The River King

by Alice Hoffman

From the best-selling author of The Dovekeepers, The River King confirms Alice Hoffman as "one of our quirkiest and most interesting novelists" (Jane Smiley, USA Today).

People tend to stay in their place in the town of Haddan. The students at the prestigious prep school don't mix with locals. Even within the school, hierarchy rules as freshman and faculty members find out where they fit in and what is expected of them. But when a body is found in the river behind the school, a local policeman will walk into this enclosed world and upset it entirely. A story of surface appearances and the truths submerged below.

Genres: Fiction, Magical Realism, Mystery, Fantasy, Contemporary, Dark Academia, Adult Fiction

344 pages, Paperback

First published July 1, 2000

About the author

Alice Hoffman is the author of more than thirty works of fiction, including The World That We Knew; The Marriage of Opposites; The Red Garden; The Museum of Extraordinary Things; The Dovekeepers; Here on Earth, an Oprah’s Book Club selection; and the Practical Magic series, including Practical
Magic; Magic Lessons; The Rules of Magic, a selection of Reese’s Book Club; and The Book of Magic. She lives near Boston.

Reviews

[Nicole · Rating 4 out of 5]

My generation is over-saturated with scenes of violence, rape, murder, and terror, both on screen and off. As an avid reader and TV junkie, I don't think I could even begin to catalogue how many times a day I see or read something deeply disturbing.

I think that is why "The River King" made such a strong impact on me. It haunts me. It is an extreme rarity that something I am reading can disturb me so much that I need to put it down for a few moments before I can bear to continue. With "The River King" there was one scene in particular that quite literally took my breath away.

It is an immensely powerful book. Like much of Hoffman's work, it includes magical realism, twisted family secrets, small town collisions, and falling in love. The ending doesn't tie up as neatly as some reader's might like, but to me that is part of the power of the novel. The book has stayed with me, long after I closed the last page.

I recommend you have someone nearby while reading, as the descriptions of love, betrayal, and cruelty left me feeling reckless, untethered, and much in need of a hug.

[Nancy Rossman · Rating 3 out of 5]

In the past I have loved Alice's magical and almost poetic prose. Her plots have been intriguing and always such idiosyncratic characters. You know, what' not to love?

THE RIVER KING certainly starts out in the same way though this one dark, lots of rain, twigs breaking, howling wind. Something crappy is going to happen. She lets us know in her own unique way. and so it does. And no pun intended, that is surely the case with what occurs to Gus.

I wish I could divide the book into two scores because the first half had the BEEF, pace, suspense, lots of subplots and then there is the grinding second half. No heart, no rhythm, unsatisfying climax and just a big nothing ending. SO no surprises, didn't dig it. Alice needs a drink, or a break, or a good roll. Not her best effort at all. But feeling generous I will give it a three.

[Marianne V · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing writing. Examples:

(p. 22) "She (Carlin) had swamp dust on her feet and nicotine stains on her fingers, and came from a universe of hash and eggs and broken promises, a place where a women quickly learned that there was no point in crying over spilled milk or bruises left by some man who claimed to love a little too hard or too much."

(p. 128): "Indian summer cme to Haddan in the middle of the night when no one was watching, when people were safely asleep in their beds. Before dawn mist rose in the meadows as the soft, languid air drifted over fields and riverbanks."

[Joseph Sciuto · Rating 5 out of 5]

Simply stated: Just another wonderful novel from this amazingly creative and gifted writer. Ms. Hoffman is one of the few authors that can mix myth, magic, and reality and create a miraculous story fulled with great characters and a plot that moves non-stop.

"The River King," is set in the fictional town of Hadden, Massachusetts in which a prestigious prep school is the main attraction. On the surface, everything seems perfect but as Ms. Hoffman peels back the lives of the residents of the town and the student body a whole different world is revealed. A hierarchy exists among its life long residents, and a seriously dangerous hierarchy exist between the seniors and the freshmen and the faculty members that leads to the suspicious suicide of a freshman who refuses to play by their rules.

