by Diane Setterfield, Juliet Stevenson
by Diane Setterfield During a dark midwinter’s night in an ancient inn on the Thames, an injured man with a dead child are brought in from the river. The local healer is brought in and somehow, the dead child comes back to life. This story had a poetic quality to the prose in the beginning redol...
It’s finally happened. I have read a Diane Setterfield book in which I liked the prose AND the plot AND the characters. The third time really is the charm, apparently. Persistence pays off! Sort of! The story meanders like the titular river, seeming to flow slowly on the surface with hidden curren...
This enchanting historical novel set in the 19th century is centered around a mysterious little girl who appears to have died of drowning in the Thames and then comes back to life. Three claims come for the mute girl, but is she a kidnapped daughter, an unknown granddaughter, or a lost sister? And w...
Diane Setterfield has such an amazing way with words, I enjoyed every page of this book and, interspersed with audiobooks and other reads, I managed to make it last for several weeks. Sadly, I have finally finished, but I've promised myself to listen to the audiobook in a few months, something I nev...
Once Upon a River by Diane Setterfield is a difficult book to categorize because it doesn't fit neatly into any one genre. It's historical fiction looked at through the medium of magical realism with a healthy dose of the supernatural. All of the interwoven narratives (of which there are 4 main ones...
Yes! My soul needed a good magical realism book. It was crying out for it you guys. "Once Upon a River" delves into many characters but manages to thread the needle with keeping an eye on the main plot from beginning to end of this book. I absolutely loved "The 13th Tale" so I was looking forward to...
In a tavern off the coast of the Thames, locals come to hear stories and drink their troubles away. Some of them are about to play a part in a story that myths and legends are made from. A little girl is brought to the tavern saved by a man who happened to see her in the river. The man passes out fr...
Once Upon a River combines folklore, magic, and mystery with a Gothic feel. The author is, without a doubt, talented and certainly has a gift for prose and vivid details. That said, I came away from this one with mixed feelings. The book is character driven, and there are quite a lot of characters t...
Taking place at the end of the 19th century over the period of a year along the upper Thames, this novel deals with the discovery of an injured man and a seemingly dead girl emerging from the river at the Swan inn. From there, a series of events take place involving a host of locals of various descr...
[10/05/18 Edited to add: I managed to upload a bad picture of my bingo card.] This is such a good book I want to be a better writer to do it justice in my review. Waiting longer for inspiration is just not on though: my memory will let the details blur and the experience fade. Setterfield is a...
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