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A review by kiwiglory
The Riverman by Aaron Starmer
5.0
4.5 stars
I am going to start off by saying that I committed one of the many faux pas of book reading by judging this book by its cover. It was a slow Friday afternoon and I was looking over my carts of ARCs, didn't really like the cover of this book, and thought that I would just read the first couple pages, add it to a couple of the genre lists and be done with it. Well, I read the first couple pages of it and was hooked.
The books begins with Alistair Cleary telling about a haunting experience he had when he was three years old. When he was at a family cabin he saw the body of a missing boy at the bottom of a river bank whose arm was slowly waving back-and-forth with the movement of the river. As a young child he thought a boy was waving to him from the bottom of the river, and told his father, “The boy is saying hello,” But, of course, as a young child, no one paid much attention to what he was saying. Many years passed before Alistair realized what he had seen and by then the cabin had been sold and the missing boy was probably no longer there. But, for a few short moments, Alistair had found the missing boy.
When you first read this memory, you aren't really sure how this is going to relate to the rest of the book. I mean, I first read the description and saw magical portal, man stealing children's souls and had assumed that it wouldn't be too realistic. This book is set in the 1980s, but that doesn't really affect much of the setting of the book aside from there being no cell phones and using a tape recorder. In the following chapters the readers follow Alistair's daily life as he goes to school, interacts with his friends, specifically, Charlie and Fiona. Aside from Fiona's recollection of Aquavania, there isn't much of a fantastical element to this book. It just requires a child-like imagination and curiosity.
In the second chapter, Fiona comes to Alistair gives him a birthday present (when it isn't his birthday) that consists of a dusty old jacket and a tape recorder. On the tape recorder is Fiona's request for Alistair to write her biography based on his skills that he demonstrated in a fictional story he wrote called, “Sixth Grade for the Outer-Spacers”. Alistair is intrigued by her request and once she begins telling her life story she says to Alistair that she needed, “a witness with an imagination”. As she continues the readers learn more about how when she was four years old she was called to the boiler room in her basement by the clicking from the radiators. When she ventured to the basement the boiler vanished and in it's place was a sphere made of water. When she touched the water she was transported to the world of Aquavania. Aquavania is a world where any child with an imagination can create any world of their liking. A world filled with plants, animals, anything they could wish for. But, there is a dark aspect to these wonderful worlds being created.
Fiona tells more about Aquavania and we learn there is a person who ventures from each child's world and steals their souls. Fiona is worried that she will be next. Alistair listens to Fiona's story and assumes that Aquavania is a coping mechanism for something horrible that is going on within her personal life at home. So he sets off to investigate the people living in Fiona's home. As I continued on and Fiona told me and Alistair more about the world of Aquavania, I secretly wished that my radiator had spoken to me as a child.
When I was reading this book I was as hooked as Alistair was to Fiona's story and how everything unraveled within Alistair's daily life interactions with his family, Charlie, and Fiona. This has been the first book in a while that I felt the need to take home with me from work and read it all the time. As Alistair is trying to figure out the mystery of Fiona, the readers experience his daily interactions at school and sleep overs with Charlie. Instead of dragging the story down, these experiences add to the richness of the storytelling in this novel and the completeness of Alistair as a believable character and middle school age boy.
I wanted to know if Fiona's soul was eventually stolen, who was the Riverman?, is Dorian Loomis (Fiona's Uncle) really a good person? These are only a few of the questions that I wanted answered, and so when a few weren't answered by the end of the book, I was confused. How could the author end the book that way? I want to know more! But, as I woke up the next morning I was okay with how it had ended and thought it was one of those types of books that was supposed to not give all of the answers, because that's not how life is. So, when I came into work the next morning to look up the book, I was surprised when I saw that it is going to be a trilogy. I am honestly not sure how I feel about that, because I do feel like the ending of this book was perfect and I think trilogies are being overused. However, aside from those facts, I am hooked to Alistair's story and the world of Aquavania, so I am sure I will be picking up the next in the trilogy and finding out what happens next.