Ms. Hoffman's description of natures' beauty and its often hidden dangers is a work of art, and her ability to give the reader a true picture of teenagers between fifteen and eighteen years old is as realistic as it gets.

I highly recommend.

[KA · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is one of the most poorly edited books I've ever tried to read. So many paragraphs seemed unconnected to the ones before or after them; sometimes the topic seemed to shift mid-paragraph. In once case, a sentence contradicted the one immediately preceding it: on page 74 Carlin "no longer bothered" to reply to her employer; then she "never replied" to her employer. Verbal clunkiness abounds.

And magical realism doesn't mean making sh*t up. There are no badgers in Massachusetts (can't find the page they're mentioned on). "Late-blooming asters and milkweed" (23) don't bloom at anything like the same time--they are literally months, not weeks, apart. Phoebes do not sing "an uncommonly tender song" (72). Their voices are rasping, even harsh; they say "Phoebe!!" as if shocked and disapproving, and "Phoe-wha?!" as if they were just goosed. It would help to get these details right, when you're trying to highlight truly extraordinary phenomena such as roses blooming in March and the scent wafting year-round in a dorm, unsmelled by only a single resident. Also, the use of natural details to make the setting seem rich and lush without knowing anything of the actual ecology of a place is, to me, a pretty serious failing.

And then there's the fact that the characters seem (to one who has, admittedly, read only 1/4 of the book) cliched and shallow. The beautiful girl falls for the mean guy. The bitter old lady is compared to curdled milk. I couldn't take it anymore.

[Autumn · Rating 3 out of 5]

The River King took awhile for me to get into. At first the characters didn't interest me. I didn't care about the ghost story, the deceased horrible professor and his wife that never ran away (but should have), and all the crotchety adults that seemed to settle for their unhappy lives in a desolate town at an eerie boarding school. Even Betsy, whom I like and seemingly gets the attention of the entire town still didn't do anything for me.

Then I was introduced to Gus and Carlin, two teenagers that attend the boarding school, coming from poverty, but wanting to fit in, so they invent happier stories about their lives. Their characters are full of dimension. I instantly fell in love with Gus and it makes me angry his teachers find him a slacker and his peers think he is disgusting. And I like Carlin just for her independence even though I felt angry with her for not seeing things for what they were. And I loved them together. Regardless of Carlin and Gus having a sense of right from wrong, and inherently being good decent people, they still can not prevent the cruel and hidden hearts of some of their classmates. What happens still leaves me sick and uncomfortable. It made me not want to read the book anymore yet I couldn't stop turning the pages, especially when the police officers are introduced because I finally felt that maybe there were adults in this book worth a damn. So I kept reading because I wanted justice. I wanted all the secrets revealed.

Quite frankly, I can't believe it . I want to scream at all the tired worn down adults that did nothing to prevent people from getting hurt. And it's sad that there are parts of this depressing book that happen in real life and the same type of adults do nothing about it.

Another point of interest for me involved the similarities between The River King and the story of the Fisher King. Both involve someone in need of saving and these literary comparisons added some interest to this book for me. I think this would be an excellent book to discuss in an English course. There are a lot of literary elements to discover within its pages.

It's a good book. Out of all the Hoffman books I've read this has the most details and character development, though if I am honest I like her distant dream like type books better when reading for fun. This is just so heavy and depressing but still worth the read. 3.5 stars.

[Amanda · Rating 3 out of 5]

I want to like Alice Hoffman books but they're really hard for me to get into. I'd like to think that I just read them at bad times, like when my mind is on something else. But I gave this one a really good try, and I found that it wasn't too bad, once I get past all the things that don't mesh well between me and Hoffman's writing.

This book centers around a boarding school in New England, a quiet one where the "rich kids" are sent and silently scorned by the townies. When a young boy is found dead in the river, a local detective takes it upon himself to solve the mystery while the rest of the department takes the school's bribe and writes it off as a suicide.

