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minerva454 's review for:
River Mumma
by Zalika Reid-Benta
Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for the ARC.
I really enjoyed Reid-Benta's short story collection and was excited to see that she had written a novel. The description did remind me a lot of the Rivers of London urban fantasy series (which I love) and I was interested to see what kind of twist a Toronto setting would make.
I love Alicia's relationship with her mom. Reid-Benta's grasp of dialogue and dialect writing is perfection!
The mingling of Jamaican spiritualism, magic and myth with the 'real' world via dream sequences and apparitions was really interesting.
The portrayal of a twenty-something struggling with student debt, decisions and an uncertain future was very realistic. Alicia's friends are pretty cool too.
However, I think the novel could have benefited from some storyboarding, sorry to say - I get the need for an extended intro as the characters and their relationships are pretty complicated; then about 1/2 way through the book we're on a D&D type quest, which keeps getting bogged down and finishes somewhat anticlimactically (at Drake's house?). The plot didn't really flow, it seemed at times like disconnected parts of something that should be longer. I think that I was hoping for urban fantasy and got low key magic realism.
The ending seemed rushed and unsatisfying after getting us all involved and invested in Alicia's future.
The author is a wonderful writer, and there's a lot to like in this book, but I understand why some readers are ambivalent; I'll look forward to her next one.
I'm subjectively rating this 3.5 out of 5, there was a lot I liked, but I just didn't love the book as a whole.
I really enjoyed Reid-Benta's short story collection and was excited to see that she had written a novel. The description did remind me a lot of the Rivers of London urban fantasy series (which I love) and I was interested to see what kind of twist a Toronto setting would make.
I love Alicia's relationship with her mom. Reid-Benta's grasp of dialogue and dialect writing is perfection!
The mingling of Jamaican spiritualism, magic and myth with the 'real' world via dream sequences and apparitions was really interesting.
The portrayal of a twenty-something struggling with student debt, decisions and an uncertain future was very realistic. Alicia's friends are pretty cool too.
However, I think the novel could have benefited from some storyboarding, sorry to say - I get the need for an extended intro as the characters and their relationships are pretty complicated; then about 1/2 way through the book we're on a D&D type quest, which keeps getting bogged down and finishes somewhat anticlimactically (at Drake's house?). The plot didn't really flow, it seemed at times like disconnected parts of something that should be longer. I think that I was hoping for urban fantasy and got low key magic realism.
The ending seemed rushed and unsatisfying after getting us all involved and invested in Alicia's future.
The author is a wonderful writer, and there's a lot to like in this book, but I understand why some readers are ambivalent; I'll look forward to her next one.
I'm subjectively rating this 3.5 out of 5, there was a lot I liked, but I just didn't love the book as a whole.