erickabdz 's review for:

Into This River I Drown by T.J. Klune

2.0

---

"I know what love is," I snarl at him. "No," he says. "You know only grief now. There is a difference."

*softly* what the fuck.

This book surprised me completely. I was not expecting anything that happened. This was a book mostly about faith, religious faith, and fatherly love. There were some beautiful lines and thoughtful reminders, but I'm afraid they were so deeply buried in repetitive prose that they ultimately lost their impact. I was expecting several mentions of drowning in a river but never this many.

The characters were interesting. If Benji had had a little more depth besides his aching sorrow it would have been fantastic, but they definitely were good enough and I can understand that Benji being his grief was a point that Klune wanted to make. I did deeply love that final development

Spoiler

where Benji decides that he wants to live even before the voices of the men he loved prompted him

, but everything in between felt somewhat dull, after being told so many times.

For the plot... just... ? The

Spoiler

Christie revelation

surprised me but not in a good sense. Then everything around the end

Spoiler

the part with more angels? Seven and Felix?

what? What was that? I understood that this is from Klune's other book but it really, really didn't feel well integrated into the story at hand. Besides all of this, there was a question asked again and again and nobody got answers

Spoiler

why is Benji so important? Why is the town? Like, they literally changed heaven's laws, and we don't know why they were this special?

, and these were important answers and I feel oh so cheated.

There were also some very transphobic dialogues that were never challenged and made my blood boil.

I'm sure this book would have benefited from some more rounds of editing, as there are many good parts but not enough to make it a worthwhile read for me. Klune's newer works definitely show improvement and I'm very glad for that!