Really enjoyed the concept of this novel; learning about River Mumma and the folklore! However, I wish it was longer…a lot had to happen and having more time in Alicia’s visits (learning more about the women in her ancestry) or scenes with the duppies would’ve been helpful to round out the magic, and the story. Felt a little lost on why they took certain actions, how the hauntings worked and why we spent so much time on the TTC/Ubers. Will definitely be picking up more from Zalika though, as the writing was enchanting, you can feel the magnificence of River Mumma immediately upon your first encounter with her.

Alicia is feeling lost, a 26 year old recent grad she doesn't know what to do next.
On her way home from a party Alicia encounters River Mumma who gives her 24 hours to find a stolen comb, if she doesn't find it and return it to River Mumma the world will face an environmental collapse.
This leads Alicia and her friends on a hunt through the city all the while fighting off dangerous creatures determined to keep them from finding the comb.

I'll be honest, Magical Realism is not my genre. I want no magic, or all the magic. I am generally not a fan of this middle ground. But this book had me. I loved the execution of this genre I do not usually like, and am shocked by how much I enjoyed it. The writing, the story, the setting, it was all done so well.

I was so excited to read this book, and even more excited when I was approved for the digital advanced readers copy. River Mumma is the brilliant debut story from award-winning Jamaican Canadian author Zalika Reid-Benta, and is set in Toronto. It did not disappoint!

Meet Alicia. She’s living with her mother, and trying to figure out life. She’s floundering but keeping on. On her walk home one night, she happens across a Jamaican water deity. The deity demands Alicia find and return a comb within 24 hours. Cue a mythical quest through a captivating city.

For those of you who aren’t familiar, I love stories set in Toronto. It takes me back to my twenties and such amazing times. I also adored the use of magical realism, mixed with Jamaican folklore and mythology. Aside from my personal love for the story, Reid-Benta is a Canadian author to watch! Now on my auto-buy list, I think this is going to be a popular book club pick for 2023 and beyond. An overall amazing read, friends!

This is a perfect Jamaican-Toronto fusion. I must confess I don't know much about Jamaican culture, so I jumped at the opportunity to read River Mumma, which is steeped in Jamaican folklore.
Alicia finds herself on an epic quest that she only has 24 hours to fulfill. With her friends/co-workers Heaven and Mars, they must find River Mumma's stolen comb, while being chased by duppies such as the Rolling Calf and the Three-legged Horse.
Zalika Reid-Benta does a fantastic job of immersing the reader in tales of Jamaican mysticism, while anchoring it in the middle of snowy Toronto in wintertime.
Once Alicia starts her quest you will not be able to put this book down until you find out how it ends. So good!
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

This is a fantastic book. Let me start by saying I know absolutely nothing about Jamaican stories, and I found this book thoroughly enjoyable. For someone with no knowledge, there's enough explanation of the lore that I never felt lost - but enough depth and enough left unsaid that it's clear this book would also appeal to someone who is fully steeped in it. Having lived in Toronto, I can fully appreciate the TTC hate - it really is that bad.

I love the way the characters come together, and the clarity of the motivations everyone has. The choices they make work. I really did love this book so much.

Thank you to the publisher & netgalley for the eARC.

Great concept of being sent on an impossible quest by a river deity, and what a great age for the characters. I was constantly frustrated by the transit system and this felt like a very true and underrepresented depiction of Toronto. I loved learning about all the duppies and Jamaican culture.

Jamaican-Canadian Alicia, having finished graduate school but, unable to find a job in her field is now working in retail and living with her mother. One night, while walking home after a party, she stops by the river. She is confronted by River Mumma, the water goddess, who has a task for her. Someone has stolen her comb and Alicia must find it within 24 hours or, well, River Mumma doesn’t say what would happen if Alicia fails to return the comb in the time allotted but she makes it clear it would be bad.

