Setterfield’s writing is wonderful, the pacing is perfect, and the atmosphere is dark and dreary. An enthralling, slightly magical mystery.

This book is a treat full of rich characters, compelling storylines, and vibrant descriptions. Each storyline weaves together for a filling narrative that will leave you satisfied.

There are times when you come across a book that warms you to the bone, but those books are far and few. I cannot even begin to put into words how this book made me feel once I finished it. I have read mixed reviews regarding the complexity of the plot and characters. I personally didn't feel lost or overwhelmed. In fact, I loved that there were so many characters and that they all played a part in the story. Each character seemed to have an integral part to play and it all melded together perfectly at the end. It was quite the mystery as well for those who enjoy sleuthing. There was a series of events, each with it's own mystery that kept me hooked! I wouldn't say there was one main character who carried the book but there were definitely favorites. Especially, the pet pigs! I loved how they had their own personalities brought to life. Sometimes books will be great throughout the beginning and middle and somehow just miss it at the end. This ending was one of the best endings I have ever read! I would undoubtedly have been succumbed into a book hangover had it not been for the sole reason that I tend to read multiple books at a time.

This is my first experience reading Diane Setterfield's work, I did not read her previous book. I loved this one! It was well written, sophisticated and beautifully descriptive. Setterfield fleshes out each character in a way that drew me deeper into the story. As the story progressed I wanted to know what was happening with each character.

I found the story captivating until the very end.

This book gets 4-stars from me because although it was well written at times it moved a little too slow.

Exquisite storytelling!!

Along the Thames is a pub by the name of The Swan where men gather to spin tales. On one such evening an injured man stumbles in with a bundle in his arms. Mistaken for a puppet we soon discover he brought in an unresponsive little girl., presumably dead. Rita Sunday, the local nurse arrives to attend the unconscious man and do a final inspection of the girl. To Rita's great surprise the girl starts breathing. Was she ever deceased or has she come back from the dead? So begins the journey to unravel who the girl is and which family does she truly belong to.

Once Upon a River is a slow burn of a read, but completely immersive. If the reader can take the time with this book instead of intending to devouring it in a few sittings you can see it for the beautiful mysterious story it is.

Thank you to Atria Books and NetGalley for the advance readers copy.

4 stars

I received a free copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This is a hard book to describe. It's part folktale, part mystery, part romance and part magical fairy tale. The story starts off slowly, but stick with it. As it unwinds, the pace picks up until its tragic, but wonderful, ending.

During a dark midwinter's night in a small inn by the Thames river, the regulars are entertaining themselves by telling stories. A badly injured stranger bursts through the door carrying a little dead girl. After the healer tends to the injured stranger, she inspects the body of the little girl and discovers she's alive. The regulars speculate as to how the little girl could be alive. Is it a miracle, magic, science or something else?

But who is the little girl? One family believes it is their long-lost daughter that was kidnapped two years earlier. Another man believes it is his daughter from his estranged, recently deceased wife. Yet another believes the little girl is her younger sister. The girl, who doesn't speak, is not able to tell anyone who she is or where she belongs. She does not seem happy, however, and stares longingly at the river as if she's expecting someone to come get her.

The author weaves the stories of several families and townspeople together to tell the tale. The book is beautifully written and once the pace picked up, I couldn't stop reading. I recommend you read this book.

This is a wonderful book. I enjoyed the magical realism of this book and the fairy tale quality of the we ll written characters.

No one writing today blurs the lines between reality and magic as deftly and hauntingly as Diane Setterfield.

Once Upon a River is a story about the stories we tell and the power that storytelling has to shape and reshape reality into what we need it to be. On a dark winter's night, a dead child is heroically pulled from the river until suddenly the child is not dead, but alive again with no memory of where she came from and more than one person claiming to know who she is.

As her story is told and retold based on the needs of multiple townpeople, years old secrets and lies are opened and revealed. Reality is shaped and reshaped and shaped again, but when the truest version of the story finally reveals itself, will the community be able to bear the weight of it?

Once upon a River is a story suspended between reality and fairytale, a place where Setterfield is masterfully at home. Time and again, I lost myself in the quiet fog of the Thames as I traveled deeper into the story. Richly atmospheric and richly told, this is a story best enjoyed slowly and with little interruption. I was utterly captivated from the first scene and highly satisfied by the unusual ending.

