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popsicleplease's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
Graphic: Child death, Death, Gore, and Murder
Moderate: Addiction
Minor: Racism and Xenophobia
littlebee09's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.25
Graphic: Child death, Gore, and Murder
Minor: Gun violence, Suicide, Vomit, and Fire/Fire injury
searobin's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
1.0
I think the premise had a lot of potential, and I did enjoy some aspects of the storyline, but it was not executed well.
I would absolutely love a book (not by this author) from the perspective of Mother Thames, or one her tributaries, though!
Graphic: Addiction, Body horror, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Misogyny, Sexism, Sexual content, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Stalking, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail
bronzeageholly's review against another edition
3.5
Graphic: Addiction, Death, Gore, Racism, Sexism, and Violence
mayvisin's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
The fly in the ointment for me (and probably why this was 4 instead of 5 stars) was that I was getting a literary version of "Would this pass the Bechdel test?" because almost all the female characters seemed defined by their sexual relationships/availability/lack of availability to various male characters. Clearly after reading mainly women authors for several months, going back to male portrayals of women is a bit of a shock to the system.
I liked the book enough though that I plan to continue the series and hope it gets better from that standpoint...🤞
Graphic: Child death, Death, Gore, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Racism, Medical content, and Fire/Fire injury
Minor: Addiction and Rape
the_cheerful_necromancer's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.5
I'm a sucker for an urban fantasy. A British-set urban fantasy chock full of geeky pop culture references, authentic slang, brilliant wit, quotable lines, genuinely tense mystery, an amazingly unique premise, excellently crafted magic system, lovable and complex characters, gloriously hateable villains- how could I possibly refuse?
Graphic: Gore, Violence, and Murder
Moderate: Body horror, Child death, Racism, and Sexism
Minor: Addiction
This book is a murder mystery. Many of those murders are graphically described, and at least one is seen in-progress:itsnotalakeitsanocean's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.75
Things I liked:
- Having a POC protagonist and going into detail about the struggles of his childhood was interesting.
- I really loved the idea that every river in London was represented by a character that was either chosen by the river or born into the family of rivers.
- I liked Nightingale's character and, ironically for a mystery book, the fact that his past wasn't spelled out and gave him some sorely needed intrigue.
Things I didn't like:
- The protagonist didn't really have a strong character or any flaws that weren't certain characters bashing us over the head with "oh you have a shit home life and you fucked up your education" or "you need to be more focused". To me those aren't really flaws, or at the very least strong flaws that could cause interesting conflict in the story.
- On a similar side note,
while it was nice to have the protagonist and the rivers be POC/mixed as generations went along, I feel like the author was trying to express how they were both African-British families from a different diaspora from one another, but didn't. The rivers family seem to have some kind of West African/Yoruba heritage, but the protagonist was just "African-British". - As mentioned above, the story suffered from too many ideas that didn't mesh well together. In particular, I feel as if the story suddenly spinned into
acting out the play of Punch and Judy, with the culprit being the ghost of an actor for Punch out of nowhere. . This also meant the titular rivers of London characters felt superfluous in a book that was named after them. The tensions between the two river families went nowhere and was an absolute waste.
I think the author should have leaned more into the idea of people being forced to act out the roles of fictional characters if he wanted to include this element in the book - Part of me should have honestly expected this but some of the descriptions of the women were a bit leery.
- cw for rape
Towards the end, a bit character ends up having part of his penis bitten off after trying to force himself onto someone and we're expected to sympathise with him. Nah mate, you got what you deserved for forcing yourself on someone.
Graphic: Body horror, Gore, Violence, Blood, Vomit, and Murder
Moderate: Child death, Racism, and Sexism
Minor: Rape
fionamatilda's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Graphic: Gore, Violence, and Murder
Moderate: Racism and Sexism
mags_'s review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.25
Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Domestic abuse, Gore, Physical abuse, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Medical trauma, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Rape and Suicide
book_snail's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
Moderate: Gore, Racism, and Police brutality