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hadders88's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
inspiring
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
lydridge's review
2.0
Read this for school - tries to cover too much which renders it shallow! Both the students and I found it boring
writingwwolves's review
4.0
Rating: 3.5
When I was searching on my shelves for my next read Where the River Runs Gold jumped out at me & as soon as I started reading I was incredibly curious about where the story would go. This is a story about love, climate change, oppression & being strong. Main character Shifa encourages, within the reader, a pure joy for flowers & nature & the world where we live & her brother Themba fills you with hope & love. There were some hard scenes in this book that made me very angry & made me cry (more below), but overall, I loved the message of this story & the fact that I thought I knew where it was going, but I really did not. If one thing had been different then this would have been a five star read for me because the descriptions were beautiful, there was brilliant character development & the plot kept me on my toes.
⚠️ The consequences of global warming/climate change, aftermath of a Hurricane & vicious storm, some violence (mainly off-page), bullying, a form of child labour/slavery, a character with dementia struggling with her confusion & scenes of almost drowning ⚠️
‼️There is a character in this book, Themba, who appears to be Autistic (it is never stated outright), & in several chapters he is bullied & abused by other children, as well as adults who should be caring for him. There is some violence & rough handling in an attempt to “control” Themba & he displays signs of distress throughout much of the book. Themba does have friends looking out for him, & his sister loves him very much, & by the end of the book he is happy & safe, however there was one scene (in chapter seventeen) that made me cry & feel sick. I do feel that some of the scenes should have been softened as they did not need to be as full-on as they were, & that the evilness of the “Crows” was portrayed well-enough without Themba suffering like he did. Had there been more than one scene like the one in chapter seventeen then I would have stopped reading, & I think that everyone should be aware of how Themba is treated before picking up the book. I’m cross with the publisher for not including content warnings & I’m happy to discuss what Themba experiences with anyone who wants to know before reading the book. ‼️
Extended Review to follow.
When I was searching on my shelves for my next read Where the River Runs Gold jumped out at me & as soon as I started reading I was incredibly curious about where the story would go. This is a story about love, climate change, oppression & being strong. Main character Shifa encourages, within the reader, a pure joy for flowers & nature & the world where we live & her brother Themba fills you with hope & love. There were some hard scenes in this book that made me very angry & made me cry (more below), but overall, I loved the message of this story & the fact that I thought I knew where it was going, but I really did not. If one thing had been different then this would have been a five star read for me because the descriptions were beautiful, there was brilliant character development & the plot kept me on my toes.
⚠️ The consequences of global warming/climate change, aftermath of a Hurricane & vicious storm, some violence (mainly off-page), bullying, a form of child labour/slavery, a character with dementia struggling with her confusion & scenes of almost drowning ⚠️
‼️There is a character in this book, Themba, who appears to be Autistic (it is never stated outright), & in several chapters he is bullied & abused by other children, as well as adults who should be caring for him. There is some violence & rough handling in an attempt to “control” Themba & he displays signs of distress throughout much of the book. Themba does have friends looking out for him, & his sister loves him very much, & by the end of the book he is happy & safe, however there was one scene (in chapter seventeen) that made me cry & feel sick. I do feel that some of the scenes should have been softened as they did not need to be as full-on as they were, & that the evilness of the “Crows” was portrayed well-enough without Themba suffering like he did. Had there been more than one scene like the one in chapter seventeen then I would have stopped reading, & I think that everyone should be aware of how Themba is treated before picking up the book. I’m cross with the publisher for not including content warnings & I’m happy to discuss what Themba experiences with anyone who wants to know before reading the book. ‼️
Extended Review to follow.
torihodges's review
3.0
3.5
This book held within it so much passion. Passion for nature, equality and each other.
A well thought out dystopian world, in which a hurricane wipes out all natural resources, but most importantly the bees are gone. A new government comes into power, society is split, the ‘Paragon’s’ live in luxury whilst everyone else lives in poverty, practically forced into signing up to the ‘Freedom Fields Family’ which means you get (mediocre) benefits for sending your children to school to learn to pollinate in place of the bees. Then at age 11 the children are sent off to pollination farms and put to work. Shifa (our protagonist) knows that her brother Themba won’t cope with the brutality of the farms and starts to hatch a plan to escape. She soon starts to discover that there might be more going on behind the scenes, what secrets are the government trying so hard to keep?
A superb story, brilliantly thought out and well executed. My flaws with it were that a lot happened in the final few chapters and I found it difficult to keep up, let alone an 11 year old. I think it needed explaining more clearly and using much less metaphors. I also had to read the epilogue twice to remotely understand it and still feel a little bit peeved that we didn’t get more information on how Shifa’s discovery went about changing the world and why didn’t the girl narrating know who Shifa was ? Seemed like a pretty important person in the history 🤔
Would recommend but slightly disappointed by the final quarter of the book.
This book held within it so much passion. Passion for nature, equality and each other.
A well thought out dystopian world, in which a hurricane wipes out all natural resources, but most importantly the bees are gone. A new government comes into power, society is split, the ‘Paragon’s’ live in luxury whilst everyone else lives in poverty, practically forced into signing up to the ‘Freedom Fields Family’ which means you get (mediocre) benefits for sending your children to school to learn to pollinate in place of the bees. Then at age 11 the children are sent off to pollination farms and put to work. Shifa (our protagonist) knows that her brother Themba won’t cope with the brutality of the farms and starts to hatch a plan to escape. She soon starts to discover that there might be more going on behind the scenes, what secrets are the government trying so hard to keep?
A superb story, brilliantly thought out and well executed. My flaws with it were that a lot happened in the final few chapters and I found it difficult to keep up, let alone an 11 year old. I think it needed explaining more clearly and using much less metaphors. I also had to read the epilogue twice to remotely understand it and still feel a little bit peeved that we didn’t get more information on how Shifa’s discovery went about changing the world and why didn’t the girl narrating know who Shifa was ? Seemed like a pretty important person in the history 🤔
Would recommend but slightly disappointed by the final quarter of the book.
natz785's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
shei's review
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
sad
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
The characters in this book, especially Shifa, are so heartaching and the way hopelessness was portrayed was so devastating to me. Although they survive their challenges it was nice to feel what they felt during their moments of grief for their childhood and happiness.