DNF @ 15%

I had really high hopes for this book going in, because who doesn't love a good adult fairy tale, right? But, ultimately, I found that the writing just didn't interest me. The big happening, upon which the entire novel is based, happens fairly early on in the novel, and it failed to wow me or even approach tickling my imagination. There's nothing specific that I would critique about Diane Setterfield's writing; it just wasn't for me. I think it was a little too plain for me. This novel had the air of sitting at the knee of a 19th century British grandmother's knee as she she knits a scarf and tells the kiddies a story. While I'm sure many will love that style of writing and storytelling--that simple life, folksy feel--for me, it could barely keep my attention. For that reason, I will not rate this book (on Goodreads or on my blog).

I was so excited got an ARC for this book, but it really wasn't for me and I never got past page 125. As it is, I have too many books to read so I don't push myself to read books I just can't seem to get into :( . I had to give it a rating to submit my review and went with 1star since I didn't finish it but overall this book does have great ratings, but it just wasn't working for me .

Thank you to netgalley and the publisher for the opportunity.

This book is kind of hard to describe. It's set in the late 1800s in a small town on the Thames, in a world that is mostly like our own but with a bit of fantasy/magical realism. It starts in a pub on a dark night, where a man staggers in holding the body of a small girl who seems to have drowned and died - until she is suddenly alive again - and various people seem to think she belongs to them. It was very slow to start, and rather confusing as there are many different characters, but the end was fantastic. I absolutely loved Diane Setterfield's first book, "The Thirteenth Tale," but skipped her second book as it got terrible reviews. This is her third book, and seemed to be getting good buzz, so I decided I'd give it a try, but for me it was just mediocre.

This was such a unique book. The prose was so lyrical and beautiful. This kind of fantastical story is not the typical genre/style I read so it was definitely out of my comfort zone. Overall, I was very invested in the story and the mystery kept my attention. At times, I had issue keeping the characters straight. However, that is probably more reader error on my part than anything wrong with the writing or story structure. I will definitely read this author again.

I loved this book. It was a slow burn with no Ahah moment that was perfect for my mood. I was able to curl up in front of the fire with a cup of cocoa and get lost in this book. I loved the writing style and how it perfectly wound the supernatural and realism together. I enjoyed that it was not a simple happy go lucky book, I get tired of the world always being full of sunshine and this somewhat sad story was the perfect fix.

“…on a summer day winter always seems like something you have dreamt or hear spoken of and not a thing you have lived.”

This story takes place in a small town on the banks of the Thames. On the evening of the winter solstice, a man shows up in the door of a small pub – beaten up and holding a young girl who looks for all the world as if she has drowned. But, inexplicably, hours later, the girl takes a breath and comes back to life. No one knows what happened to her or how she and the man came to be at the door of the pub. But theories abound…and what follows is a gothic, atmospheric, slow-burn, strange and complex mystery involving kidnapping, mixed identities, photography and lots and lots of story-telling.

“…just ‘cause a thing’s impossible don’t mean it can’t happen.”

To start, I just have to say that I loved the gothic ambiance of this dark mystery. Set in an unnamed but Elizabethan-ish age in England, the cold, historical, riverside setting is perfect for this type of tale. The traditional fairy-tale like writing, and the various strains of folklore and legend woven in, fit the mood as well. In addition, I really enjoyed the way that Setterfield explores the way a story can grow and morph in the retelling, not only in a way that pushes it out of proportion with the original, but also in a way that makes space for discovery of details and explanations that were perhaps overlooked in the first retelling. It allows for comforting repetition, sometimes necessary in a mystery story like this one, where new facts and minutiae are revealed consistently throughout, but in a way that doesn’t get tedious. To that point, the little clues that are dropped to the reader are done so with a slow-burn-paced regularity that is just right. Relatedly, the interweaving of the river and story-telling (even unique kinds, like with pictures, or purposefully wielded as a tool) as themes in every part of this tale is a nice aesthetic touch. There were, perhaps, times where it was too much, where these sections went too long and I just wanted to get back to the main story, but it’s a small criticism.

“A river is a river, whatever the season.”

