Once Upon a River by Diane Setterfield

Synopsis (from Goodreads) 

Pages: 419 

Publisher: Doubleday 

Released: 1st of January 2019

A dark midwinter’s night in an ancient inn on the Thames. The regulars are entertaining themselves by telling stories when the door bursts open on an injured stranger. In his arms is the drowned corpse of a little child.

Hours later the dead girl stirs, takes a breath and returns to life.

Is it a miracle?

Is it magic?

Or can it be explained by science?

Replete with folklore, suspense and romance, as well as with the urgent scientific curiosity of the Darwinian age, Once Upon a River is as richly atmospheric as Setterfield’s bestseller The Thirteenth Tale.

What I Have to Say 

I'm not even sure how to start to say how much I loved this book. Everything from the mysteries, the characters, the plot and the unique narration was just perfect. From the first sentence, I was pulled deeply into the world around the river. I loved how the folk tales surrounding the river were interwoven with the story, how they were spoken of as facts because that's how the locals would see it. Stories passed from mouth to mouth and seen as true despite the fact that it's more local superstition. 

Stories are a massive part of this book, the way that stories were passed by word of mouth, the way that folklore and rumours were spread back then from people talking to one another and spreading the gossip. I loved to see how all the characters were connected and how they found out about the girl and what happened on the night she was found.

I loved the narration so much. The omniscient  narrator connected everything back to the river, talking about the story in terms of the river and conspiring with the reader to tell the story. Often I like to fall into a book and get lost in the story, but in this case with stories at the very heart of the book, it was just the perfect way to tell the story.

Whether you want a story full of magic and mystery or a story full of scientific reasoning this is the story for you. It balances the story perfectly to explain everything reasonably as well as leaving it open for those like me who would rather believe in magic.

My thanks go to Netgalley and Transworld publishing for providing me with this copy for review.