Once Upon a River is a return to form for Diane Setterfield. Bellman & Black, her followup to the astounding The Thirteenth Tale, fell far short for me; one of the rare occasions that I simply did not finish a book. I believe Setterfield was hard pressed to come up with something as incredible as The Thirteenth Tale and could not be pressured into a new story, and it shows in Bellman & Black. However Once Upon a River, while an entirely different creature from The Thirteenth Tale, has the same unputdownable pull. Read over the course of 3 sittings (the last keeping me up until the wee hours of the morning, reading the entire second half of the book), I was enthralled by the threads of story that she weaves throughout the book and had to find out how everything would come together in the end.

A tale told just as much through stories as the action itself, the reader follows the plight of three families as they all lay claim in one form or another to a mysterious child who was found dead but miraculously comes back to life. No once knows for sure who she is, but the child becomes the crux of the story and through her, secrets are brought to light that threaten to pull some families apart, while also bringing some families back together. Can the folklore of the region explain her away, or can the budding science of modern medicine give a reason to her miraculous resurrection? Who will finally lay claim to the child? These are questions only Setterfield can answer, and she answers them beautifully.

Beautifully written and executed, Once Upon a River feels like an old timey classic told through an imaginative narrative that immediately grabs your attention and refuses to let go.

Filled with magic and wonder, romance and adventure, all beautifully rich in detail and lore, this is very much the Setterfield from The Thirteenth Tale that we all know and fell in love with.

Filled with intricate twists and turns and mystery that will keep you guessing, this will keep you eagerly turning the pages as you are caught up in the magic and beauty of it all as it slowly unfolds page after page.

Oh my heavens... what did I just read? Once Upon a River is a truly amazing novel and I don't know how I'm going to put into words how I feel about it. Coming in at about 480 pages long, this is not a short read or one that you'll be able to skim through quickly. With that said, it is NOT a book you will want to skim through quickly. I wanted to soak up every little detail and every speck of information about each of the characters.

This novel is highly character driven and it's definitely a novel that will continue to grow on you with time. The first several chapters take a little while to get into because of all the character introductions, but give it time and I guarantee you won't be disappointed. I loved so much about this novel that it's really hard to talk about the best parts and the best characters, but I think I grew to love Rita and Mr. Armstrong the most out of everyone. BUT... all of the characters were phenomenal and I probably would change that answer tomorrow if you asked me again!

All in all, Once Upon a River was a beautiful and atmospheric read that you will want to spend your time taking in. It is filled with beautiful scenery, contagious characters, and more magic than you could imagine. I would highly recommend this novel to readers who loved Setterfield's previous novel. Thank you to Atria Books and NetGalley for sending this novel in exchange for an honest review.

Rating 5/5

3.5 stars

I couldn't wait to dive into "Once Upon a River". The description inspired images in my mind of mysterious fog, a winding river, and an aura of magic. From the beginning, this tale lived up to its name as Setterfield filled its pages with storytelling, folklore, and the ever-present River. In every scene, the River played numerous roles including witness, messenger, mercenary, friend, mirror, and accomplice.

I gave it 3.5 stars for a couple of reasons: the number of characters and the lack of suspense. There were quite a few characters introduced from the very beginning and I had a difficult time keeping their stories straight. Even now looking back, I'm still confused about a few of them. Also, the plotline held my interest but lacked substantial tension. Hence, I kept reading but I wasn't staying up late or thinking about it during the day wondering what would happen next.

Overall, "Once Upon a River" was otherworldly, compelling, and entertaining. I really enjoyed reading it during the late fall...it was a perfect seasonal read.

