This is the kind of book I usually love - folklore, storytelling, history and mystery all in one. However, I found it really hard to get into and very slow. There seemed to be too many characters and not much really happening.

I will say that it is beautifully written - it's wonderfully descriptive and really evokes the feel of the settings. For this reason, I think it deserves three stars, even though I struggled to engage. I have looked at the other reviews of this book and can understand why people loved it, but it just wasn't for me.

4.5*
The River Thames is at the heart of this story, along with those who live and work on or around it. The Swan, an ancient inn, sitting on the banks of the river is the focal point of the local community, where the tradition of storytelling thrives. On solstice night, the longest night of the year, with the regulars gathered in the pub, an injured man carrying what looked like a doll but was soon discovered to be a drowned child, staggers through the door and falls to the floor, unconscious. Rita, the local nurse is sent for and after she has attended to the man’s injuries she checks on the child. Although she appears to be dead, Rita is confused. There were no outward signs to show what had happened to the child and none of the expected signs of drowning. And then, inexplicably, the child begins to breathe.

The story of the girl who came back from the dead takes on a life of its own, discussed endlessly in The Swan, and spreading rapidly further afield. A couple whose child was kidnapped, a man searching for his granddaughter, a young woman hiding a guilty secret, all wonder and hope she is the child they are looking for and longing to find. Who this delicate otherworldly child who never speaks belongs too, and how she came to be in the river, forms the basis of the story.

Once Upon A River, set in the 19th century, is a slow but intricate and magical tale, with a good number of beautifully crafted and vividly portrayed diverse characters. The narrative alternates between each of their stories, following a winding course that perhaps seems a little too drawn out on occasion, but the strands are gradually woven together and the plot picks up momentum as the conclusion is in sight.

The writing is lyrical and extremely evocative, threaded throughout with magical realism, folklore, superstition and always the atmospheric setting makes its presence felt. The direction of the story isn’t obvious as it meanders, but like the river there may be more going on under the surface than is immediately apparent. I haven’t read anything quite like this before and, if you’ll pardon the pun, you just need to go with the flow, and be carried along where ever the story takes you.

It's all about the story.
The locals at the Swan Inn on the banks of the Thames gather regularly and tell their stories. Each telling of each story improves upon the last until one day in the midst of a great storm the story of all stories burst through the doors of their inn.
Thus starts a mystical tale of greed and love and hardship all threaded through with belief in the power and folklore of the River.
A different book to my usual read but one that I thoroughly enjoyed.
#netgalley,#dianesetterfield,#onceuponariver

This is such a wonderfully engaging story. A girl is found drowned in the River Thames but magically comes alive again or so it would seem. She is very much an enigma to the rest of the people who live along the river. There is no date in time mentioned but my instincts tell me it is set in the Victorian era.

Once Upon a River is written very much like a fairytale. It flows along beautifully, meandering its way through each of the many characters’ interlinking personal stories. The river is very much the main character and I could almost feel the water as I was reading! It trickled, ebbed and flowed through my mind just like the tale itself. It has a great sense of time and place. There’s an air of mystery and at times it becomes quite the detective story and at others quite mythical in nature .

An atmospheric and enchanting read which had me totally absorbed right up until the last page. I loved The Thirteenth Tale by the same author and Once Upon a River easily lives up to it in my opinion. Just brilliant.

Starts with a inn on the bank of the Thames. Whilst there are many inns, it is the Swan where this story is told. Joe Bliss and his wife Megan run the inn with their large family all girls bar Jonathon with his mismatched features. One night in walks a newcomer with gaping holes in his face,covered in blood and a dead girl. Rita the local midwife and nurse is called. She has exceptional experience, better than some local doctors. She verified the girl - she was dead. Only a short time later she was alive...
This brings different people, with different stories that we learn about, coming to see the girl thinking she might be their long lost daughter/granddaughter/sister. Something strange is definitely happening. Does it have something to do with the river where many a soul has died either by accident or on purpose??
Blended amongst the type of folklore and superstition of its time, of people that have experienced their own traumas, hold dark secrets, live with grief or guilt or both. What emerges is a mystical, fairytale like story that meanders and weaves much like a river itself. The prose is impressive and engaging, gentle in its delivery and pace, a mix of people and their indelible stories and attentive emotions. Something a bit different, yet quietly engaging. There are no big reveals or ratcheting of pace, but the story still holds your curiosity throughout. Each character is touched by the girl in some way. Each learns more about themselves as a result. With exemplary character development that permeates deeply, it makes for a decadent read