With the aid of Heaven and Mars, two of her coworkers, she sets out to find the comb but, with nothing to go on, it seems impossible. They have just begun the search when they are confronted by a duppy, a type of bad spirit from Jamaica folklore, which is shocking enough but nothing had warned them a duppy could breathe fire.

They manage to escape only slightly singed but this is just the beginning of the trials they will encounter in their quest. It is clear that someone or something does not want the comb found and returned to River Mumma and will do everything they can to stop them.

I have seen River Mumma by author Zalika Reid-Benta listed on most anticipated books to look out for this year and I can honestly say my enjoyment far exceeded any of the hype. It combines magical realism with Jamaican folklore to create a wonderfully unique and engrossing tale that kept me flipping the pages. I loved the three main characters and how the actions of their ancestors factored into the present. Definitely one of my favourite books this year.

I received an arc of this book from Netgalley and Penguin Random House Canada in exchange for an honest review

Thank you so much NetGalley and Penguin Random House Canada for access to this fantastic arc!

4.5/5 stars rounded up!

This was such an exciting and fast read! I know I could have easily finished this in a day, if only I had started it earlier than 9 pm haha! I loved learning about River Mumma and Jamaican culture through Alicia and her friends, and these adventures through Toronto were really nostalgic, as I used to live close to there. I absolutely loved how they sang the Cash Man song, ICONIC.

I really want to listen to this on audio, I feel like I would love this even more with the right narrator :D

Thanks to NetGalley for this early read. I read Frying Plantains and I really enjoyed that book and when I saw River Mumma I wanted to read it. I love reading about Jamaicans and the life they lived and having it tied to Toronto as well was so great. This was a good read.

Twenty-six year Alicia is at loose ends. After finishing graduate school she has moved back with her mother. Unable to find a job in her related field Alicia ends up working in retail selling clothes.
After attending her coworker Heaven’s party Alicia decides to walk home. On her way home Alicia is drawn to the river. Here she encounters the Jamaican deity known as River Mumma who gives Alicia a task. Alicia is to find a comb that was taken from River Mumma and return it to her by four o’clock the next afternoon.
With the help of her work friends Mars and Heaven the three young people take on the task and encounter many challenges on their quest.
I thoroughly enjoyed reading RIVER MUMMA. It was a fast paced story and full of Jamaican folklore. Having lived in the Toronto area my whole life, I loved knowing the places Alicia and her friends visited.
Thank you Penguin Random House Canada and NetGalley for the opportunity to read an advanced digital edition of this book.

I love a book that takes you by complete surprise and exceeds all of your exceptions. River Mumma by Zalika Reid-Benta is an action-packed page-turner that will completely grab you and pull you into to its magical realism. Reid-Benta brings us a story complete with Jamaican folklore and throws it into modern day Toronto. Alicia is having a quarter-life crisis when one night she’s called to a river by the mythical River Mumma herself and given a mission to find a stolen treasure. Along with her friends Mars and Heaven, Alicia sets out in the streets of Toronto to hunt down the treasure and return it to the mermaid before time is up. Of course the task is not easy when other mythical creatures will do anything to prevent Alicia from finding River Mumma’s treasure. This book does a great job at bringing ancient Jamaican folklore to the streets of Toronto. I loved learning about River Mumma and other folklore such as duppies and the Rolling Calf. The entire time that I was reading this book all I could think about was how much I’d love to one day see it on a big screen. The action was non stop with characters that you can’t help but love and cheer for.

I have the unfortunate tendency to absorb accents and start speaking them back at people which is usually regarded as mocking but is almost 100% unconscious to me. Apparently so for accents and dialects and patois in books too. So it’s taking all I’ve got to not write review full of the beautiful Jamaican English sprinkled throughout the dialogue of River Mumma.

What a joy this was! The bits of Toronto that I still remember, the embodied and enlivened Obeah, the three characters Alicia, Heaven, and Mars. And, of course, River Mumma. And I usually don’t like “scary” but this story held such emotion and urgency, the scary didn’t really bother me. Zalika Reid-Benta is a talent to be watched.

