Dead River by Cyn Balog (review)

White-water rafting and roughing it outside during a Maine winter are not exactly what Kiandra had planned for her senior prom weekend, but her boyfriend and best gal pal are the outdoorsy types, so she reluctantly agrees to join them on a camping "anti-prom." As she gets closer to the river, however, Ki starts hearing voices and having horrific visions—much like her own mother experienced ten years ago, before the woman committed suicide. When several mysterious figures from her childhood show up, Ki learns that she, like her ancestors before her, is a Mistress of the River and is responsible for shepherding lost souls across the river to a peaceful afterlife. Unfortunately, a particularly restless spirit is intent on seeing her fail, and Ki may lose her life as a result. Much of this reads like a conventional horror movie, with secondary characters making appearances solely to relay crucial information to the protagonist, while the tension is primarily derived from Ki herself either mistaking or misinterpreting the various circumstances she finds herself in. The additional storyline about her and her mother's role as spirit guardians is both convoluted and overplayed, and it undermines what could have been a simple but effectively creepy ghost story. That's not to say this isn't nail-bitingly frightening at points, and the scenes in which Ki is pulled into the river by bodiless hands or is witness to grisly murders via her psychic powers are certainly scary. The various spirits in the river and the stories of how they got there provide some solid fodder for tales to tell around the campfire, and readers may want to throw this in their overnight bag next to the chocolate and marshmallows.