In 1887, a girl, approximately four years old, is rescued from the freezing cold Thames and brought to The Swan, an ancient pub along its shores and known for its story-telling acumen. She is presumed dead but as Rita Sunday, the local nurse and midwife, exams her she discovers the pulse which was absent a few minutes ago is slowly returning.
As word gets out about the little girl who came back to life, two families and a middle aged spinster claim her as their own each giving her a different name: Anna, Alice and Amelia. With the girl unable to speak she cannot say to whom she belongs and as she seems content with all no one can be sure where she belongs or even how she ended up in the Thames.
A hot, confusing, tangled mess ensues with the girl going back and forth between the Vaughans and the Armstrongs each with their own complicated family drama, talk of medieval events concerning equinoxes and solstices, advances in scientific theories being bantered about and old river lore. .
It is a mystery the reader needs to sort out. Thankfully, Rita and her photographer friend, Henry Daunt, help to do so which make the final chapters unputdownable and enlightening.
The novel is an intriguing look at the river Thames with its many attributes and personalities, a character just as vital as another other in the book.
Thank you NetGalley and Simon and Schuster for the opportunity to read and review Diane Setterfield's latest novel prior to its release on December 4, 2018.

I absolutely loved this book! I don't give out a lot of five star ratings, but when I do it is because I loved both the story and the writing so much.

Thank you to netgalley and Atria books for the advanced ebook, I have already pre-ordered a hard copy for myself and I will probably give some copies as gifts as well.

4.5 stars! This enchanting novel has one of the best beginnings I have read in a long time. I was hooked and eager to keep reading. However, life got in my way. I would not advise trying to read this one when you can not give it the attention it deserves, which is complete immersion. The many characters are charming and original with stories to match. Setterfield weaves this story like the river it is set upon, gracefully and overflowing with mystique.

At winter solstice in the Swan at Radcot, a weathered pub beside the Thames river, where stories are told and retold round the bar and a roaring fire, a man washes up, banged-up and nearly dead, with a very young girl, as lifeless as a mannequin. Until her eyes flutter open. Is it a miracle? No one can tell; not the town nurse, Rita, who aided her, nor the others who witnessed her carried in. But then a mystery ensues: whose child is she? More than one family comes to claim the girl, and the evidence each family contains only adds to the mystery. Does she belong to the wealthy white family who longed for a child for many years? Does she belong to the mixed-race family, with a dead mother and a father who abandoned her, leaving her dark-skinned grandfather to claim her? What credence should be given to the slow-minded girl who lives in a derelict cottage further down the river and insists that the baby is her lost sister? And what evidence is there for each claim? Each family’s secrets will unveil the darkest branches of their histories, at the stake of finding the right home for the little girl. Full of mysteries, town secrets, and old legends, Once Upon a River is about a place where miracles and myth follow the river to display the influence of family and having a good story to tell on a cold, wintery night.

Years ago I read and fell in love with Diane Setterfield’s bestselling novel, The Thirteenth Tale. Setterfield’s storytelling abilities and her atmospheric settings thoroughly captivated me and so when I read that she had a new novel coming out, Once Upon a River, I couldn’t get over to Netgalley fast enough so that I could request it.

I was a little nervous going in that my expectations were way too high just because I loved The Thirteenth Tale so much, but those fears were alleviated almost immediately as I was pulled into Once Upon a River’s magical tale right away. The story itself follows several families who live in a town located near the Thames River and how their lives changed forever one winter night when an injured man staggered into the Swan Inn with a dead little girl in his arms.

The local nurse is summoned to examine both the man and the girl, and even though all signs indicate that the little girl is, in fact, dead, a few moments later, the girl inexplicably starts breathing again and opens her eyes. No one can explain what has happened and the girl, who no one recognizes, including the man who found her and brought her to the inn, cannot speak so in addition to her miraculous and unexplainable return from the dead, her identity is also a mystery.

There is speculation that she is the long lost daughter of the Vaughn family, whose child was kidnapped two years before and hasn’t been seen since, but there is also the possibility that she could be the grandchild of Mr. Armstrong, whose mother was rumored to have killed herself and tried to drown her child in the river.

The townspeople are left with endless questions and so the search is on to figure out who the little girl is, what happened to her, while in the backs of everyone’s mind is the real question: Was she really dead and if so, why isn’t she still dead?


I loved that Setterfield chooses to set Once Upon a River around the Thames River and that her version of the Thames has an almost mythological, supernatural quality to it. My favorite bit of folklore attributed to the river in this tale is Mr. Quietly, the boatman who appears to those who find themselves in distress in the river. It is said that Quietly will either escort you safely to land if it’s not your time to go, but that if it is your time, he will escort you to the “other side of the river.” At its heart, Once Upon a River is about stories and folklore and how they can shape and influence people’s lives and so the river and all of the lore surrounding it really helps to lend an atmospheric quality to the story as a whole.