The friend of the dead boy, attempts to find her own place in the world, coming to terms with his death, withdrawing from her own boyfriend, and befriending the school's eccentric photography professor and one of the department heads who has a reputation for being mean. Along the way, she is given clues of his presence still with her: wet bus seats and minnows swimming in her pockets.

The story is actually quite haunting and well told, blending a little bit of realism and a little bit of supernatural for a good literary effect. What makes it hard for me to read Alice Hoffman's work is that 1) she's overly descriptive. I feel the story should move at a much quicker pace, but it doesn't because she overdescribes things. And 2)she's overly omniscient. I know many readers like having the angle from as many people as possible, and to an extent I do too. But I enjoy books that pause with a break or a chapter before moving to the next person's point of view. Hoffman tends to switch POV in the middle of a paragraph. I find this annoying and it makes it hard to hold my interest.

Because I WANT to like her, I'm going to attempt to get through "Turtle Moon." Her books aren't bad at all, and this one showed me that if I can just put myself into the right frame of mind, I can get through it and enjoy the well woven plot.

[Kirsty · Rating 4 out of 5]

I felt - correctly so - that The River King would be a great choice for a Sunday afternoon. I very much enjoy Hoffman's work, but hadn't read any of it for quite some time before picking this tome up. Her books are rather easy reading, but are well - and intelligently - written. They also deal with a lot of important themes; here, bullying and the mystery of the death of a teenage student take centre stage.

As in all of Hoffman's work, there is a strong sense of place, and of society, here. It is absorbing from the first page, and evident is the way in which Hoffman has the real knack of being able to follow numerous, and realistic, characters almost simultaneously. Rather than being set within a small town, as have the other Hoffmans which I have read to date, The River King is set largely within a boarding school, in which two students primarily, and a couple members of staff are followed. Although we learn about other characters around them in later chapters, these four essentially become her focus.

The River King has been nicely structured, and as with her other work, I could barely put it down when I had begun. The long chapters have been well paced, and the entirety is filled with telling details and small cruelties perpetrated by several secondary characters. The River King is an achingly human novel, with elements of Hoffman's trademark magical realism. It left me spellbound.

[Jess The Bookworm · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 stars.

This novel is set in the town of Haddan, right along the river's edge. A prestigious school has been built in the town, which the locals do not go to, and hold somewhat of a resentment towards the privileged students who go there.

This story follows two students who start attending Haddan, but do not fit in, and it highlights their struggles in trying to feel accepted, but also to keep to themselves. One of these pupils is found dead in the river, and the investigation reveals that the seemingly perfect life of the students at Haddan is anything but.

It was an interesting story, which had some magical elements throughout, but I felt like it just skimmed on the surface and as such I never felt any emotional connection to any of the characters or what they were going through.

[Zabe Bent · Rating 2 out of 5]

there's so much that I wanted to like about this book: the characters, the story, the themes were all so layered and interesting. I originally thought I would like the fluid, almost lyrical writing style, instead I was constantly wondering who's voice was leading me, and who all the varied characters were.

I almost put it down several times (it took me weeks to read, instead of my usual couple/few days) but the potential resolution of the story kept me interested. just not my cup of tea, I think.

[Melanie · Rating 2 out of 5]

I just finished this book, and I have to say I was thoroughly disappointed. The book started off intriguingly enough with the story unfolding with the tragic local legend of Annie Howe and her untimely death. Her death somewhat relates to another character in the story, and sets the stage to create a misty sad atmosphere. The tension between the town folk and the Hadden School is briefly explained in the begining of the novel, and far less interesting than it promises.

