A review by peytonktracy
Once Upon a River by Diane Setterfield

emotional hopeful mysterious reflective tense medium-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

This book is about story telling and rivers. And it truly does feel like you are being told a story, from the minute you start, it feels like you just curl up to listen. And just like when you are being told a story, sometimes it meanders like a river does and you might wonder where it’s headed or why it curves like this, but you always find where it’s going. And the ending is so immensely satisfying in every way. I loved the characters and how well developed they all were, I loved exploring their reactions to several key plot elements over time, and seeing how their stories connected and blended and diverged and moved. This was absolutely masterful and I loved it to pieces.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, and Grief

Moderate: Blood, Domestic abuse, Rape, Violence, Emotional abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, Suicidal thoughts, Sexual content, Alcohol, and Bullying

This book centers around multiple parents and their relationships to children and the losses or changes in those relationships - it is truly what this hinged upon. Several sets of parents lose a children in several of the narratives, so that’s my big warning. Everything else is in passing in the narratives and not at the focus and very rarely described in great detail.