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Riverskin
A dark, pacy and atmospheric journey of self-discovery from a debut author and performance poet.
Tess lives in the “turns”, a network of tunnels under the River Tees, with her Aunt Peg and her monstrous Unkle Darkwater. When Aunt Peg starts to develop signs of dementia, Tess must find someone else to keep her safe. And she is beginning to doubt her aunt's stories about her origins, too. Tess longs to find out the truth about her family once and for all, but that will mean leaving the turns, and she has never been on dry land before–or mingled with dry-folk. Can she survive away from the river? And does she have the strength to take control of who she will become?
Tess lives in the “turns”, a network of tunnels under the River Tees, with her Aunt Peg and her monstrous Unkle Darkwater. When Aunt Peg starts to develop signs of dementia, Tess must find someone else to keep her safe. And she is beginning to doubt her aunt's stories about her origins, too. Tess longs to find out the truth about her family once and for all, but that will mean leaving the turns, and she has never been on dry land before–or mingled with dry-folk. Can she survive away from the river? And does she have the strength to take control of who she will become?
- GenresFantasy
Audible Audio
Published June 12, 2025
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
August 8, 2025
Mike Edward’s debut novel Riverskin is extremely well written. He is a new voice in middle grade fiction. The whole story captured my heart. I truly loved how Mike Edwards remarkably, gave Tess a language of her own. Tess lives in the turns in tunnels under the River Tees. Other characters in the story are Aunt Peg and Unkle Darkwater. From page 56 look at this adorable writing. I’m seethy on Aunt Peg. Seethun. I’ve tried to be forget-forgiving of her. She is old. I don’t know how old even Aunt Peg don’t know.. Now here’s something I’m really looking forward to is Mike Edwards will have his next stand alone novel coming out in 2026. Riverskin is an excellent novel choice for 9-12 years-old and adults.
May 16, 2025
I could only manage a few chapters of this one. The writing style was just not for me at all, I found it distracting and annoying. Maybe the story was good, but I'll never know because I was just so distracted by the writing. I think it's meant to be a dialect, but it feels so in your face, that you can barely concentrate on what's actually going on. So sadly it's a no from me. I don't like to not finish a book, but I'd rather spend time on something I'll enjoy.
April 17, 2025
Not a review! Just a reminder for myself.
Really, really loved this story. The world was solidly built & the characters fully developed. My one reservation is - I wonder if a child would know enough about the accent to get along with the way it’s written.
Really, really loved this story. The world was solidly built & the characters fully developed. My one reservation is - I wonder if a child would know enough about the accent to get along with the way it’s written.
November 7, 2025
The writing is really interesting, like with little quirks like when Kittum says meow its "mew", when Darkwater talks it in bold and because he has a dark scary voice. The characters were very typical, but were still very fun and well developed. The story was great, it was a fun adventure and I would definitely read others from Mike Edwards again.
I would say this is a good book for people of my age bracket (9 years old), I really enjoyed the book because it was dark, risky adventure with a satisfying ending.
It's about a girl named Tess with a nice aunt (aunt Peg) and an abusive uncle (uncle Darkwater).
one day her uncle breaks out of a place called the pit where she trapped her uncle. then she finds a kitten witch she calls Kittum so she has to run away with Kittum and escape Darkwater then aunt Peg is caught and Tess is told to find her other aunt called Lilly, when she's on her journey to find Lilly she finds a boy called Chris.
Journeying with Chris Kittum gets turned into a Riverskin and they manage to find Lilly who helps them defeat Darkwater .
I would say this is a good book for people of my age bracket (9 years old), I really enjoyed the book because it was dark, risky adventure with a satisfying ending.
It's about a girl named Tess with a nice aunt (aunt Peg) and an abusive uncle (uncle Darkwater).
one day her uncle breaks out of a place called the pit where she trapped her uncle. then she finds a kitten witch she calls Kittum so she has to run away with Kittum and escape Darkwater then aunt Peg is caught and Tess is told to find her other aunt called Lilly, when she's on her journey to find Lilly she finds a boy called Chris.
