don't know about this bizarre and frightening universe, and I'd love to read more about it in another story, regardless of whether or not this involves the cast of "The Narrows" itself. Incredible world-building!
To come to a close, I want to comment on how fluid of a read this was. I often find myself distracted or unable to read without interruption like I did when I was younger. Yet this story was perfectly digestible, and when I stopped reading, I often found myself excited to get back to it when I could. It's been a long time since I've gone to bed excited to get up the next morning and keep reading, but that's how I felt throughout my time with the novel.
Thank you to Travis M. Riddle for a fantastic read! I hope "The Narrows" gets the attention it deserves.
My synopsis:
'"The Narrows" is a very real-feeling horror-fantasy story about a group of young adults processing the sudden death of an estranged high school friend named Noah. The events take place in their hometown which our central character, Oliver, has since moved away from. This familiar-yet-unfamiliar location has a peculiar feeling to it given the circumstances and how much it has changed since the friends spent their high school days together. However this is nothing compared to how it feels when Oliver discovers its chilling alternate-universe version, known as The Narrows, at the site of his former friend's death. This leads him to believe that there may be something more sinister behind the tragedy. It's up to Oliver to investigate, and if his suspicions are correct, he could even bring Noah back from the dead.'
My true rating for this book is four and a half stars, however as that wasn't an option I opted to pick four stars on the scale.
I'll touch on the negative briefly, as I have much more positive commentary than negative.
The reason I docked half a star was because here and there I found myself a touch pulled out of the story due to the frequency of short, segmented scenes; I noticed this most through the middle/later half of the story. This may not be much of a disruption to other readers and is definitely not any reason to skip this story, but it eventually became something I couldn't ignore. I'm happy to say that this didn't affect or interrupt the climax of the story for me.
My only other complaint (if you could call it that) is that sometimes the colloquialism used seemed a bit awkward at times, or at least difficult to read on paper compared to how natural it might sound in regular speech. This wasn't anything bad enough to fully take me out of the narrative, but it was noticeable here and there.
Now onto the positives!
Riddle did a fantastic job of fleshing out his characters without an overuse of exposition. Though the character we learn the most about is Oliver, through him, we're able to get a feel of who his friends and acquaintances are.
As an LGBTQ+ person myself, I was very happy to see a transgender character in Riddle's work, especially one whose identity was casually presented rather than used as a major plot point. The most significant effect her being trans had on the story was her opting out of dinner with a friend's parent whom she hadn't seen since she was pre-transition, due to the uncomfortable conversation that was sure to ensue had she decided to show up. This is a very real and relatable predicament in my own personal life, and is a course of action I choose personally to make my life a little bit more comfortable.
Details like this brought a rich depth and realism to the characters. They're not just tools to move the plot along; every character in "The Narrows" has their own unique life and feelings outside of the main conflict they are enveloped in throughout the novel.
I did feel some very strong discomfort during Oliver's flashback of their childhoods together; the trans character's name given at birth was revealed and she was referenced as male, but I don't necessarily consider that a negative point in the story. It's uncomfortable to me because it's realistically how a lot of non-trans people view their history with their trans friends, or even how they present that history to others, and that's not an easy thought to confront. In an ideal world people would forget that we used to go by different names and pronouns, but that's also not the case for every trans person either. This is more of a personal point than anything else. I hope the author can take that bit of opinion/personal insight into consideration for future characters, and when it comes to navigating their identities and what needs/doesn't need to be disclosed, and what effect that may have on the audience. Regardless of my discomfort around that issue I really am very pleased to find myself represented, especially unexpectedly. It was still very tastefully done in my opinion.
In terms of plot, I found this horror-fantasy story was more grounded in realism than its synopsis may imply. While it is undoubtedly an otherworldly adventure, most of its content surrounds the complexities of death and how it affects the people around it. At its core, "The Narrows" is an exploration of grief and the many forms it takes. I found it to be a truly delightful combination of real-life struggles and those our imaginations conjure up to distract us, even though Oliver's experience was not imagined.
As someone who thoroughly enjoys fantasy, I particularly enjoyed reading about Oliver's experiences in The Narrows. I found that the way Riddle fleshed out the environment, like with his characters, allows for us to feel the true scope of things; this world and these people do not exist solely for our consumption and cease to exist when the story ends. The Narrows are a vast and almost entirely unexplored universe. Snippets of information show that we're only really seeing the tip of the iceberg through Oliver's experiences. There's so much more we don't know about this bizarre and frightening universe, and I'd love to read more about it in another story, regardless of whether or not this involves the cast of "The Narrows" itself. Incredible world-building!
To come to a close, I want to comment on how fluid of a read this was. I often find myself distracted or unable to read without interruption like I did when I was younger. Yet this story was perfectly digestible, and when I stopped reading, I often found myself excited to get back to it when I could. It's been a long time since I've gone to bed excited to get up the next morning and keep reading, but that's how I felt throughout my time with the novel.
Thank you to Travis M. Riddle for a fantastic read! I hope "The Narrows" gets the attention it deserves.
November 3, 2018
An altogether enjoyable tale mostly about friendship and its different forms and intricacies. The thing that stands out in this book, as most other reviewers have touched on, is its characters. By the end of the book they are all wonderfully fleshed out and feel very real. There was one point where I initially questioned their combined motivation but reflected on their actions up to that point and happily accepted the situation.
