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Amazon.co.uk Review
Alice Hoffman beautifully choreographs the battle between nature and civilisation to mirror the action in her mesmerising 13th novel The River King. Although set in the contemporary, three block-long village of Haddan, Massachusetts, its enchanting gothic flavour makes it feel like a much earlier era. Haddan School, built perilously close to the river in 1858, "had been fashioned out of river rock, grey slabs flecked with mica", and the cupboards have a "distinctly weedy odour". The school's folklore matches its mid-19th century beginnings with tales of blood-seeped roses, a hanging from the rafters and people lead astray by the "pale green light rising from the river each evening" into "fields rife with late-blooming asters and milkweed".
The four outsiders at the novel's heart are brought together by the dramatic forces of love and death: two new students, Gus, a rebellious, hapless loner; Carlin, a beautiful swimmer from Florida; Betsy, the unconventional photography teacher trapped in a conventional engagement, and Abel, the local cop who comes to the school to investigate a drowning. After a tragic flood, the novel picks up pace and switches from gothic horror to detective story with hints of The X Files. A ghost appears in Betsy's photos and leaves mementoes from the river all around the school. When the drowned corpse is found to have faecal matter in its lungs in a cleaned-up river, the plot takes on echoes of Chinatown and is no less riveting for that.
Although Hoffman misses some of the menace and narrative drive of a true thriller, her portrait of a secluded world, which has developed its own secrets, rules and inability to confront evil, weaves a murky and disturbing spell. --Cherry Smyth --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
The Times
'...Alice Hoffman is queen of the 'burbs and an authority on American, small town weirdness...'
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
18 of 18 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
i lost a lot of sleep reading this book, but i have to say that sitting up til 3 this morning was worth it!! Sad, and yet satisfyingly happy at the end, alice hoffman's prose has a dreamy quality that i can't quite describe accurately.... the story itself has elements of a ghost story, a love story, and detective fiction, but it wasn't definably any one of the three. Basically, two new pupils arrive at the Haddan school one year, and the plot revolves around them, whether present or not, a new teacher at the school, and an unconventional local policeman. It would ruin the plot to say exactly what happens, but the characters are convincingly drawn, and your sympathies are with them all the way through. suffice it to say that the scent of roses seems to pervade the book as much as the river water seems to seep into Haddan itself...
12 of 13 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
If you've only seen the film of Practical Magic you may have entirely the wrong idea about the wonderful Alice Hoffman,one of the most enchanting US writers alive. This is among her best books, set in a snooty East Coast school said to be haunted by the dead wife of the master -a woman who loved roses and swans, whose suicide laid a cirse on the place. The new pupils are Gus, a brilliant misfit, and Carlin a beautiful but poor swimming scholar. Gus falls for Carlin, but she is seduced by the grooviest boy in school who also is ringleader in a gang of notorious bullies. Their initiation ceremonies have caused numerous students to break down or drop out, and the latest victim is Gus, whom Carlin continues to befriend. But then Gus's drowned body is found in the river, and both town and school need the assistance of the supernatural to work out how he was murdered....Hoffman writes with such lyricism it's easy to miss the dry humour, the compassion and the wisdom. I've read all her novels, but this is particularly satisfying and good.
11 of 13 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Having read the majority of Hoffmann's books, I can say for sure that the this is one of her best. Great characters, that develop through the story. The story itself is captivating and it contains all the elements, we love from her books: a hint of magic, love and personality... Absolutely loved it - I wish, Í could read it for the first time again!
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
My Favourite Book, one to read again and again
I can't add much to the reviews already posted, I adore this book.
The prose is so delicate yet strong enough to evoke colours, tastes and aromas. Read more
The prose is so delicate yet strong enough to evoke colours, tastes and aromas. Read more
Published 9 months ago by Mrs. Jacqui Robinson
One of my favourite authors - consistently good
I trully enjoyed reading this book. I finished it in a day whilst sunbathing on holiday in Greece. I couldn't put this book down. It had me in suspense until the last chapter. Read more
Published 21 months ago by Sara Hunter
Offbeat and unexpected
This is one of the better novels I've read for a while. Quite trippy and surreal in places, it's a novel that defies being pinned into a single genre - part rights-of-passage, part... Read more
Published 23 months ago by daisyrock
A beautiful, moving masterpiece
I'm quite new to the world of Alice Hoffman - my first one was the impressive The Ice Queen - and I'm slowly working my way through her back catalogue. Read more
Published on 6 Oct 2009 by GM Jones
Without a doubt, one of the best books i've ever read.
This engaging and thought provoking story has everything anyone could want in a novel: love, horror, mystery, friendship, you name it, it's in this book. Read more
Published on 30 Dec 2001 by lynseythescot@aol.com
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