This is one of those books that, when you finish it, you have to put it down and just sit for a bit while you take in the awesomeness of what you have just read. I honestly did not expect to like this book as much as I did, however, it has become one of my top reads not just of 2019 but ever!</p>

The book follows four main and interwoven story-lines: The Armstrong's, The Vaughan's, Rita and Mr Daunt and Lily White, with other characters and viewpoints thrown in to add to the mysterious air. And with a plot as twisty and turny as its subject matter, the Thames, you are guaranteed to keep reading until the very last sentence.

With the appearance of the girl at The Swan at Buscot there are an abundance of people determined to claim her as their family;

The Armstrong's are sure its their grandchild, a child they did not know existed until they find a letter hinting to her existence. Their son rushes to claim his daughter, thought drowned by the wife he abandoned. </p>

Mrs Vaughan is adamant that the child is their daughter Amelia, kidnapped two years earlier. Mr Vaughan is not as sure, however, as they start to take care of the child his certainty wavers in the light that the child brings back to his life and marriage.

Lily White is sure the child is her baby sister, though as Lily is in her 40's she is told under no circumstances could this be possible.

Finally we have Mr Daunt and Rita. Mr Daunt is the gentleman who staggered into The Swan on Midwinter's Eve holding the child in his arms, and proceeds to collapse from his injuries. It is only when he awakes that we learn that the child is not his. Rita is the local nurse, who is the witness to the miraculous awakening of the child everyone thought dead. They are both drawn to the child and bond over their strange need to protect her.</p>

It's not until the last few chapters of this book that you understand the amazing foreshadowing of this book, when all the different plot lines merge together and we find out where the child truly belongs. Setterfield managed to merge the fantastical with the everyday so well that you're unsure whether you're reading historical fiction or fantasy.

I cannot describe how much I loved this book. I felt myself drawn to all the characters but especially the mysterious child. Where did she come from, how could she have risen from the dead and most importantly who does she belong with. Probably one of the easiest 5* I will give this year, I haven't read The Thirteenth Tale, Setterfields other book, but I will certainly be picking it up and anything else she writes after reading this truly immense book.

This review will be going live on my blog on 21/03/19, and I have already added it to Amazon and Goodreads. I have added a link to my blog below.

Absolutely enchanting ! Folklore, magic and science.
It took me a long time to complete this book , but I enjoyed it the whole way through. Threads started to come together around half way; I must admit I did a lot of head scratching before that.

The book celebrates the art of storytelling and Setterfield really did it justice by executing a beautiful, if sad novel.

I’ll certainly be recommending it to others!

Utterly beguiling from the very opening chapter> it took me a good while to get through this one but that is partly because I was savouring it! The characterisation is so vivid, the sense of place strong and the elements of magical realism deftly done. So much to think about and discuss, it would be perfect for a reading group. I loved it and will be recommending it to everyone!

A fantastic story woven with different themes and characters that are bought together beautifully. I really enjoyed the aura of history, mystery and the unexplained contained within the book.

Thanks for letting me review this.

A strong four stars in the end for a book I loved at first, found disfavour with in flashback form, but was more than happy to continue with to its conclusion. I''ll say outright it's being marked down for one key scene I failed to make enough head or tail of, namely a boatman swishing his craft upstream at a weir when you'd only think it possible downstream, and more importantly for being too long. But even when it gets fully circuitous, and slightly repetitive, and a little too obvious about minor aspects of what has been going on, there is still some sense of majesty here. The pub that loves storytelling is finely wrought, and only adds its own DNA to this tale about legend, family history and of course a certain river.

The plot is best left to be discovered, but features one wintry night when the regulars are alone in the pub, until a bloke with half a face staggers in holding a dead girl – who promptly seems to come back to life. Three parties seem to have a claim on her as theirs – which starts a rich gallimaufry of drama, bringing a bit of Dickens and even a key scene from Hamlet into a right watery saga. Characters are well done, things the reader obviously wants to happen are allowed to happen, and even if I would have preferred a briefer telling, this story was ultimately a most strong one.