What's somewhat uncharacteristic for me in a book is that I enjoyed the first half more than the second. For me I feel like the atmosphere building was better than the actual 'reveal' if you will. I don't think I ever really felt like the characters weren't capable in the situation that they found themselves in, despite the high stakes, which even sounds stupid to me knowing some of those situations!
In the end, I think I was mostly hoping for a more lovecraftian tale of hopelessness against an unknowable and unstoppable entity. That being said, what I read was definitely worth my time and would be worth it for anyone who wants richly imagined characters and an interesting plot coupled with some nice building creepiness throughout the first half.
What's somewhat uncharacteristic for me in a book is that I enjoyed the first half more than the second. For me I feel like the atmosphere building was better than the actual 'reveal' if you will. I don't think I ever really felt like the characters weren't capable in the situation that they found themselves in, despite the high stakes, which even sounds stupid to me knowing some of those situations!
In the end, I think I was mostly hoping for a more lovecraftian tale of hopelessness against an unknowable and unstoppable entity. That being said, what I read was definitely worth my time and would be worth it for anyone who wants richly imagined characters and an interesting plot coupled with some nice building creepiness throughout the first half.
October 28, 2018
I very much enjoyed The Narrows. It manages so much in relatively few pages. Riddle's ability to create interesting and believable characters is amazing. I cared about Oliver, Sophie and Davontae from the opening pages. The horror elements in the story are balanced, they blend naturally with the poignant internal struggles Oliver experiences and the heart-warming interactions he has with his friends.
I wouldn't miss this because horror "isn't your thing." You will be shaken more by what the book evokes in you as the theme is explored so skillfully through fantasy. There are multiple comic interludes that are truly a joy to experience, you never feel under siege by what is ultimately a sad story. This is the kind of book that transports you to a place that is unfamiliar but not bizarre.
I can't think of a better way to spend some airport time or a quiet weekend at home then to travel to Shumard, Texas with some great new friends and a story that will keep you thinking long after you've put it down.
I wouldn't miss this because horror "isn't your thing." You will be shaken more by what the book evokes in you as the theme is explored so skillfully through fantasy. There are multiple comic interludes that are truly a joy to experience, you never feel under siege by what is ultimately a sad story. This is the kind of book that transports you to a place that is unfamiliar but not bizarre.
I can't think of a better way to spend some airport time or a quiet weekend at home then to travel to Shumard, Texas with some great new friends and a story that will keep you thinking long after you've put it down.
October 3, 2020
There's nothing wrong with this book, and I'm sure other people will like it. I just didn't enjoy it.
One of my favourite setups of a book is a group of a adults who used to be friends as kids getting together again and dealing with spooky stuff. I've read many of them, and this just wasn't as good as the others. While reading it I couldn't stop thinking about all the other books that did the same thing but better.
Also, the audiobook narrator did a very stereotypical Black Voice for the Black characters. I don't think there's was anything in the dialogue that implied they would actually speak like that. It was a very cringey choice to make and to listen to.
One of my favourite setups of a book is a group of a adults who used to be friends as kids getting together again and dealing with spooky stuff. I've read many of them, and this just wasn't as good as the others. While reading it I couldn't stop thinking about all the other books that did the same thing but better.
Also, the audiobook narrator did a very stereotypical Black Voice for the Black characters. I don't think there's was anything in the dialogue that implied they would actually speak like that. It was a very cringey choice to make and to listen to.
July 19, 2020
This was quite Lovecraftian in its scope, I liked the descriptions of the 'parallel worlds' ruled by inhuman gods and hiding nasty, opportunistic little beasts in their crevices. There are moments of real, visceral horror here but I do wish that world had been explored a little more thoroughly.
The characters are typical young millennials, living more in the virtual world than outside it. But the theme of loss of childhood friendship and love was a sweet bell note that rang throughout the story and elevates it above your run of the mill sci fi/fantasy thriller
The characters are typical young millennials, living more in the virtual world than outside it. But the theme of loss of childhood friendship and love was a sweet bell note that rang throughout the story and elevates it above your run of the mill sci fi/fantasy thriller
July 27, 2019
What an imagination author Travis Riddle has!
The Narrows slowly builds to a surprise near the middle of the book. The characters are well-described and so is the world they live in. I did waffle between 3-4 stars but, in my opinion, it is at least 3.5 stars. I did enjoy the paranormal part of the story very much and I hope you will, also.
Read via Kindle Unlimited
The Narrows slowly builds to a surprise near the middle of the book. The characters are well-described and so is the world they live in. I did waffle between 3-4 stars but, in my opinion, it is at least 3.5 stars. I did enjoy the paranormal part of the story very much and I hope you will, also.
Read via Kindle Unlimited
December 23, 2020
I really enjoyed this book. It was an easy, fast-paced read. Underneath the creepy exterior was a story about friendship, grief, and what it means to grow up.... and to grow apart. The detailed imagery was very impactful, and the characters all felt well-rounded and real. Anyone who enjoyed the show Stranger Things should give this book a try.
May 10, 2019
A great novel about grief and losing touch with childhood and the people in it, with a truly uncanny horror world lurking in the background. Definitely something that I would recommend to someone looking for some indie horror.
September 5, 2019
Review to come on www.scifiandscary.com
Disclaimer: I received a free copy of this audiobook for review consideration
Disclaimer: I received a free copy of this audiobook for review consideration
April 15, 2021
A spooky book with excellent world building and character relationships! I personally love Riddle's writing in general, and this was the first book of his I have read!
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