May Lynn was once a pretty girl who dreamed of becoming a Hollywood star. Now she’s dead, her body dredged up from the Sabine River.

Sue Ellen, May Lynn’s strong-willed teenage friend, sets out to dig up May Lynn’s body, burn it to ash, and take those ashes to Hollywood to spread around. If May Lynn can’t become a star, then at least her ashes will end up in the land of her dreams.

Along with her friends Terry and Jinx and her alcoholic mother, Sue Ellen steals a raft and heads downriver to carry May Lynn’s remains to Hollywood.

Only problem is, Sue Ellen has some stolen money that her enemies will do anything to get back. And what looks like a prime opportunity to escape from a worthless life will instead lead to disastrous consequences. In the end, Sue Ellen will learn a harsh lesson on just how hard growing up can really be.

I’m not sure I can think of another author as gifted as Joe R. Lansdale when it comes to blending moments of extreme darkness, with almost screwball-type comedic elements. Maybe screwball isn’t quite the right term, I don’t know. But goddamn, no matter how grim things can get in a Lansdale book (and they get very, very grim), there’s just alway this zany undercurrent to everything that’s happening, and it feels so uniquely Lansdale.

Ostensibly a murder mystery, Edge of Dark Water ultimately plays out like a nightmare fuel version of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn: a coming-of-age story, but with bloated/waterlogged corpses, grave robbing, and laudanum addiction.

The story is told in the first person, from the perspective of Sue Ellen, a young girl from East Texas. One day while fishing with her father, Sue Ellen and her friend Terry discover the body of their friend, May Lynn. Her body was weighted down with a massive sewing machine, and while Sue Ellen’s father would rather just let the body sink back to the bottom of the river & not deal with it, Sue Ellen isn’t having it.

May Lynn is unceremoniously buried without her father (a drunk) even being aware of her death. May Lynn was beautiful, charismatic, and also obsessed with Hollywood & with becoming an actress. Which is what gives Terry his big idea: they’re going to dig up May Lynn, burn her body, and bring her ashes to Hollywood. Never mind that Sue Ellen, Terry, and their other friend, Jinx, have just a few dollars between them. Once this plan is put into motion, it takes on a life of its own. And it gets…fucking wild.

Faced with the inherent peril that comes with floating a questionable raft down a big river, and also with the fact that they are being pursued by a ghoulish homicidal bounty hunter named Skunk, this is not your average coming-of-age story.

Creating incredibly colorful characters is what Lansdale does best, and Edge of Dark Water is no exception. Sue Ellen and her friends are just fucking delightful, and also an unlikely group. Terry is gay, and Jinx is black. And this is a time period & part of the world where racism & homophobia run deep. These are familiar themes in Lansdale’s work, and he really leans into it here. That said, all manner of abuse is hurled at Terry & Jinx, and at Sue Ellen for the company she keeps. But that’s what makes this group so special. They just all love each other, and have zero fucks to give to anyone with an opinion about them. Jinx is especially well written…a young black girl who takes no shit from anyone, and speaks her mind, regardless of who she’s addressing.

There are some very heavy & bleak aspects to this book. Sue Ellen lives with a physically & emotionally abusive father, and a mother who self-medicates to the point of being mostly bedridden. Add this to the racism & homophobia I mentioned earlier, and you start to see this is a group of kids who live very hard lives.

Edge of Dark Water is classic Joe R. Lansdale…super fast paced, incredible dialogue, some really emotional character moments, and a wild & bloody story that only Lansdale could cook up! I just loved this!