A review by nwordsmith
Once Upon a River by Diane Setterfield

adventurous mysterious reflective medium-paced

4.75

This was a masterfully crafted fairytale melding aspects of the uncanny and ordinary life seamlessly. It is never quite certain if the events are infused with a touch of the magical or merely things that really could happen. After reading it, I’m inclined to think it is both. As Neil Gaiman says, it doesn’t stop being magic just because you know how it works. I appreciated the cyclical nature of the story and how the narrative itself seemed the mirror the river in its ebb and flow ever onward. Beautiful imagery. Lovely prose. Incredibly well done.