Journeying with Chris Kittum gets turned into a Riverskin and they manage to find Lilly who helps them defeat Darkwater .
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
November 1, 2025
Tess lives with Aunt Peg in ‘the turns’– a grotty tunnel system off the River Tees, ‘covered by green swish, tucked behind twists of tree root, buried between rocks.’ The description of the turns is grim and grisly: claustrophobic, dark, dank and slime-strewn. But, it’s a necessity for Tess and Peg to hide away from the dry-folk. And they must also imprison Unkle Darkwater here, who seethes with violence- chained in his pit; fed fish and ‘medcin’ to keep him subdued. ‘The pit is deep and the chains are strong’…What would happen if Darkwater was loosed into the water…”Tide high, tide low, I caught a pike but let it go. Why did I chuck it back? Cus I’d bigger fish to catch.”
Running away from Darkwater sets Tess in a journey downstream which leads to her befriending one of the dry-folk; riding on a spinny (bike); finding out about her past and her (re)birth as a river-dwelling being; & finding a love of (doosh-doosh) techno music!
There are some nasty monsters in this book: the aforementioned Unkle Darkwater & the dementia that’s changing Aunt Peg, bit-by-bit. Aunt Peg’s ‘mind-slipping’ and Tess’s perception of it, create some sad, tender moments among the grot of the turns; Tess is alone to cope with her aunt’s cognitive decline and her feelings and reactions oscillate: anger, resentment, frustration, confusion, sadness. She muses: “I reckon a mind must be like a hollow or a larder or summit. Over time it gets filled up and it’s harderharder to find things when you need them.” It’s difficult to say which monster is the scariest.
I read in the author’s note that Riverskin draws inspiration from Teesside folklore & the witch, Peg Powler. I love that the women here aren’t the baddies they’re cast as by the dry-folk.
I also love how the history of insustry on the Tees is evoked from the early days of steel to its more recent demise in Britain (cost-effectiveness over communities). It was apt that I bought my copy of Riverskin from the calmwaters of the Ouseburn- a former industrial hub on the Ouseburn river repurposed as an arts, entertainments and community space.
The absolute star in this book, for me, is the use of language. Combining north-east dialect (archaic and contemporary), malapropism, neologism (invented single words, which sound like such plausible alternatives named by Tess and her riverkin for their characteristics, & the most incredible compound words, which combining words of similar meanings like ‘crush-hug’, ‘slime-slick’ & ‘scab- hard’.) You will be put in mind of the language of Jabberwocky more than once & find yourself understanding in a vivid, multi-sensory way just like when reading the classic nonsense poem. (I’ve also since discovered a link with Croft, Teesside, an important name in the book, and Lewis Carroll).
I’ve made it all sound a bit serious. But it’s not! It’s a twisted folk tale full of fun word play and local heritage that is ‘delickious’ in its darkness but also full of heart and hope. It’s full of empathy around dementia sufferers and young carers; promotes the idea of being your authentic self and shows the power of friendship. Swift said, it’s lush.
Running away from Darkwater sets Tess in a journey downstream which leads to her befriending one of the dry-folk; riding on a spinny (bike); finding out about her past and her (re)birth as a river-dwelling being; & finding a love of (doosh-doosh) techno music!
There are some nasty monsters in this book: the aforementioned Unkle Darkwater & the dementia that’s changing Aunt Peg, bit-by-bit. Aunt Peg’s ‘mind-slipping’ and Tess’s perception of it, create some sad, tender moments among the grot of the turns; Tess is alone to cope with her aunt’s cognitive decline and her feelings and reactions oscillate: anger, resentment, frustration, confusion, sadness. She muses: “I reckon a mind must be like a hollow or a larder or summit. Over time it gets filled up and it’s harderharder to find things when you need them.” It’s difficult to say which monster is the scariest.
