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A review by secre
Riverland by Fran Wilde
3.0
This is one of those books that has a stunning premise behind it and I think it talks about some really important issues with sensitivity and grace. I really wanted to love it, and had it been set completely in the real world, I think I would have. Unfortunately the large segments that involve the dream world just didn't work for me at all and perhaps more importantly, I don't think they melded very well with the real world. It felt forced, the two halves not quite fitting together well enough.
Eleanor and Mike and two sisters who share a secret. The secret is house magic; things that are broken or lost are fixed or replaced if you just keep the rules. Or at least that is what Eleanor tells Mike and Mike is young enough to believe her. The fact is though that the rules are important, but not for the reasons Mike believes. If you break the rules, if you make trouble, then dad gets angry. And when dad gets angry, things get broken, mum gets hit and punishments happen.
Fran Wilde does a stunning job at depicting the girl's reality; a life of broken glass, whispers and hiding under the bed. The ways in which Eleanor has found to cope and to shield Mike from the worst of the abuse are starkly portrayed. The ways both girl's perceptions of the world have been skewed and altered by the turbulence of their home life is heart-breaking. The way they dance around the issues with other adults, take the blame on themselves and try to navigate the tight-rope of their father's anger is hauntingly portrayed. I cannot fault these sections of the book.
Where things fall down is in the portal fantasy aspect of the book. At night, Eleanor and Mike find a world in desperate straights through the cracks and the leaks between the worlds. And it just didn't work for me. I was invested in the real world conflict that the girl's were embroiled in, but the whole 'save a fantasy world' bit just didn't sit right. I could see some of the parallels between the fantasy and the reality, but even then they just didn't work well together. And because of this, I felt forced out of the aspect of the story I was really engaged with and into this fantasy world I honestly didn't really care about.
Part of the issue is going to be in how unsubstantial this dream like fantasy is. You get some descriptions of the river, the lighthouse and the tunnels, but it never really came together into a place I could truly imagine. Likewise, whilst the characters in the real world felt stunningly real for good and for ill, the characters in the dream world never quite became fully formed. Perhaps this was deliberate; after all, it's meant to be a world of dreams and of nightmares, but it just didn't work for me.
Perhaps some of my disconnect with the dream world sections come from my own upbringing and how much I related to the real events of the novel. My situation was different in many ways, but I felt a visceral reaction to Eleanor trying so hard to feel normal and yet pushing others away in her attempts to keep the reality of her home life a secret. Wilde captured many of the fears and thoughts I had as a child, as you pretend so hard and make so many excuses. It felt completely real to me, so the fuzzy unreality of the fantasy world stood out all the more starkly.
So this is a book of two halves for me. The sections where the girls are in the real world are stunning. Beautifully written, hauntingly real and starkly depicted so I felt as though I were stood beside Eleanor at times. Her fear, uncertainly and anger resound off the page. Her doubts of her own self-worth, belief that her father must be right about her, desperation to not let her mother down and keep the rules in order to maintain some semblance of normality really struck me. But the dream world just didn't do anything for me. If this had been almost entirely set in the real world, I suspect it would be an easy five stars. But it's not. And it feels like two uneven halves jammed together and forced to try and fit.
Many thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for my free review copy of this title.
Eleanor and Mike and two sisters who share a secret. The secret is house magic; things that are broken or lost are fixed or replaced if you just keep the rules. Or at least that is what Eleanor tells Mike and Mike is young enough to believe her. The fact is though that the rules are important, but not for the reasons Mike believes. If you break the rules, if you make trouble, then dad gets angry. And when dad gets angry, things get broken, mum gets hit and punishments happen.
Fran Wilde does a stunning job at depicting the girl's reality; a life of broken glass, whispers and hiding under the bed. The ways in which Eleanor has found to cope and to shield Mike from the worst of the abuse are starkly portrayed. The ways both girl's perceptions of the world have been skewed and altered by the turbulence of their home life is heart-breaking. The way they dance around the issues with other adults, take the blame on themselves and try to navigate the tight-rope of their father's anger is hauntingly portrayed. I cannot fault these sections of the book.
Where things fall down is in the portal fantasy aspect of the book. At night, Eleanor and Mike find a world in desperate straights through the cracks and the leaks between the worlds. And it just didn't work for me. I was invested in the real world conflict that the girl's were embroiled in, but the whole 'save a fantasy world' bit just didn't sit right. I could see some of the parallels between the fantasy and the reality, but even then they just didn't work well together. And because of this, I felt forced out of the aspect of the story I was really engaged with and into this fantasy world I honestly didn't really care about.
Part of the issue is going to be in how unsubstantial this dream like fantasy is. You get some descriptions of the river, the lighthouse and the tunnels, but it never really came together into a place I could truly imagine. Likewise, whilst the characters in the real world felt stunningly real for good and for ill, the characters in the dream world never quite became fully formed. Perhaps this was deliberate; after all, it's meant to be a world of dreams and of nightmares, but it just didn't work for me.
Perhaps some of my disconnect with the dream world sections come from my own upbringing and how much I related to the real events of the novel. My situation was different in many ways, but I felt a visceral reaction to Eleanor trying so hard to feel normal and yet pushing others away in her attempts to keep the reality of her home life a secret. Wilde captured many of the fears and thoughts I had as a child, as you pretend so hard and make so many excuses. It felt completely real to me, so the fuzzy unreality of the fantasy world stood out all the more starkly.
So this is a book of two halves for me. The sections where the girls are in the real world are stunning. Beautifully written, hauntingly real and starkly depicted so I felt as though I were stood beside Eleanor at times. Her fear, uncertainly and anger resound off the page. Her doubts of her own self-worth, belief that her father must be right about her, desperation to not let her mother down and keep the rules in order to maintain some semblance of normality really struck me. But the dream world just didn't do anything for me. If this had been almost entirely set in the real world, I suspect it would be an easy five stars. But it's not. And it feels like two uneven halves jammed together and forced to try and fit.
Many thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for my free review copy of this title.