<i>Thank you NetGalley and publisher for the free ARC</i>

What a wonderful book!

The Swan tavern is famous for the storytelling that is served up along the beer. On winter solstice night a little girl is brought in by a bloodied man. The girl seems dead, but miraculously comes back to life under the hands of Rita Sunday, the local nurse. Who is the girl, where did she come from, how did she come alive again? Several parties claim her as kin.

This is a book filled with characters who all have their own story and the stories they tell, and the stories that are told about them. It's really a book of stories, a book about story-telling, mystical, fairytale, folklore.

I loved the characters who at times can be a bit archetypical, but that fits the fairytale quality of the work. Poetic justice is served without everything turning into a soppy mush.

I absolutely loved The Thirteenth Tale by this author so was keen to read this. While it was a very different book, with a mystical, historical quality, I enjoyed being swept away by the fairytale style and mystery of who the girl was. It was beautifully written and I see it appealing to fans of books like The Snow Child.

I thought this book started off beautifully. It was story telling as it should be - the narrative flowed just like the eponymous river and drew you in to the story. On the night of the winter solstice sometime in the 19h century, a stranger stumbles into the Swan, an Inn on the Thames. He is badly wounded and in his arms he carries a dead girl. The local nurse, Rita is called for and after she has tended to the stranger she turns to the girl, confirming she is dead. But only minutes later, the girl awakens. Soon there are three clams to her, that of Robin Armstrong whose wife drowned herself earlier that day and took their daughter with her, that of the Vaughns' whose daughter disappeared two years before and that of Lily who thinks the girl is her sister, Ann. But are any of these claims valid or is the girl someone else entirely?

After such a promising beginning, I found the plot sagged a little, becoming a little too meandering for my liking. There is a lot of repetition of the motif 'something is going to happen' but nothing much did. The ending wasn't entirely satisfactory but I won't say why as it would mean giving a spoiler.

I hesitated between giving this three of four stars but opted in the end for four as the beginning is so exceptionally good. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

Totally loved this book! The storytelling theme and the river running through and linking all the events and characters were magical. I was fascinated by the story as it unfolded and loved the people in the stories, and looked forward to returning to the book very time I put it down - it did cause me to have some rather late nights! I also loved the prose style. There was nothing fussy or over complicated about it, but it created a mystical and rather magical atmosphere, that drew me further and further into the river's world.
Wonderful!

Once Upon A River is a stunning novel, full of exquisite storytelling.
The opening chapter sets the scene for an unusual mystery. A riverside pub that is known for its' stories is gifted the best story of all when a man suddenly appears carrying the drowned body of a young girl. Miraculously the girl comes back to life. Whose child is she, and how did she revive?
Diane Setterfield has written an English magical realist novel that is unlike anything else out there.
The story is gripping, and Dickensian in its' scope and social commentary. Five stars.

On the night of the winter solstice in a pub on the Thames, the regulars are telling stories as they do most nights, when a stranger bursts through the door carrying the dead body of a little girl. A few hours later, the girl wakes up. Nobody knows who she is and, when multiple families come forward to claim the child as their own, nobody knows who to believe.

Once Upon a River is a magical fairy tale, but it has a very long-winded plot. There’s a lot of build up to “something’s about to happen”, ending in comparatively little actual climax. The book isn’t actually especially long, but it took me ages to read and I would have found it impossible to read in one sitting. It just didn’t flow particularly well and was quite hard work to get through.

There are loads of different characters, to the extent that we don’t really get to know most of them properly. The only ones I got to know well enough to particularly like were Rita and Daunt, because they appear in multiple threads of the story. Most of the other characters were very forgettable (in fact, as I sit here writing this, I can’t remember the names of any others).

I liked the way the story was told, from the point-of-view of a narrator who was not part of the plot but felt like an integral participant in the book. It is written in a way that feels as though the narrator is telling you the story, but without ever explicitly inserting themselves in the narrative. This has the effect of drawing the reader in and, had the story been more engaging, would have been a wonderful style.

