Review: Once Upon a River

Once Upon a River by Diane Setterfield
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

The plot was extremely slow, there were a LOT of characters to keep straight with most of them taking over POV for at least one scene. I think that was a major problem that kept me from falling into the plot. The characters were written in a way that made them all seem like they didn't have emotions, only an inner monologue stating what their emotion was.It was weird This books saving grace is the fact that its author really is such a gifted storyteller. I never once considered throwing this book off to the DNF pile. That really speaks for itself. I didn't really care what happened to the adults and was pretty indifferent to big end solving the mysteries but it was pretty to read. i enjoyed the town and the description and the back stories. But something was missing this book was missing. I'm not explaining this very well. All in all I liked the book but I'm left feeling pretty frustrated because a little extra character building would have made it great. Maybe I'll think on it some more and then adjust the review if need be. Ok, I should probably stop talking to myself in my written book review...

Real Quick Synopsis
Thames - Big important English River with most English of all the River names. Every rule in the English language would indicate this river's name should rhyme James. Naturally it called tems instead. Yay for English.
One day this river beats up a man and spits him out along with a 4yr old. They end up in a country tavern. an astonishing number of people seem to have misplaced a 4 yr old. There is drama. Also, there's several pigs, a bad son, a photographer, a suicide, and a murder all thrown into the mix.



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