The story is actually so atmospheric and embedded with lore that for the characters in the story, the lines between the real and the imagined at times become blurred and this adds to the appeal of the story because Once Upon a River also contains this mystery about the little girl that must be solved. It’s hard to talk about the mystery without giving away too much, but I will say that Setterfield crafts the mystery in such a way that it unfolds almost like a fairytale. In fact, the whole book almost reads as if it’s a fairytale. It has that quality of magical realism that we often see in books like those of Alice Hoffman or even Neil Gaiman.

I also found the cast of characters Setterfield creates to be an endearing bunch. The appearance of the mysterious little girl opens up a lot of old wounds for those in the town who have lost a child. It actually hurts to watch so many people get their hopes up about this little girl, knowing that she can only belong to one family, which means many others will end up disappointed and crushed by the loss all over again.

In contrast to those families who are haunted by this girl, there are also the other townsfolk who, although they aren’t really the focus of Once Upon a River, they still add a richness to the story because they all fancy themselves storytellers and they all latch on to the events of that fateful night and spin tale after tale, adding whatever creative details suit the purposes of their individual stories. The storytellers ultimately end up infusing the girl’s story into the existing lore of the river, further blurring those lines between the real and the magical/supernatural.

I’d also like to speak a bit on the pacing of the novel. If you’re expecting a fast-paced thrill ride as the mystery in Once Upon a River unfolds, you will probably be disappointed. This is a mystery that unfolds at its own pace, where the reader is meant to savor each detail and each clue as they are revealed. You’re meant to observe all of these seemingly unrelated characters and how they each share a possible connection to the little girl. Yes, there are plenty of twists and turns and unexpected surprises, but the reveal builds slowly over time. I will say that I typically prefer my mysteries to be fast-paced, but Setterfield makes the slower pace really work here. I don’t think the story would have had such a magical feel to it if the pace had been faster.

One last element of the story that really appealed to me was that it also included the use of scientific experimentation to try to explain away the unexplainable. I loved that although Nurse Rita feels the same draw to this little girl that everyone else feels, her scientific mind won’t let her just accept what has happened and move on. She won’t be satisfied until she has tested every possible hypothesis for why the girl was dead but then wasn’t. I really liked the balance between Rita’s scientific curiosity and the supernatural elements throughout Once Upon a River.


If you’re looking for an atmospheric mystery that reads like a fairytale, look no further than Diane Setterfield’s Once Upon a River. It’s truly an exquisite piece of storytelling.

As a big fan of The Thirteenth Tale, I was really looking forward to this book. The author has a great way of weaving words and stories together, blurring the lines between fact and legend and leaving the reader with a tale that the storytellers in the pub could tell for generations. Part historical fiction, part mystery, I found this book quite mesmerizing.

Summary:

(From Goodreads) 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.

My thoughts:

I finished this one a while back and have been stewing over my review. It took me some time to figure out how I really feel about this book. On the one hand, these characters are amazing- deep and intriguing (even the empathetic pig!)- on the other hand Setterfield couldn’t stay on one topic to save her soul and bouncing around with her made me dizzy. I would find myself falling in love with this or that character, ready to let their story progress, only to be swept away to another place, another family. It reminded me of when I was reading A Winter’s Tale– that author made what should have been a love story with aspects of magical realism into six love stories and a horse (thankfully, no one was in love with the horse)…. I was legitimately having PTSD here and didn’t know if I would be able to finish the book. And yet, I was so very interested in the different characters! I would promise myself one more page, just one, and if it doesn’t get better… done. But I couldn’t let these characters go…. and I am glad I didn’t because in the end the different pieces came together beautifully and I enjoyed the finished result. I also have to give Setterfield props for perfect use of magical realism- some authors try to do too much or can’t merge the magical aspects into the realistic world, but her use here was flawless. For me this turned out to be a four star book with an extra star for creativity.

