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As we quickly approach our next Virtual Book Club on Friday, April 22 at 7:30 p.m. CST for a discussion of Alyssa Cole’s When No One is Watching, I’m even more excited since today’s review title is also a thriller!  I might be in a genre hole currently (thank you Kindle Unlimited) and I’m delighted to have some thrillers sprinkled throughout!  If you want something new in your reading life, or love thrillers, or just want a book to talk about with some fun people, sign up here to join in the fun.  

Oh. Darling. Readers.  Today, we’re sharing with you about The Guide by Peter Heller.  It’s been about a year and a half since we read, adored, and reviewed The River, which takes place a few years before The Guide.  You don’t need to read The River before reading The Guide [even though Ashley thinks you need to], however, you’ll understand the main character of The Guide more if you do, because he’s one of the main characters in The River, and y’all, some traumatic things take place in that fantastic book (see post for content warnings).  Here’s what you need to know about The Guide: a few years after the events of The River, Jack finds himself signing-on mid-season as a fishing guide at an elite lodge in his home state of Colorado.  There’s more than fishing going on, and, like main characters do, Jack gets sucked into discovering what’s going on and drama ensues.  

The Guide is about trauma, grief, different pieces of society, and fishing.  The marketing copy says it’s “a novel as gripping as it is lyrical, as frightening as it is moving…” and I agree, except it’s not frightening, but it is thrilling, or maybe suspenseful.  I didn’t know how calming fishing could be, but now I have an idea of it (yes, from a thriller).  It made me want to travel to the Rockies and experience some of the majestic sites Heller gorgeously described, and maybe even hire a guide of my own and do some fishing (although I haven’t fished in more than 20 years, and that was maybe twice).  As this novel was published in August 2021, I appreciated that it mentioned the pandemic, not as a main plot point, but as something that is happening outside the grounds of the lodge and as a reason folks might need a face mask when they leave.  There is talk of quarantines, as there are visits to town, and mandatory temperature checks when they return, but it’s not the focus.  Content warnings are needed for violence and abuse.  Neither are described in great detail, but both are present and gruesome.  

The best part about The Guide is the writing.  It’s paced just like Heller’s description of Jack’s client getting her first fish of the week, slow and calm, then running to chase it, and reel it in. As Jack is getting to know his client, she says “Never Summers and the Gore Range.” “God, the names. You could almost walk into the words themselves.” That’s exactly how I feel about Heller’s descriptions of nature and of fishing, you could just walk into the words.  Heller doesn’t just show the actions of the fishing, but through internal monologue, we also learn the mindset of fishing, how those who master it, or anything, easily become absorbed by the activity.  As Jack is trying to discover what’s happening at the lodge, he’s also trying to figure out who he can trust, and does a bit of a deep dive into the character of one of the lodge’s guests, so there’s a bit of a character study as well.  Jack’s internal monologue is just as poetic as someone who has “read and read with the hunger of someone seeking more than diversion.”  You read that right readers, if you remember from The River, Jack is our people.  For the record, again, there isn’t enough epilogue.  I want the settling of the characters after, which only sort of happens, but only a snapshot of settling. 

Even with that feeling of ‘more epilogue’, I’m giving The Guide a solid four stars.  I won’t likely reread this, but I’m even more interested in his backlist than I was before.  I think this book might be the reason I give Peter Heller a season pass.  This is another gorgeous novel that has amazing depth, lush descriptions, and made me, again, interested in something (fishing) I had no prior interest.  

What’s a novel that featured something you are now interested in because of your reading experience?

~Nikki 

In the way way back of September 2020 when we reviewed The River during Emergency Preparedness month, I focused on Peter Heller’s lyrical prose and fabulous structure. As I write this blog post, there are April ‘showers’ – read thunderstorms – creating music and a light show outside. It seems the perfect ambiance to reflect upon the second novel I have read by Heller and all of the amazing ways he thrilled and surprised me with his words. I forgot that Heller has an MFA in both poetry and fiction, but his skill is undeniable. I am having trouble putting what I love about The Guide into coherent sentences without spoiling major plot points of the story. Maybe I should just list the things that have touched me and not be coherent about it at all.

1. I love that what makes Jack our people is his love of the written word and the semi-pretentious way he thinks about his experience in academia. 
2. I love the way Heller is able to showcase his knowledge and love of both fiction and poetry by the way Jack and the other characters speak about literature.
3. I love the way Jack guides his client, Allison K., through fishing the river and the way their relationship develops through all the drama at the lodge.
4. I love how Jack speaks Spanish to Ana, the woman who cleans his cabin at the lodge, in order to build a rapport with someone with whom he would be working for the rest of the summer.
5. I love the way Heller fictionalizes the later stages of the COVID pandemic and how very real life it currently feels.
6. I love how in Jack’s inner monologues I am reminded about what it means to be human. The feelings we feel, the thoughts we think, that are so similar and yet make each one of us completely different from the other.
7. I love how Jack keeps a milk-crate of his favorite books in his truck so that they are always on hand. I feel like my kindle works for the same purpose.
8. This last point has spoilers. Click on “details” to reveal it.
   I love the flashbacks Jack has of his family life on the ranch in Colorado and the way he remembers his mom and Wynn who both died tragic deaths in front of him. (Yes, this is a spoiler for The River and I’m sorry but it’s inherently integral to understanding who Jack is as a character.)

Be prepared to read straight through to the end of the novel once you reach the 75% mark. It’s a quick read over all and when the climactic events start occurring it becomes un-put-downable. I’m giving The Guide a four star review, too, but only because I, like Nikki, don’t foresee re-reading it. I will, however, continue to prioritize Heller’s new releases and will at some point make it to his backlist. Maybe I’ll pick one up the next time I am out in the wilderness, whenever that will be.

~Ashley

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