Once Upon a River had a lot of potential to be a great book but, unfortunately, didn’t quite live up to it.

I received a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

‘’A river no more begins at its source than a story begins with the first page.’’

Once Upon a River by Diane Setterfield is a story that had the perfect plot potential to be amazing, but it didn’t deliver at all. As a huge fan of storytelling, this was a big disappointment for me, the biggest one so far in 2019.

‘’There are stories that may be told aloud, and stories that must be told in whispers, and there are stories that are never told at all.’’

The story happens in a small city, on the river Thames. It features the pub Swan, where people gather every night, and everyone knows each other, and they all tell stories all night and enjoy their company.

If you have ever been to England, it is so easy to imagine the setting of a pub, warm place, crowded with people laughing and talking loudly, glasses clinking and people singing random songs in the background. A lot of positive noise and enchanting atmosphere.

And one night, the usual setting is being disturbed, when a man enters the pub with a little girl in his arms, and then passes away. The girl appears to not be breathing for a while, and everyone thinks she is dead, but suddenly, she is breathing again. And the man that is with her is not her father.

As the town is used to, they make stories of it. How it happened, who is the father, does she have a family, why was she drowning in the river… The plot entangles when the family is to be found of the little girl, but a few people claim she is their relative.

‘’Something happens and then something else happens and then all sorts of other things happen, expected and unexpected, unusual and ordinary.’’

The storytelling and the writing of the author was beautiful. At times. The beginning was a paradise for book lovers. The best first chapters I read this year. But after the plot opening, everything started going downhill.

It felt like being on this roller coaster, excited, going slowly upwards, slowly reaching the top, ready to fall so fast, ready for an adventure, only for them to tell you that there is a fault, and you have to get back and exit the ride without even making the adventure out of it.

I wanted to love it. The writing at parts was great, and I am including a lot of quotes throughout the review, because I loved those parts. But the chapters and characters were too many, and things were happening too fast and without a purpose, that it was hard for me to pick up the pace. I had to leave the book and pick it up again, and it took me three months to complete it. A hard book to swallow and process.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher, Random House UK, Transworld Publsihers for sending me an e-copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I really wanted to enjoy this book and I thought it started off promising but was a little disappointed with how the book evolved.

The characters I found a little hard to follow to start with but believable and I spent a lot of time imaging I was there with them later in the book.

The storyline up to the flooding was enjoyable, but the story regarding the flooding towards the end was disappointing. I would have liked to have read something a little more believable.

From one longest night a year to the shortest and to the longest night again. From the brook to the swamp and to the slow flowing river that looks like a lake to the monstrous deity that is called Once Upon A River.
Anything can happen in a year. Anything can happen on the river. But even more can happen in the river and next to the river.
People, stories, blood and tears, hopes and fears, loves lost and found - everything is entwined with the grey waters of the magic river. What is true and what is fable, nobody really knows or is willing to admit.
Once Upon A River is a magic work of an amazing storyteller. Words flow like water and live behind what author wanted to say and what reader wanted to feel.
The story is engrossing. Reader made feel like they stepped into warm inviting waters of summer river, swam along and eventually got stuck in the silt or wrapped in the whirlpool.
I loved every moment of this book. There are various endings to the stories, from happy to the ones that are due...
Is it true or is it fable? Make your own mind.

My thanks to the publisher and to Netgalley for the opportunity to read and review this book.

A very beautiful piece of writing, to my mind quite different from her other work, this is a magical mystery story based around some of the settlements of the upper Thames around Oxford. The river flows through the writing, a passage from place to place, and a key player in events. At times the feel is also rather meandering, and the flow of the story slowed in the middle section. But there is a Dickensian feel to the action and to the more sinister characters which carries the reader through. Discussing this with my husband, reading it at the same time, we both saw this Dickensian feel and, in some of the supporting characters, a hark back to the writing of Hardy.

The final section of the novel is genuinely exciting as the mysteries become solved and the relationships between individuals are clarified. The fact that this story refers to an actual photographer, who lived and worked in the area, is immensely satisfying too. A good read for a summer afternoon, when you can take your time, stop to think and pay close attention to the action. There are some critical facts and events somewhat hidden so keep your wits about you as you read.

Recommended.