As for the story itself, it was the epitome of a cozy mystery novel. The drama is there from the start, with (at least) three different possibilities for who the young dead-come-back-to-life girl could be. And with so many different complicating viewpoints, personal investments and new discoveries that change your opinion on who the girl really is, it keeps you guessing all the way until the end. Plus, there are some really great side stories that develop as the pieces of the main one come together, all in fairy tale type form: with great evils and the great goods. The great evils make you upset on behalf of the innocent and the great goods make your heart smile in their sweetness, but all fit smoothly, stylistically, into the overall story. And by the end, when we get our final reveals and learn the fates of all the little girls suspected of being the drowned one, it’s very satisfying. There are many interconnections that bring all our characters’ presences in the story into clarity and we are left with nicely tied up conclusions for everyone. Again, in typical fairy tale fashion.

“When a story is yours to tell, you are allowed to take liberties with it…”

Probably my favorite thing about the entire story is the simultaneous explanations from science and from folklore. By the end, each thing that seemed unbelievable and unexplainable earlier has been, at least mostly, explained away with logic that is truly sound and believable. You can leave this story with the comfort of knowing that it was in no way fantastical; that this is fiction, sure, but not magical realism. However, if you have magic in your heart, you can also choose to ignore some of that science and hold onto the mystical. This can absolutely become a story that has a hint of enchantment for readers who want to believe that the scientific explanations are not quite enough on their own. It is this side that parallels the focus on “stories” that is present throughout – and how the version of this one will change as it spreads far and wide until it creates a great legendary tale out of these very real circumstances. As a reader, and a lover of mythology and lore, this concept speaks to my heart.

“He simply exposed his retina and let love burn her flickering, shimmering, absorbed face onto his soul.”

There is an air of expectation and anticipation that is built from the very start, and a sort of supernatural pall over the story, that are just wonderfully crafted. This book truly has that atmospheric quality that makes you feel as if you are completely enveloped in the story. I enjoyed this one and, if you are looking for a snug-in-the-blankets, light-ish winter read, this would be a great choice!

This book did THAT!! Wow, I was literally blown away by this story. The writing was out of this world incredible. The writing felt like magic and so so so unique. I loved that the author decided to talk to the reader at times to tell them that it was about to go down. And it did go down. My favorite part about this book were the fully developed characters who I just felt a connection to. Warning: this book has a lot of characters so it takes a minute to know them. But when you know who is who the story gets more intense and amazing. In fact, what makes this book more stunning is the diverse set of characters that make this book more realistic. The author was very inclusive with her story and liked that. In other words, this is not a book full of white privileged characters. No tea no shade lol. But you get the point, I really loved this book so much and I do recommend getting it. A beautiful story and the best book I have read all year. Thank you Atria for sending me a copy.

A beautifully written mystery with shades of Dickens. The prose and the plot twists mimicked the very river that takes on a life of its own as one of the most important characters in this novel.

I was provided with a complimentary copy of this book so I could give an honest review.

"Once Upon the River" by Diane Setterfield is a difficult book to categorize. It’s part fairy tale, part mystery, part fantasy, and has a dash of historical fiction thrown in for good measure. It revolves around a little town, its pub, its residents, and the river that flow nearby.
The residents are a colorful cast of characters. I enjoyed Setterfield’s use of the pub’s regulars and how they helped move the story along with their storytelling. Storytelling is a significant topic discussed in the story.

I found the beginning of the story confusing. I think it was because of all of the people involved in the storyline. Three separate storylines run parallel and intermingle in the story. Once I was able to keep the characters straight I thoroughly enjoyed the book.
I also listened to a preview of the corresponding audiobook and recommend that also. The narrator, Juliet Stevenson, uses different voices that allows the listener to clearly recognize that character.

I devoured Setterfield’s “The Thirteenth Tale” (my rating is 4 out of 5 stars) and now “Once Upon a River” (4 stars rating). Diane Setterfield is now an author I follow and am looking forward to her next story.

Once Upon a River is a completely magical fairytale that will take you on a journey on the banks of the Thames river starting on page one. It is a poetically beautiful work of literary fiction. However, it is one of those books you will need to sit with the intention to read as it needs your full attention. But since it’s such a beautiful book, you’ll be happ6 to devote time to sit and read.

This is a story about telling a story about a story. It’s very detailed which is good and bad. Good that you know exactly what the scenery, people, places, and more look like. Bad because the story moves painfully slow. Still, it’s worth the wait and somewhat thought-provoking.

Once Upon A River was a beautiful read. The characters, the plot and the underlying mysteries are woven together with such a deft hand. Diane Setterfield never disappoints me.