It’s my first NetGalley read, and I’m so grateful!

Steeped in Jamaican culture and myth, River Mumma takes you in a fast paced race through Toronto while Alicia and her friends Heaven and Mars are tasked with retrieving the comb of a spurned deity named River Mumma.
This novel moves fast and keeps you interested. It’s full of creepy encounters with spirits (duppies) and ghosts. It is also full of “myth” that is hadn’t encountered before.
I really liked the characters, from Alicia to River Mumma herself.

A recommended read from me!

River Mumma is based on Jamaican folklore. We follow Alicia and her friends around Toronto as she tries to fulfill the quest bestowed upon her by River Mumma.
It is a fun story and an easy read. There isn't much depth to it. It touches on themes of colonialism and has chances to explore it deeper, but skips past in instead in favour of action. It could further discuss cultural identity and existing in two different worlds, but again glosses past it in favour of monsters and drama.
If you like easy reads with lots of movement, this book is for you.

This was truly a a great read, I enjoyed it immensely. It was brimming with Jamaican folklore, which made me nostalgic for nights when the power would go out and duppy stories would be told around candlelight.
River Mumma on Folklore Day! Very appropriate.
🇯🇲🇯🇲🇯🇲🇯🇲🇯🇲
Reid-Benta's novel highlights the importance of historical and ancestral connection. It speaks to coming into an awareness that time, place, and distance have no bearing on when and how the stories of your ancestors will catch up to you, speak to you, use you. They will come to you through practiced and known rituals, folktales, proverbs, and the people in our lives who serve as anchors.

Alicia worried and doubted her suitability for this task given to her by the embodiment of flowing waters, River Mumma. She thinks that because she is a diasporan child, she does not have enough of the homeland or community knowledge that those who grow up and live in Jamaica will have by virtue of being steeped in our oral traditions. But as we get to know Alicia, we see the marks left on her by her grandma, who was a woman who though Christian, deeply believed in the folk medicine and spirit world of her country and ancestral heritage.

She has taken the myth and folkloric glory of River Mumma and brought it to a child of the island living in a concrete jungle. The prose is quick and easy to read. You will love and commiserate with Alicia and her young friends as they go on this quest and learn themselves as well as each other.

It also doesn't hurt that a certain culture vulture makes an appearance.

The plot moves fast, as Alicia and her friends are set upon by calamity after calamity, and they have to use their wits and knowledge of Jamaican folklore to get themselves out of each predicament. The story was very true to diaspora Jamaicans living in Toronto, especially the depiction of young people who are oftentimes first generation. The language, food and cultural habits all authentic.
Even the inclusion of a certain celebrity did not take away my enjoyment of it, and I appreciated the not so subtle dig of his cultural appropriation.

One of my favourite reads of the year.

“Ah yes, mi a vision fi true, but yuh eye nuh deceive yuh.”

Alicia, our protagonist, in River Mumma is in a weird space in her life. Having recently graduated from University she has no real career prospects on the horizon, like her former classmates. Instead, she is living with her mother in Toronto while working at a large chain retail store and trying to figure it all out.

Other than her non-existent publishing career, Alicia can’t muster the energy to have much of a social life, socializing isn’t really her thing. As the story opens we meet Alicia at her friend/co-worker Heaven’s house who is having a small party because her parents have gone away for the weekend. Alicia shows up in sweatpants making zero effort to look pretty or be social.

During the party, Alicia also meets a friend of Heaven’s, Oni who is both intriguing and spiritual and does a card reading on Alicia, that rocks her to her core. Alicia decides to leave the party and walk the few blocks home, in the wintery cold. On her way home she encounters the mystical deity River Mumma, who is said to protect bodies of water and the people who pay her tribute. River Mumma sets Alicia on a quest to find her stolen comb that was taken by a tourist, and she wants it back or else she will dry up all the bodies of water.