I read in the author’s note that Riverskin draws inspiration from Teesside folklore & the witch, Peg Powler. I love that the women here aren’t the baddies they’re cast as by the dry-folk.
I also love how the history of insustry on the Tees is evoked from the early days of steel to its more recent demise in Britain (cost-effectiveness over communities). It was apt that I bought my copy of Riverskin from the calmwaters of the Ouseburn- a former industrial hub on the Ouseburn river repurposed as an arts, entertainments and community space.
The absolute star in this book, for me, is the use of language. Combining north-east dialect (archaic and contemporary), malapropism, neologism (invented single words, which sound like such plausible alternatives named by Tess and her riverkin for their characteristics, & the most incredible compound words, which combining words of similar meanings like ‘crush-hug’, ‘slime-slick’ & ‘scab- hard’.) You will be put in mind of the language of Jabberwocky more than once & find yourself understanding in a vivid, multi-sensory way just like when reading the classic nonsense poem. (I’ve also since discovered a link with Croft, Teesside, an important name in the book, and Lewis Carroll).
I’ve made it all sound a bit serious. But it’s not! It’s a twisted folk tale full of fun word play and local heritage that is ‘delickious’ in its darkness but also full of heart and hope. It’s full of empathy around dementia sufferers and young carers; promotes the idea of being your authentic self and shows the power of friendship. Swift said, it’s lush.
May 20, 2025
A tween read, made either exceedingly distinguished or ruinously awkward by being in its own form of language. The character Tess is a river-dweller, who calls Peg her Aunt – the very Aunt Peg that all the Teessiders know of as a witch-like child-snatching beastie. One thing the two must do is try and control Unkle (no, not the trip hop act), because he speaks in bold font and so must be desperately evil, but with Peg going senile, and Unkle stirring really quite revelatory thoughts in our girl's mind, things come to a head. Armed with a kitten and the fear of Unkle, Tess flees for the human world, where clues to her own origins might lie…
But the key thing that has to be talked of is the style – or even better, quoted. Here's a snippet – "There is a dry-folk boy standing on the bank, eyeing out over the water. I keep lowlow. He picks up a stone from the bankside and hoys it across the surface. It's a skinny-slim stone and it lands light, bouncing oncetwice across the top before sinking." So you have to try and pitch this all into a Geordie accent, cope with the select dialect words and verb choices that provides, take on board all the word construction unique to the family of river-dwellers, and more, just to get the gist of things. And let me tell you there are quite a few mentions of shopping trolleys, without there being any mention of shopping trolleys, if you catch my drift.
For me this was a brave choice, but boy I could see it being alienating. What it did was demand double-dipping, with the pages of this in front of you and the audio version playing too. Oh to have had that option. This is certainly a distinctive local piece of colloquial fantasy, and we certainly get a rare look into the family life of someone very other. But beyond the awkward narrative and writing style, things felt a touch too underdone – even mundane. Heck, didn't you see I said there was multiple mention of shopping trolleys?
This certainly is a Marmite book, and like nearly all Marmite things I'm very much on the fence. Ultimately this fulfilled its purpose, and it did provide a richness that I sought. But potentially I had too few problems with the wordiness twists, for beyond that I didn't see enough that was strange and unguessable. It might be the case that the style took the author's effort away from the depth of the story, and when it allows me to think that it's likely to get no more than three and a half stars.
But the key thing that has to be talked of is the style – or even better, quoted. Here's a snippet – "There is a dry-folk boy standing on the bank, eyeing out over the water. I keep lowlow. He picks up a stone from the bankside and hoys it across the surface. It's a skinny-slim stone and it lands light, bouncing oncetwice across the top before sinking." So you have to try and pitch this all into a Geordie accent, cope with the select dialect words and verb choices that provides, take on board all the word construction unique to the family of river-dwellers, and more, just to get the gist of things. And let me tell you there are quite a few mentions of shopping trolleys, without there being any mention of shopping trolleys, if you catch my drift.