I am going to start off by saying that I committed one of the many faux pas of book reading by judging this book by its cover. It was a slow Friday afternoon and I was looking over my carts of ARCs, didn't really like the cover of this book, and thought that I would just read the first couple pages, add it to a couple of the genre lists and be done with it. Well, I read the first couple pages of it and was hooked.
The books begins with Alistair Cleary telling about a haunting experience he had when he was three years old. When he was at a family cabin he saw the body of a missing boy at the bottom of a river bank whose arm was slowly waving back-and-forth with the movement of the river. As a young child he thought a boy was waving to him from the bottom of the river, and told his father, “The boy is saying hello,” But, of course, as a young child, no one paid much attention to what he was saying. Many years passed before Alistair realized what he had seen and by then the cabin had been sold and the missing boy was probably no longer there. But, for a few short moments, Alistair had found the missing boy.
When you first read this memory, you aren't really sure how this is going to relate to the rest of the book. I mean, I first read the description and saw magical portal, man stealing children's souls and had assumed that it wouldn't be too realistic. This book is set in the 1980s, but that doesn't really affect much of the setting of the book aside from there being no cell phones and using a tape recorder. In the following chapters the readers follow Alistair's daily life as he goes to school, interacts with his friends, specifically, Charlie and Fiona. Aside from Fiona's recollection of Aquavania, there isn't much of a fantastical element to this book. It just requires a child-like imagination and curiosity.
In the second chapter, Fiona comes to Alistair gives him a birthday present (when it isn't his birthday) that consists of a dusty old jacket and a tape recorder. On the tape recorder is Fiona's request for Alistair to write her biography based on his skills that he demonstrated in a fictional story he wrote called, “Sixth Grade for the Outer-Spacers”. Alistair is intrigued by her request and once she begins telling her life story she says to Alistair that she needed, “a witness with an imagination”. As she continues the readers learn more about how when she was four years old she was called to the boiler room in her basement by the clicking from the radiators. When she ventured to the basement the boiler vanished and in it's place was a sphere made of water. When she touched the water she was transported to the world of Aquavania. Aquavania is a world where any child with an imagination can create any world of their liking. A world filled with plants, animals, anything they could wish for. But, there is a dark aspect to these wonderful worlds being created.
Fiona tells more about Aquavania and we learn there is a person who ventures from each child's world and steals their souls. Fiona is worried that she will be next. Alistair listens to Fiona's story and assumes that Aquavania is a coping mechanism for something horrible that is going on within her personal life at home. So he sets off to investigate the people living in Fiona's home. As I continued on and Fiona told me and Alistair more about the world of Aquavania, I secretly wished that my radiator had spoken to me as a child.
When I was reading this book I was as hooked as Alistair was to Fiona's story and how everything unraveled within Alistair's daily life interactions with his family, Charlie, and Fiona. This has been the first book in a while that I felt the need to take home with me from work and read it all the time. As Alistair is trying to figure out the mystery of Fiona, the readers experience his daily interactions at school and sleep overs with Charlie. Instead of dragging the story down, these experiences add to the richness of the storytelling in this novel and the completeness of Alistair as a believable character and middle school age boy.
I wanted to know if Fiona's soul was eventually stolen, who was the Riverman?, is Dorian Loomis (Fiona's Uncle) really a good person? These are only a few of the questions that I wanted answered, and so when a few weren't answered by the end of the book, I was confused. How could the author end the book that way? I want to know more! But, as I woke up the next morning I was okay with how it had ended and thought it was one of those types of books that was supposed to not give all of the answers, because that's not how life is. So, when I came into work the next morning to look up the book, I was surprised when I saw that it is going to be a trilogy. I am honestly not sure how I feel about that, because I do feel like the ending of this book was perfect and I think trilogies are being overused. However, aside from those facts, I am hooked to Alistair's story and the world of Aquavania, so I am sure I will be picking up the next in the trilogy and finding out what happens next.