Based on other reviews it does seem like the author holds the wealthy and the priviliged in contempt, either because she believes them to be spoiled or because she believes that the poor less fortunate characters are more interesting. Either way I wasn't particularly enamored with any of the characters. Every character that is part of the main focus of the story has had a tragic past or something terribly sad happen to them. While this does prove to be interesting and emotional this became frustrating and even annoying to read after a while. There is only so much sadness an individual can absorb after all. The characters are also self-destructive some self-harming and others facing harsh bullying, while others deprive themselves of love in favor of choosing the safer path. I found myself wanting to face palm myself every time I read about Gus skipping classes, Carlin's defiance, and Betsy and Abe. I just could not relate to or understand these characters.

While I enjoyed being privy to so many character's thoughts and feelings, sometimes it became too confusing. Sometimes it's just nicer to zero in on one or two characters otherwise the story begins to lose its focus. In fact I think that was the problem. There were too many elements going on at once, and depressing ones at that. Heartbreak in its many forms, love sickness, suicide, murder, self-harm, bullying, death, among many other sad themes. This book manages to pack them all in. The ending was alright, but not worth sitting through so much trajedy. I just felt that the ending should have been more emotional, but much of the book felt like it was painted in shades of grey, black ,and white. There was just no vibrancy. It was well written, but it really was not for me.

[Laurel · Rating 3 out of 5]

You get hooked into Gus and Carlin's story and then suddenly it seems, it's Abel's book instead. This is the first Alice Hoffman book I've read and I did like her style for the most part. Finished it thinking, hastily wrapped up bits and lots of loose ends.

Little Free Library Find (my neighborhood is FULL of them which is a great joy!)

[Elfscribe · Rating 4 out of 5]

The River King is about two misfits who come to a boarding school in the fictional town of Haddan in Massachusetts where they encounter bullying and tragedy at the hands of the other students. What happens stirs up relations between the town and the school and opens up old wounds. The story is about how to recognize a person worthy of true love and how old secrets can lie submerged to pop up again in the present. An atmospheric, lyrically written story that abounds in magical realism, and presents both the evil and the good in human nature. I found it an engaging read. I also enjoyed the fluid point of view shifts that were never confusing and instead contributed to the idea that the story was about the whole community, rather than one individual. The only reason I gave this four stars instead of five is that I felt somewhat unsatisfied by the ending. I wanted more justice and closure I guess for some of the characters. A key decision by one of the main characters, a teacher, whose denial of her own feelings has been a theme in the story, happens off-camera and I would have liked to be there for her decision. I haven't read any of Alice Hoffman's other books, but based on the strength of the writing in this one, I'll seek out others by her.

[LFPL Teen Services · Rating 5 out of 5]

Alice Hoffman weaves a dark web of mystery and real-world magic in the small town of Haddan, Massachussetts. With a few beams of sunshine through-out, this novel reads like a modern-day gothic.

Carlin, a poor young (but of course, beautiful!) teen, lands a scholarship to the prestigious Haddan School through her determination and swimming abilibity. Haddan is a small boarding school for the elite families of the east coast and outsiders are definitely not welcome. She befriends Gus, a charmingly geeky boy whom everyone is determined to either hate or be annoyed by. Things get out of hand at Haddan School, when some serious bullying has a horrific result.

The story intertwines mysteries from Haddan School's past, romance of teachers, an interesting police detective with a record of his own; and beauty which can be found, even in the darkest of times.

And even when it seems some kids can get away with murder, they never really get away.

[Cecilyn · Rating 2 out of 5]

I felt like this had a lot of promise...interesting setting (a swamp-like boarding school, and the derelict Chalk House), interesting characters (ok, a couple of them ghosts), and a dark moody tone. But to me, none of these promises were ever developed.

It was too flighty for my taste, bouncing around from one character to the next, sometimes even from one time period to another and I was left rereading paragraphs wondering, what the heck...like it was written for a TV movie that would hash out details later.

It was a little sad even for me - there were two characters I enjoyed (Helen and Gus) and I felt like the plot and character development did not do them justice.

