"Once upon a river" opens with a mysterious man, sopping and bloodied, carrying an unconscious four-year-old girl into the inn. The synopsis delivers a great amount of mystery and sounds very gripping. However, this book didn't work for me: I only considered the first 100 and last 50 pages worthy of reading because the rest of the book was way too slow. The story has multiple POV and I found it sometimes with excessive description. In addition, I couldn't connect with the characters since I think their thoughts were abstract and confusing. On the other hand, the end was unexpected. Lastly, the writing is fair and the length of this book could be cut in half.
This was my first read from Diane Setterfield and I hope I can enjoy more of her future works.
This was my first read from Diane Setterfield and I hope I can enjoy more of her future works.