I was beginning to think no one could top the brutal brilliance of Magpie Coffin, but there is a new contender in town! I may be becoming desensitized to gore as I read this series, but this book had me hand-to-mouth, fit-to-faint audibly gasping at its over the top insanity. This is my first time reading anything from this author (certainly won’t be the last), but I imagine this was written in a state of gleeful abandon. It’s FUN!

I was hooked from the moment the kids steal away in moonlight to spy on the traveling circus, where things go horribly wrong. Then they get better. Then they get worse again, in revolting and unimaginable ways. The story moves at breakneck speed, pausing only to wallow in scenes of vice and viscera. I truly couldn’t look away!

Though there were some moments I wanted to. Some icky scenes (including one with a baby and a bathtub, plus a character named Horsecock that I have conflicting feelings about). But I feel like this book best embodies the spirit of splatterpunk, more so than any of the others. And I love how the whole story unfolds over the course of just one night!

Do I wish there was more of the carnival crew? Of course! But I do like how the book acquaints us with a myriad of characters (the downside being not all are as fleshed out as I wanted them to be - I mean who really were those Truther kids anyway?)

Put up your boots and sit a spell. You’re definitely going to want to read this one. The pace is frenetic, frenzy-full of colorful characters and vignettes of violence. Silver River does indeed run red, and it bathes the reader in copious amounts of blood and a story they will never forget! ( )