[Grace · Rating 4 out of 5]

Although the setting of this book at times seemed more murky and brackish than enjoyably mysterious, I do believe that was Hoffman's intent. This book seemed to be quite a bit darker in tone than any of the books I've read by her so far...the description of one hazing in particular left me shuddering and wincing. But again, her masterful ability to meld magical experiences with the every day makes this book shine.

[Mary · Rating 5 out of 5]

The way that Alice Hoffman describes emotions makes me think I've never really felt anything. This was a wonderful story.

[Kaylee Holcomb · Rating 3 out of 5]

Alice Hoffman is a wonderful writer. I’ve heard great things about many of her books, and I enjoyed one of her previous works when I was younger. However, I believe that this book lacked a lot of what makes a story interesting and fun to read. I felt the story itself was confusing, and the constant switch of character perspectives was hard to follow. The climax of the story was not as exciting as I wanted it to be, and I felt that the plot needed MORE. There was barely any dialogue when the book really needed it, and I found myself too bored to read it on many occasions. I’m truly disappointed with this piece.

[Colleen · Rating 4 out of 5]

The mysticism didn't even bother me!

Even back then, there seemed to be a truth he couldn't quite get to, and now he wondered why he hadn't fought harder to find it out and ask the simplest and most difficult question of all: Why?

Perhaps what people said was true, that any man who lived long enough would eventually realize that the way in which he was cursed was also the blessing he'd received.

His uncle Pete had taken him aside that morning and told him when he got older he'd understand that patience was an unappreciated virtue, one that a man would do well to cultivate even when he was the one who was being left behind.

[Mary Lou · Rating 3 out of 5]

It took me awhile to get into this book. Eventually it grabbed me, but then let me down with the ending, which was rushed and unsatisfying. What's bothering me most in retrospect is the heavy-handed use of imagery and symbolism that doesn't seem to really symbolize anything. Hoffman has mastered the use of nature and weather to create a mood (especially of foreboding), but the constant mentioning of the river, the fish, the pebbles, the coat, the cat, the swans - you get the picture - would indicate that they should mean something, but I'll be darned if I can tell you what Hoffman had in mind. Abe's blue eyes were mentioned nearly as often as the fact that Harry Potter had his mother's eyes, but in Harry Potter, that fact eventually, and appropriately, became a major plot point. In The River King, it just meant that the character was hot. When it really doesn't matter, it doesn't need to be mentioned repeatedly.

There were some other problems in the writing, as well. I had no clear idea of the era when this took place, nor was it clear how old the characters were (until late in the book where it was revealed that Carlin was 15, which seemed quite young). There were a few times where the text was repeated almost verbatim (e.g. the fact that the pharmacist had to keep the town's secrets), which shows shoddy editing.

But to close on a positive note, the scene in which one of the characters dies was beautifully written; Hoffman put me in the scene and I felt as though I was experiencing the moment with each character in the room, feeling what they did. If the whole story had been written this well, "The River King" may have been a masterpiece.

[Linda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Private boarding school portrayed stereotypically as a nasty place for many of its students and the influence of the school way too powerful in the town of Haddan. A student's death: suicide? or murder? We have a dogged police investigator and an art instructor unconvinced by the easy answer. The compelling (to me) character is fellow student and, usually, friend Carlin Leander. She is a strong young woman who is trying to make her future her own; she is knocked sideways by Gus's death. Satisfying read.

[Hannah (jellicoereads) · Rating 2 out of 5]

1.5

I am usually so intrigued by Hoffman's work, but this was an anomaly of note. It's by far one of the author's poorer novels, and I found it a slog to get through. Nothing really happens, to be honest. One of the things that grated on my nerves was that the perspective switches within same chapter and I sometimes wasn't aware of this, which made for a frustrating reading experience. Also, I could have done without the annoying instalove.

[Georgie · Rating 1 out of 5]

What in the fresh hell was this?

I loved The Rules of Magic and Practical Magic by Alice Hoffman, so I'd figured, why not pick up a random Hoffman at the secondhand sale?
Not to be dramatic but I regret everything that lead me to read this book :')

[Kris · Rating 1 out of 5]

Slow, boring story with flat characters.