Alicia doesn’t know why River Mumma chose her and doesn’t want this responsibility. She spends most of the book questioning herself and her abilities. Thinking she needs to figure this out on her own, she’s surprised when Heaven as well as their co-worker Mars travel across Toronto to help Alicia find the missing artifact before it’s too late.

River Mumma is a captivating book that weaves Jamaican folklore in a contemporary Toronto setting and it is a truly magical journey. If you were ever in doubt that Zalika Reid-Benta is here for the culture then this book will set you straight.

Zalika Reid-Benta is a Toronto-based writer whose debut story collection, Frying Plantain, was longlisted for the Scotiabank Giller Prize, and it was shortlisted for the Toronto Book Award.

I loved so many aspects of this book that I cannot go through it all without giving everything away. The way Reid-Benta weaves the past and the present with folklore and culture is so delightful. If you’re from Toronto the debate over the best patties in the city rages on and while we have a few great contenders in this book, there’s yet to be an actual winner.

To say I loved this book is an understatement. It delighted and enthralled me in the best possible ways and I could not put it down.

The sprinkle of Jamaican culture mixed with the backdrop of Toronto culture was the perfect blend that made my heart full.

Thank you to Netgalley, Penguin RandomHouse Canada, and LibroFM for providing a copy of this book.

What can be said about River Mumma other than it was an extremely enjoyable read! River Mumma is a modern adventure tale in the heart of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Jamaican folklore is interwoven into a mad dash through the streets of Toronto to essentially save the world. While that sounds epic, it was both epic and personal. The main character Aleisha is on a journey of self both of her culture and her place in the world. Unsatisfied in life, Aleisha steps out of her comfort zone, relies on others and helps a deity. If you love a well written, fast paced book that blends magical realism with a tour of my hometown than this is the book for you.

This was a very interesting story. I found reading the Jamaican slang difficult but was able to get through the meanings with a few re-reads of the words. Outside my genre of reading preference, I was glad that I read this book. If you like fantasy and mythology then this book is for you

From the first chapter, when nothing had really happened yet, I knew I was going to love this book. And I do! It pained me to have to put this book down because I needed to know what would happen. The quest plot is fast-paced and intriguing as all get out. If you're at all familiar with Toronto, you will definitely get big Toronto vibes while reading River Mumma (including a significant appearance by an unnamed but easily recognizable artist). And the book is more than just a magical adventure story. It touches on themes of family, friendship, racial injustice, climate change. For anyone who was ever a twenty-something who felt like their life wasn't going as planned (or still feeling that way as a forty-something...), this book is for you. For anyone who loves folklore in a contemporary setting, this book is for you. For anyone who enjoys stories steeped in Jamaican culture, this book is for you. And for anyone who just appreciates a well-written, compelling yarn, this book is for you.

River Mumma is a magical realist novel full of Jamaican folklore, set in Toronto.

After reluctantly attending a party, Alicia is stunned when a Jamaican river deity materializes in front of her, telling her she has twenty-four hours to find her golden comb. Two of Alicia’s coworkers, Mars and Heaven, find themselves joining Alicia on her quest. Heaven knows all the folklore by heart, which will come in handy when things get dicey and rolling calves and duppies start making appearances.

Alicia has dreamlike, out-of-body visions throughout that have her travelling through time.

River Mumma is a fast-paced magical realist novel. I’ve never been to Toronto, but the map and descriptions brought the city to life; it’s almost its own character. I could have used some Tim’s while reading this book.

Generally, I prefer character-driven novels over plot-focused ones, so this was a bit too fast-paced for me but still enjoyable. It has beautiful writing and descriptive imagery in spades.

If you enjoy magical realism and folklore, I think you’ll love this novel.

3.5 rounded up.

Thank you to Penguin Canada for providing an arc via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

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