On the adult content scale, there was language, violence and some light sexual content. I would give it a three.
I was lucky enough to receive an eARC of this book from Netgalley and Atria books in exchange for an honest review. My thanks.

This book is phenomenal and I don’t toss high praise around lightly. Every page is another layer to an expertly executed lush tapestry. The first two chapters were a little slow to grasp my interest but once I passed them I could not stop reading.

This was one of the best reads I have had this year. Full of twists and turns? Intrigue. Family. Sadness. Happiness. And the desire for something that you may have never known you ever wanted.

It all starts at The Swan; a local pub frequented by many - for a good pint, some food and always a great story. For there are storytellers in this village along the Thames, none better than the owner of the pub, Joe. He and his wife run it and it is just a regular night of drinking and stories when a man appears, holding a girl [is she dead? Is she a doll? WHO is she?] and the story begins. Being that it is the solstice, the magic of the day and the magic that comes from both the girl and the man and their own stories weaves its way into the stories that are told and retold over that next year about that magical night. And with each retelling, the story gets stronger and more believable as time goes on.

Over the course of a year you learn about the man, the girl, the nurse [Rita] who comes to care for them, the Vaughn's [who have lost a child], The Armstrong's, Lily White and a man bent on destruction named Robin. And of another, who I will not speak of here. You learn their stories, their lives and their loves. The things that make them tick. And you wonder how all this will tie in together. And when it does, when it is all revealed, well, let's just say it was both an edge-of-your-seat AND a heart-wrenching end. And getting there is a wonderful, amazing, trip. Much like a trip down the river Thames would be.

I must put this in here, as I was deeply affected by this aspect of the story. IF you have ever wanted a child and cannot have one, have had a child and have lost it, have had a child go astray in their life and you are still estranged from them, tread carefully with this story. I am not saying to not read it because it IS an amazing story [and I can see that even in the parts that made me weep] and worth the read. Just know that there will be spots that may trigger feelings and emotions you may or may not want to deal with.

Having read "The Thirteenth Tale" and loved it, I was a bit afraid to dive into this one, but I was not disappointed and it is a fantastic story. Just the kind you want to read.

Thank you to NetGalley and Atria Publishing/Emily Bestler Books for an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I would like to thank Netgalley and Atria/Emily Bestler Books for allowing me to read an advanced copy of this lovely historical fantasy to read and review!

4.5 stars

The Swan is a quaint, family run pub near the river Thames where everyone goes to weave their tales to eager listeners. There is nothing better than sitting down, having a drink,smoking a pipe and getting lost in a lovely or perhaps even a spooky story.. Lets be honest everyone enjoys a story but often once a story is told it is almost immediately. That is not the case when a tale is told at the Swan, it begins to take on a life of it's own.

One dark night during the Winter Solstice a broken and beaten man walks into the Swan holding the body of a young girl. Everyone is certain she is dead and they most certainly are right until all of the sudden she begins to breathe once again. From there the stories gets even more interesting.

This is a lovely, well written story that will hold your interest. I must say that this is a very slow burn of a novel so if that is not your thing but if you are the type of person that likes to take a slow, magical journey then this book is definitely for you.

Storyteller, behold! This book is such a gem. The title is so perfect! There's a storyteller, and there's a river that brings stories. A 4 year old girl shows up on the river. Apparently dead, but she was alive. But she doesn't talk. Three families claim her, but none is completely sure they are their lost loved ones. And the story revolves around the stories of each family, and the circumstances in which they lost their own girls. All stories revolve around the river (which might be the Thames, or not). It seems that the river was very important in the lives of those townfolks from older times, and most of their lives was related to what the river brings or doesn't bring. The result is a beautiful book, one that most the savored little by little to understand all the intricacies of the narrative.

4 Fantastical Stars!

A Tale of Folklore, Legend, Magic and Mystery.

Late one night at a pub called the Swan at Radcot on the River Thames, villagers unwind with a pint, as they often do. A man comes to the door with the body of a cold, lifeless girl in his arms and promptly passes out. He sleeps for days.

Rita Sunday, the town medic, checks them both over. To her astonishment, she soon discovers that the young girl is, in fact, alive.