[Dani · Rating 5 out of 5]

Yet another underrated gem by Alice Hoffman.

[Mariann · Rating 2 out of 5]

http://www.hyperebaaktiivne.ee/2023/0...

Alice Hoffman “The River King” jõudis minu riiulisse kuskilt teise ringi poest sentide eest ja on seal juba aastaid istunud. Raamat jäi mulle uuesti silma, kui valisin lugemist palverännuteele kaasavõtmiseks, sest mõtlesin, et võin ta koti kergendamiseks mõnda tänavaraamatukokku jätta, aga lugemiseks leidsin lõpuks aega alles tagasilennul.

Tänapäev, Massachusetts. Otse jõe kaldal asub Haddan, prestiižne erakool, mille privilegeeritud õpilasi ootab helge tulevik. Carlin ja Gus on kaks uustulnukat, kes ülejäänutega kokku ei klapi. Tüdruk õpib stipendiumiga, armastab olla etteavamatu ja metsik. Poiss on kaua otsinud enda kohta maailmas, kuid ei leia seda ka siit, jäädes oma põhimõtetega teistele jalgu. Nad leiavad ühise keele, aga see dünaamika saab lõpu, kui jõest leitakse ühe õpilase surnukeha. Kohalikule politseiuurijale ei anna teismelise surm rahu ja ta hakkab oma nina kooli asjadesse toppima, armudes fotograafiaõpetajasse. Jaoskond on juhtumi juba enesetapuna lõpetanud ja rõõmustab uue hoone üle, mida linna kooli rahadega ehitama hakatakse. Politseinik pole ainus, kellele kadunuke rahu ei anna. Vahel leiab tema parim sõber oma taskust jõekive ja kalakesi või avastab, et iste tema kõrval on ühtäkki ligumärg.

“The River King” jutustab kahest teismelisest, kel on raske erakooli sisse sulanduda, ning ühest surmast, mis mõjutab mitut elu. Algus keskendub nende erinevatele kogemustele uues koolis kohanemisel ja teises pooles lahendatakse tagajärgi, kui jõest leitakse ühe õpilase laip. Loos on armastust, isekust ja hoolimatust, puhast õelust ja raha võimu. Pea iga tegelane on sügavalt õnnetu. Teismeliste kõrval saavad sõna politseinik ja kaks õpetajannat ning taustal kummitab lugu kunagisest koolidirektorist ja tema naise kurvast saatusest. Ootasin kogu aeg, millal läheb paremaks - ilmub välja keegi, kes mõistab ja hoolib; viimaks tuleb jõud liikuda edasi mannetust kodulinnast või õnnetust suhtest.

Esimene asi, mida lugedes tähele panin oli loo voogavus. Alice Hoffman armastab pikki peatükke ja kirjeldusi. Mulle meeldis väga, kuidas ta lausetesse emotsioone külvas. Kurbust ja õelus kiskusid südant, aga samas tundus kõik toimuv äärmiselt kaugena. Tahtsin teada, kuidas lugu laheneb, aga põnevus puudus. Pikad peatükid venisid ja vähene tegevus ning etteaimatav süžee ajasid igavuse peale. Müsteeriumi kui sellist, ei olnud, kuna vähemalt mulle oli kohe selge, kes on õpilase surmas süüdi. Pooleli siiski ei jätnud. Mulle meeldis, kuidas mingi otsad kokku said, aga raamatu lõpp ei olnud ootuspärane ja kriipis õiglustunnet.

