A review by blewballoon
What the River Knows by Isabel Ibañez

adventurous mysterious reflective slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

I rated this a 3 originally and then lowered it upon reflection. The ending in particular really frustrated me. There were some positives. I liked the historical Egyptian atmosphere (mostly the descriptions of what people were eating), I liked the touch of having illustrations every now and then, and there was enough adventure. The author seems to have done a decent amount of research on the setting. The concept of old objects having quirky magical properties was executed alright. The first issue I had with the book was that the writing felt bad. It reads like fanfiction I read when I was 12, written by fellow 12-year-olds. That may seem harsh, but it's exactly what I thought in the earlier chapters. The writing improves a little when there is more action going on, but the more reflective parts are very clunky. There's one part where the main character reflects that she's been seeing visions of the past/someone's memories, and that was a surprise to me because she never had any on the page before then. Maybe that was an editing mistake. There were also many instances where there would be a paragraph of internal monologuing, and then a line on its own for emphasis. As a stylistic choice, that's fine, but it was very repetitive and once I noticed it I couldn't stop noticing it. The rest of my issues are with the story and characters themselves. Spoilers and rant:
The romance doesn't feel right. Inez reads like she's 16 and Whit reads like he's 25, and while they have some banter, without Whit's perspective I'd think it was just one-sided teen girl hormones. The book also repeats ad nauseam that Inez is too trusting, and clearly, something is up with Whit based on the epilogue. Speaking of being too trusting, her dead mom shows up to convince her to betray her uncle and then poofs away to reveal herself as a villain (one of several "twist" villains) and contribute nothing further. The worst part of the book for me: what the hell was the point of dragging completely irrelevant cousin Elvira from the very beginning of the book back to the end of the book just to brutally murder her? It was a complete waste, unnecessary shock value. No character really gets any development. After spending most of the book with him, the uncle could do just about anything and I wouldn't have a reason to be surprised. I know the cliffhanger ending is meant to make you want to read the next book, but it turned me off even more. The book was already a long slog, and you didn't even have the decency to wrap any of it up? It leaves me with no faith the author can write a satisfying conclusion.
For me, the redeeming qualities of the book aren't enough to outweigh the bad. I was excited based on the premise but was very disappointed in the execution.
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