People come from near and far to see her, including three families, all of whom claim her as their own. The Vaughns, whose daughter Amelia, went missing two years ago; Lily White, age 40, who believes this girl is her sister Ann; and finally Robert Armstrong, who is positive that she is his son Robin’s missing daughter, Alice Armstrong. This girl is mute and is completely unanimated, except when watching the river, watching and waiting, for what, we do not know.

It is said that the river is known for taking care of its own. For bringing back lost things and saving people from harm. That a man named Quietly guards it, only bringing back those to safety who actually deserve it.

Who is this little girl and to whom does she belong? That is the question. You’ll have to take a trip to the Thames, to find out.

Once Upon A River is a dark, atmospheric novel, layered with folklore, magic, mystery and elements of the supernatural, thus I was immediately swept away by this eerie epic saga. The richness of the characters are multi-faceted and they made this story so very magical. They include: Henry Daunt, the photographer who notices things others do not, Bess Armstrong, who has some very unusual traits, Rita Sunday whose strength everyone relies on and Robert Armstrong, whose heart is as true as his word. Here, Diane Setterfield examines mystical elements: she takes the readers away, and lets us escape to another time and place, to people who have special abilities, some of whom can see into the heart of others, some who may see things that we do not. It depends on whether or not you believe...

This is a novel which includes vivid descriptions, all of which enraptured me with their elegance and their fierceness and simply captured my heart. Once Upon a River has multiple storylines, all of which are interwoven together brilliantly as each and every storyline in this novel falls together in a way I never would have imagined.

What more can I say except that this is a novel to read slowly and cherish. It is a great read for lovers of epic novels, readers who like magical realism and those who like rich character driven novels. Once Upon a River is the first book I’ve read by Diane Setterfield and it won’t be my last.

This was a another buddy read with Kaceey!

Thank you to Meriah Murphy at Atria, NetGalley and to Diane Setterfield for an ARC of this novel in exchange for an honest review.

Published on NetGalley, Goodreads, Twitter and Instagram on 12.2.18.
Will be published on Amazon on 12.4.18.

It’s magical, it’s folklore, it’s skilled storytelling. But it couldn’t keep my interest. I am most certainly in the minority here as reviews and blogs are raving about this book. So…yeah. I abandoned it.

We start off in a tavern called The Swan. A large man stumbles in, apparently bloodied and beaten, and in his arms is a little girl. The local nurse comes to check on her and making the pronouncement that she’s dead, the girl is placed in a room for the night. The next day she is alive and not a mark on her. That’s some of the magical element in the book.

I only read a bit more after 50 or so pages. What grabbed me about this book was the description and the gorgeous cover art, that’s why I asked for an advanced copy. As I said, people seem to love this lyrical tale but I just found myself putting it down and it flat out didn’t keep my interest. There are too many books on my to-read list so I cut my losses if a book doesn’t engage fairly quickly.

Much thanks to NetGalley for this advanced copy. Opinions are mine and I was not compensated for the review. Publication date is December 4, 2018.

Diane Setterfield is one of my favorite authors — I loved The Thirteenth Tale and Bellman & Black. So, it was with great anticipation that I read her latest, Once Upon a River, and it did not disappoint! Setterfield is one of those rare authors who possesses the ability to craft complete worlds, robust characters, fascinating plots, all tied up in beautiful writing. Her books have a magic all their own, and I love that each one is so different and yet her unique voice is so clear throughout.

Once Upon a River is about a young girl, a small village, and a mystery that encompasses them all. Two years ago, a little girl went missing — kidnapped — in the dead of night. Now a girl has been found in the river Thames, carried to shore by a bloody, barely conscious man, and taken to the Swan, an inn on the banks of the river full of stories older than the patrons it serves. And now, here, on this midwinter’s night, is a new story: a girl found dead in the river, who suddenly, miraculously, lives.

The mystery of the girl who was dead and now alive, who may be the kidnapped child, or another child entirely, sends ripples through the village, and the Swan takes central stage as the story swirls and surges. From the man covered in rags who takes shelter in the shadows to the hard-working farmhands, from the village nurse to the rich businessman, all wonder at who and how and why this girl has come to be in their midst.