Pikad kirjeldused klappisid ideaalselt kokku loos oleva maagilise realismiga - müstiline ja kummituslik õhkkond, seletamatud detailid. Surnud teismeline ilmub fotodele ja jätab maha jõevett ja kivikesi, tegelased jäävad süütundest haigeks, eikuskilt tuleb rooside hõngu. Nautisin sünget atmosfääri ja pilte, mida kirjanik mu silme ette manas: öised jalutuskäigud, märtsis õitsevad roosid, tülikad luiged, ühesilmne kass, poiste ühikat kimbutav jõevesi. Panin tähele, et eriline rõhk oli asetatud sellele, milline ilm oli päeval, mil juhtus midagi olulist. Igal tegelasel oli mingisugune elumuutev sündmus, enamasti tragöödia, millega seostuvat ilma ta kunagi ei unustanud.

[Mike Finn · Rating 4 out of 5]

As soon as I started "The River King" I was smiling at having found something distinctive and wonderful.

I luxuriated in surrendering myself into the hands of a dryly witty, joyfully articulate and completely omniscient narrator who curated my journey through the lives of a small group of people at a long-established boarding school in a tiny Massachusetts town.
The form is close to that of a well-edited early twentieth-century novel but the sensibility is that of the early twenty-first century.

Even from the beginning, it was clear that. beneath the apparently benign narration, something darker lay in wait for these people. The setting seems to one of civilised tranquillity but the respectability is no deeper than a coat of paint. Scratch it and a culture of violent misogyny and corrupt privilege is revealed that compromises both the school and the town.

The writing style is new to me and I'm not sure what to call it. Atonal lyricism perhaps?
What I'm trying to describe is a duality that means the surface of the text is as fixed and calm as ice on a lake but beneath that layer moves a strong current of emotion that the ice somehow amplifies rather than hides.

I'm listening to the audiobook version. The narrator, Laural Merlington, is very skilled. She could make the text into many things but she manages her inflexions so that the authorial voice narrating the story is always calm, no matter how emotional the dialogue becomes. This doesn't dampen down the emotion. it creates a quiet in which it can be heard more clearly. I'm sure this is deliberate. I wonder if she picked it up from the frequent references in the book to listening well enough to hear what silence is telling you?

Anyway, it's like a really effective soundtrack, one that sustains the atmosphere of a film without bringing attention to itself.

Although it was written nineteen years ago, it seems to me that "The River King" understands the culture that has given America Trump as President and has turned the GOP into carrion crows, pecking at the corpse of the body politic.

The story takes place in a private co-ed school, attended mainly by the privileged. It deals with what happens when two people who are not privileged and who have no desire to join, encounter the unwritten but ruthlessly enforced rules of the prevailing hierarchy. It describes a culture of Patriarchy established by the schools wife-abusing and possibly murderous founder and preserved by traditions passed in secret from boy to boy. It shows the price paid by the victims, by those who collude with the perpetuators of the system and those who stand by and do nothing. It isn't a polemic but it is unflinching in showing the dynamics of corruption.

There is a part, early in the book, where the best looking, most privileged senior boy is brought to the reader's attention by the omniscient narrator.

The narration is chilling. What it describes lies at the heart of corruption. It's the infection that rots a society. Yet it's described in the accurate, unemotional, judgement-free tone a vivisectionist might use when dictating their observations on how the heart of the animal they have just sliced open still beats.

So the handsome and privileged boy is described as being aware of his privilege, of being grateful for it and of being greedy for more.

Grateful and greedy. That's a disturbing combination in the privileged. I think I'd prefer entitled and self-satisfied.

The boy revealed in this way will do anything and get others to do anything necessary to protect and expand his privilege.

The narrator then explains the group the boy leads. Through their dishonest response to an unfortunate circumstance that affected them all, these boys, who already valued conformity and loyalty, have learned that, while following rules may breed unity, breaking the rules together ensures it.

So they have institutionalised rule-breaking, built it into a hazing that ensures loyalty and fundamentally corrupts all who carry out the task required to earn acceptance into the group.

It seems to me that this captures the values and behaviours of the US Senators who have kept Trump in power while enriching themselves. Grateful and greedy for privilege and willing to sacrifice their own integrity/morality if it buys them membership of the Big Boys Club.

