A review by sofipitch
Once Upon a River by Diane Setterfield

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

3.75

This book was pretty slow to start but I did get invested after a while but the ending to me was lacking. I feel like there was a weird emphasis on having biological children and it's importance and I didn't like that, especially
as a female character who didn't want to have kids for very good reasons has her mind changed bc the man she fell in love with does. Just 😑. Like I really liked the character of Armstrong and I was literally in TEARS when he was describing his childhood and his desire to be a great father to his adopted son, only for the story to say "but that didn't matter, being evil was in the son's genes" uh what, are you kidding me?

Also the river was used as a recurrent theme and symbol throughout but it could be pretty heavy handed at times. Otherwise I liked the prose
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