Within a matter of hours, there are three claims on the girl: the wealthy and devastated parents whose daughter was kidnapped from her bed, a prosperous farmer from a neighboring village who believes the girl to be his granddaughter, and a middle-aged woman who claims the girl to be her long-lost sister, though the child is but four years old.

Setterfield expertly steers us on a journey of ancient lore, dawning science, and a magic that binds the two together. I was captivated by this novel, and loved every twist and turn. Like the patrons of the Swan, this will be a story I return to with pleasure time and again.

Is it possible to "read" a fine art painting? The practical, show-me-the-facts side of me would say no, but that's exactly the feeling I got when I finished this exquisitely written book. Part folklore, part fantasy, part romance and part mystery, this one's got it all - and then some.

In the beginning, I must admit, I wasn't sure of anything except that I wouldn't be able to breeze my way through (not exactly what I needed at the beginning of a busy holiday season). And at first, I had a little difficulty keeping the characters, and facts from fiction, straight. But the writing drew me in - and in - and very soon I was totally hooked (make that enthralled) and more than a little eager to get to the finish line.

Central to the story, set in ancient times, is the River Thames; in the beginning, revelers at the nearby inn in the midst of their usual storytelling when without warning, a seriously injured stranger barges in, carrying the body of a very young girl. Believing her to be dead, they put her in a cold room and call in local nurse and midwife Rita. At first, she confirms the death and tries to patch up the man - a photographer - who brought her in. But then, the unthinkable happens; Rita notices a slight pulse. Wonder of wonders, the girl is alive. Now, besides wondering how that possibly could have happened, they want to know who she is.

There are three possibilities: One local family's child was kidnapped about two year earlier, another man's daughter is believed to have been drowned by her mother, and another local woman - one who keeps to herself and lives a mysterious and solitary life - claims the child is her younger sister (never mind that because of the age difference it's a virtual impossibility). Thrown into the mix are tales of river gypsies and Quietly, a ferryman who is believed to save those whose lives the river threatens to take (or, in the alternative, usher them to their final destination).

The story follows, both past and present, the lives of these characters and those who play major roles in their lives as they try to find the child's identity and what really happened to her. It's an emotionally charged journey interwoven with superstition, deception, love and sadness - all revolving around that all-knowing, all-consuming river.

In short, highly recommended. Many thanks to the publisher, via NetGalley, for the opportunity to read an advance copy.

"On a dark midwinter’s night in an ancient inn on the river Thames, an extraordinary event takes place. The regulars are telling stories to while away the dark hours, when the door bursts open on a grievously wounded stranger. In his arms is the lifeless body of a small child. Hours later, the girl stirs, takes a breath and returns to life. Is it a miracle? Is it magic? Or can science provide an explanation? These questions have many answers, some of them quite dark indeed.

Those who dwell on the river bank apply all their ingenuity to solving the puzzle of the girl who died and lived again, yet as the days pass the mystery only deepens. The child herself is mute and unable to answer the essential questions: Who is she? Where did she come from? And to whom does she belong? But answers proliferate nonetheless.

Three families are keen to claim her. A wealthy young mother knows the girl is her kidnapped daughter, missing for two years. A farming family reeling from the discovery of their son’s secret liaison, stand ready to welcome their granddaughter. The parson’s housekeeper, humble and isolated, sees in the child the image of her younger sister. But the return of a lost child is not without complications and no matter how heartbreaking the past losses, no matter how precious the child herself, this girl cannot be everyone’s. Each family has mysteries of its own, and many secrets must be revealed before the girl’s identity can be known.

Once Upon a River is a glorious tapestry of a book that combines folklore and science, magic and myth. Suspenseful, romantic, and richly atmospheric, the beginning of this novel will sweep you away on a powerful current of storytelling, transporting you through worlds both real and imagined, to the triumphant conclusion whose depths will continue to give up their treasures long after the last page is turned."

I don't know why I keep reading Diane Setterfield her books usually induce rage in me, either by obvious plot twists or nothing ever happening...