The story hangs from the death of two people, decades apart: the wife of the school's first headmaster and a present-day pupil. Both are deemed to have committed suicide. Both haunt the school, either literally or in the memories of the people who knew them but did not save them, depending on how you read the text.

Yet the story is not a whodunnit. The deaths aren't these to be solved or avenged. Their function seems to be to present the main characters in the book with choices about how they will react to deaths. What will they take responsibility for? What will they sacrifice? What will they bury and try to live with?

The core characters are a scholarship girl who knows the boy who dies; a teacher at the school whose photographs show her things that shouldn't be there and who is questioning the path she's chosen of a safe marriage and a quiet life; a third-generation policeman who lost someone he loved early in life, went wild for a while, is tolerated on the Force for the sake of father's and grandfather's memory and who cannot find it in himself to let go of things that feel wrong to him, and an older teacher approaching the end of her life, who lives with her regrets for the things she did not do.

The narrator displays these people to us candidly, sharing the thoughts, their doubts and their hopes. Yet the narrator is not the advocate of the characters. The narrator isn't trying to win the reader over to the side of a character of a set of characters. The narrator's sub-text seems to me to be: the world is as it is and it often isn't very nice. You may not be able to make a difference but the choices you make will change you even if they do not change the world.

[Miranda O’Shea · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mixed feelings about this one. The writing was beautiful, the story was interesting. Parts of it deeply disturbing. But it just didn’t really reel me in. I did like the superstitious, eerie vibes. Maybe I would’ve enjoyed this book more in October.

[Gabriele · Rating 4 out of 5]

My sweet Th might like to read it as well :-)

[Kimberly Steele · Rating 3 out of 5]

The River King by Alice Hoffman
Genre: Mystery/Horror
Grade: B-

WARNING > SPOILERS!
In the River King, a teenager named Carlin Leander escapes her dingy Florida hometown (and the inevitable pregnancy/white trash lifestyle that accompanies it) after gaining a swimming scholarship to the East Coast Haddan Boarding School in the town of Haddan. She meets an enigmatic amateur teenage magician named Gus Pierce, but before they can fall in love, she is snapped up by entitled jerk rich boy Harry McKenna. This is against the backdrop of the town of Haddan, where the Haddan School's founder, Annie Howe, haunts the place as a rosy-smelling ghost. The story is that Annie, an avid rose gardener, kills herself and her unborn child after finding out her husband has had affairs with every woman in Haddan, including an impressionable school aide named Helen, who we later see portrayed as an elderly, ailing dorm resident assistant living a lonely life in a tiny dorm apartment.

Gus gets drowned in the river about halfway through the book and the rest of the book deals with the solving of the murder, because Gus's ghost haunts Carlin after she take's up the habit of wearing the dead boy's coat. She finds seaweed in her pocket and shells and algae in her closet. Naturally, we find out the murderer is he who is cast as the most evil character in the book. It's predictable.

If sentimental portraits of natural beauty (trees and nature mysticism stuff a la Robert Louis Stevenson) are your thing, you'll love this book. It's a stylized, impressionistic piece of prose. Old maid Helen's story is the most interesting and compelling part of this puzzle of characters. Nevertheless, if you want a great plot or an exciting read, look elsewhere. This is yet another easy-to-put-down horror novel where you don't really care about the characters as they tend to wear their hearts on their sleeve and blah-blah about all their very effeminate feelings. For instance, Gus, after meeting Carlin on the first train ride to Haddan, where his first words to her "But you're not an idiot, that's the difference." How the hell does he know? Actually, her character is rather idiotic and shallow as she lies to Gus and the entire school about her poor upbringing and dates a**hole Harry McKenna even though it's love at first sight with Gus. Then there are the natural portents: whenever something bad is going to happen in the book, there's some sort of natural omen or disaster. It works a few times and then gets really old. It's a device that Alice Hoffman uses frequently to inject mysticism, but it is cheesy and overdone.