Some towns are forgotten. Some are better left that way.Snyder Soderbergh makes his living as a spiritual exterminator, banishing ghosts and curses for a fee. But when a trail of gruesome, inexplicable deaths leads him deep into the Louisiana bayou, he's chasing a nightmare that no one is paying him to find. The electric tingle at the base of his skull screams of something ancient and hungry, something that has been waiting in a forgotten corner of the map called Canebrulay.He is not alone in being drawn there. A trio of ruthless killers follows a vision of a glowing, otherworldly knife. An immortal warrior woman walks through centuries, answering a call to a battle she may not survive. And a man possessed by a wolf-demon fights a losing battle for his own soul.They are all converging on a single, terrifying truth: the legends are real. The mother of all cursed creatures, the queen of shadow magic herself-Mother Soucouyant-is stirring from her long slumber. And Canebrulay, a town where time has folded in on itself and the dead do not stay buried, is about to become the stage for a confrontation between the damned and the thing they all fear.Welcome to Canebrulay. Pray you find your way out. Riyan Septa is a storyteller drawn to the forgotten corners of the world-places where silence speaks louder than words, and memory lingers like mist over still water. His writing blends folklore, Southern Gothic atmosphere, and coming-of-age grit to explore the spaces between what's seen and what's believed.When he isn't conjuring ghosts and shadows on the page, Riyan is a quiet observer of people, places, and old things with stories to tell. He believes that every town has its secrets, every child carries questions, and sometimes, the river knows more than it lets on.The Boy by the River is his haunting debut-a tribute to strange friendships, restless spirits, and the courage it takes to face what hides in the dark.
