I couldn't picture from the description what this book would really be like. It starts off with the history of this strange little corner of England where people like to tell stories to explain the world to themselves. And it goes into so much detail about the setting and its history that when we get to "now" (the 1870s, I think), it definitely feels like a fully imagined and realized place.
Then you have our orphan-turned-healer Rita Sunday, who is such a fascinating character, both part of this world and apart from it. You get the feeling that she and the other characters are part of a gritty world--magical and full of stories, but also facing the hard truths of life like struggle, hardship, and death by misadventure in the river.
This ends up being a really Dickensian tale, with a huge cast of characters, and a real baddie or two. And you wonder until the end just how things will work out for them!
Then you have our orphan-turned-healer Rita Sunday, who is such a fascinating character, both part of this world and apart from it. You get the feeling that she and the other characters are part of a gritty world--magical and full of stories, but also facing the hard truths of life like struggle, hardship, and death by misadventure in the river.
This ends up being a really Dickensian tale, with a huge cast of characters, and a real baddie or two. And you wonder until the end just how things will work out for them!