For me this was a brave choice, but boy I could see it being alienating. What it did was demand double-dipping, with the pages of this in front of you and the audio version playing too. Oh to have had that option. This is certainly a distinctive local piece of colloquial fantasy, and we certainly get a rare look into the family life of someone very other. But beyond the awkward narrative and writing style, things felt a touch too underdone – even mundane. Heck, didn't you see I said there was multiple mention of shopping trolleys?
This certainly is a Marmite book, and like nearly all Marmite things I'm very much on the fence. Ultimately this fulfilled its purpose, and it did provide a richness that I sought. But potentially I had too few problems with the wordiness twists, for beyond that I didn't see enough that was strange and unguessable. It might be the case that the style took the author's effort away from the depth of the story, and when it allows me to think that it's likely to get no more than three and a half stars.
October 30, 2025
Now this is a debut with bite!
Riverskin is one of the most original, atmospheric middle grade books I’ve read in a while - a slippery mix of folklore, fantasy, and fierce imagination. Mike Edwards writes like a poet (because he is one), and it shows in every dripping, glimmering sentence. The language is wild and rhythmic - part dialect, part invention - like something dredged straight from the riverbed.
It’s an utterly immersive story about belonging, identity, and the murky line between human and other. Tess, who lives below the River Tees with her Aunt Peg and the sinister Unkle Darkwater, feels real and strange and heartbreakingly alive. The themes - mental health, memory, family, and freedom - run deep beneath the surface, surfacing in flashes that are both haunting and hopeful.
That said, I can see some readers struggling with the language. It’s dense, lyrical, and defiantly odd - think Cloud Atlas’s post-collapse dialect meets northern folklore. Brilliant for confident readers, but definitely challenging for children who aren’t yet fluent or who prefer straight prose. The result is something that feels both magical and slightly inaccessible - an extraordinary book that might leave less experienced readers treading water.
Still, it’s a bold, imaginative feat - the kind of book that proves how playful and profound middle grade fiction can be when it dares to experiment. I wouldn’t be surprised to see it pop up on the Children’s Booker list. Unsettling, strange, and beautifully written - Riverskin shimmers with life.
Riverskin is one of the most original, atmospheric middle grade books I’ve read in a while - a slippery mix of folklore, fantasy, and fierce imagination. Mike Edwards writes like a poet (because he is one), and it shows in every dripping, glimmering sentence. The language is wild and rhythmic - part dialect, part invention - like something dredged straight from the riverbed.
It’s an utterly immersive story about belonging, identity, and the murky line between human and other. Tess, who lives below the River Tees with her Aunt Peg and the sinister Unkle Darkwater, feels real and strange and heartbreakingly alive. The themes - mental health, memory, family, and freedom - run deep beneath the surface, surfacing in flashes that are both haunting and hopeful.
That said, I can see some readers struggling with the language. It’s dense, lyrical, and defiantly odd - think Cloud Atlas’s post-collapse dialect meets northern folklore. Brilliant for confident readers, but definitely challenging for children who aren’t yet fluent or who prefer straight prose. The result is something that feels both magical and slightly inaccessible - an extraordinary book that might leave less experienced readers treading water.
Still, it’s a bold, imaginative feat - the kind of book that proves how playful and profound middle grade fiction can be when it dares to experiment. I wouldn’t be surprised to see it pop up on the Children’s Booker list. Unsettling, strange, and beautifully written - Riverskin shimmers with life.
September 2, 2025
Loved the local folklore, the imagery of the river and surrounding landscape, and Tess. The narrative voice definitely took getting used to, but after the first two chapters, it just flowed so nicely.
August 15, 2025
Gave up. Didn’t like the silly way of talking. Just tell the story please and stop trying to be clever
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews