A magical tale with myriad wonderful characters - so spellbinding and mysterious that it really sucked me in to the story. Setterfield really is an amazing storyteller and the individual tales are woven together with such skill.

What an enthralling read! Based around the river Thames in mid 19th century England, an injured man holding a child (which appears lifeless) turns up on the doorstep of a pub. The child lives but the identity of it is unknown. Therein lies a plethora of twists, turns as 2 families have lost a child...to which of these families does it belong? Dragons, witchcraft, kidnappings, family dramas and much local gossip ('once upon a river') keep the reader guessing where the truth lies. A gripping read, highly recommended.

Beautifully written and a totally captivating story - I was swept up in the village from the first page to the last. Will definitely be reading more by Diane Setterfield - this is one of my books of the year so far!

It took me a little while to get into this book but I'm so glad I persevered. It is a beautifully written novel that combines historical fiction with a hint of magical realism to create something captivating, spellbinding and a little strange. The characters were all incredibly well drawn, and the mystery at the heart of the narrative really drew me in.

DNF -

This book has an interesting premise and sets up the location and genre really well, but ultimately was a complete slog to get through. I felt as if I was wading through something and desperately trying to grab onto the key parts of the story. I did not end up finishing it because I just couldn't handle it. I would have really liked to see this book written slightly more concisely, with less jumping between characters and more emphasis on certain moments. It needed more peaks and troughs, rather than the same note running through. Obviously there were some interesting happenings, but I didn't feel very affected by them due to the lack of emphasis on those certain parts.

There are several reviews mentioning that getting through the first half is the hardest part, and that the ending is worth it. I was unable to get that far but I hope everyone else enjoyed it! I am usually a fan of Gothic-folklore type stories, but this one was definitely not for me.

I read an extract of this book months ago and have been desperate to read the whole book since then. It’s fair to say I fell in love with the book after reading just a few pages. I was delighted when I was approved for the book on NetGalley. I was not disappointed. This is one of the most original books I’ve read in ages and it blends folklore, myth and a bit of Dickens. I loved the way the book builds us myth, suspense and intrigue. The book opens in dramatic fashion with a seemingly drowned girl possibly coming back to life. Most of the book focuses on discovering her identity to try and find out which of three local families can claim the girl as one of them. The truth is carefully, gradually revealed and the author really knows how to tell a story. The River Thames plays a big role in the book which is unusual but works really well.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book, one of the best I've read for a while. Having read and loved The Thirteenth Tale, I knew I'd be in for a good solid story with Once Upon A River. Several times during the book I was reminded of the writing style of Charles Dickens – a story with proper grounding and characters with personality.

Set in 1887 on the banks of the River Thames, much of the story centres around the The Swan, a local inn where storytelling is the entertainment and where more beer means more embellishment. One evening, an injured man stumbles in carrying a young girl who appears to be dead. A little girl who sometime later is alive. This is a time when superstition and supernatural blurred into real life and a dead girl coming back to life is a fantastical story for all to tell and re-tell.

The girl has three possible identities, she is either Alice, Amelia or Ann, and none is certain of her identity even when she lives with two of the families claiming her. The girl herself has lost the ability to speak and there is frustration from the Vaughan's who desperately want her to be Amelia, their daughter who disappeared two years ago.

The river plays a large part of the story and to add to the strange goings on with a child coming back to life, there is rain, more rain, and inevitable flooding which seeps into their homes and lives as the river becomes a torrent.

Amidst superstition and folklore there's also skulduggery, ransoms and beatings. Once Upon A River is a fulfilling story which has a depth of storytelling which is rare these days. I absolutely loved it.

<i>"One day the river helpfully runs a wheel to grind your barley, the next it drowns your crop."</i>
This quote sums up the essence of this novel. Based on an imaginary version of the River Thames in Victorian times, we follow a story of a girl who seemingly drowns, but is actually alive. Who is she? Where has she been? Why is everyone so drawn to this girl?
Magical realism meets historical fiction in this strangely captivating story. Like the river, it can be slow moving and meander down different paths, but it has a mesmerizing feel to it. So many interesting characters with their own stories to tell while we slowly try and discover the answer to the mystery of this drowned girl.

Recommended to fans of magical realism who don't mind a slow pace and intriguing story.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for providing me with an advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review.

I would have loved to read and review this but inadvertently left it too late and now find it's been archived. Whoops. Sorry. I really enjoyed the 13th Tale though! Star rating based on that since I can't comment without one.

What a lovely book and story this is, I was pleasantly surprised to be honest and I really did enjoy it....it was beautifully written and had me lost in it very easily, it was quite haunting in parts and I found it unique with the way it was told and written, kind of mystery slash fairytale and I was hooked.

Little gem of a book.

LOVE Diane Setterfield and will read anything she writes, but this is another special book from her. The minute you start reading you know you're in good hands and the story is engaging and intriguing, weird and wonderful from the beginning.

I thoroughly enjoyed this wonderful piece of story-telling. The author takes multiple threads of location and character and weaves a magical tapestry that draws you in and keeps your attention throughout. Simply delightful.

This stunning book absolutely captivated me from the first chapter. Darkly gothic, mystical and mysterious, it drew in all the strands of the story like tributaries joining the River Thames which formed the character around which all the character's lives revolved. Beautifully evocative, atmospheric and heart-rending, this book drew me in to an alternative world as all the best stories do. I fell in love with the characters of Bess and Robert Armstrong, Rita, and Mr Daunt. The villains in the tale in the form of Mr Nash and Robin were grotesque and cruel and showed the dark side of humanity, with no punches pulled. My favourite part of the book was the scene between Robert and Bess, when she removed her eye patch, which by contrast, showed the absolute best side of humanity. I cannot recommend this book enough, read it and you will be transported.

One of my best reads of this year. I utterly loved this book and I think Diane Setterfield is a great writer. She has created a compelling original story using some archetypal storytelling techniques. Highly recommended.

Once Upon A River by Diane Setterfield

I know this book has been out for a few months now but I’m so behind on my NetGalley reads that I’ve only just managed to get around to this one.

Ok so having read The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfields and having really enjoyed it I was really looking forward to reading this one.

The opening chapters were so exciting and thrilling, but then everything started to get confusing with the backstories and ended up having to re-read sections to get my head around to what was happening. This is turn slowed down me down and at times I was ready to give up on the book altogether. But, I’m so glad I didn’t as by the end I really got into it and it all came together nicely and finally all made sense.

This book is elegantly written and has some beautiful descriptions but I personally thought it was a little too long and a bit long winded in some places. Also, there are quite a lot of characters in this book and I couldn’t quite remember who was who and felt I had to concentrate quite a bit while reading about them. But having said that I found them all very interesting. I found them to be unique and I liked how Setterfield cleverly made them seem like they were all intertwined with each other.


Overall a slow burner of a read that I did eventually finished after a week of struggle. But in the end a book I did enjoy, just not as much as The Thirteenth Tale. However, a book I would recommend.

I would like to thank NetGalley and the publisher’s Random House UK, Transworld Publishers, Doubleday for a copy of my eARC in return for an honest and unbiased review.

Writing as an art form.
Diane Setterfield has such an amazing way with words, I enjoyed every page of this book and, interspersed with audiobooks and other reads, I managed to make it last for several weeks. Sadly, I have finally finished, but I've promised myself to listen to the audiobook in a few months, something I never do.

At the centre of the narrative is the River Thames, never far from the action and winding continuously in the background. Living alongside the river is a curious assortment of folk, rich and poor, good and bad. And into this community appears a little girl, apparently dead, but then miraculously alive again. No one knows who she is, everyone is immediately drawn to her and several people claim her to be theirs.

The way this story unravels, drip feeding facts and background, is a work of art. I highlighted a large number of quotes on my Kindle, so as to remember their beauty. I will share just two:

A character finds himself drowning: "He groped for the surface; his hands met trailing, floating plants. He grasped to haul himself up, but his fingers closed on gravel and mud. Flailing – twisting – the surface! – gone again. He took in more water than air, and when he cried for help – though who had ever helped him, was he not the most betrayed of men? – when he cried for help, there were only the lips of the river pressed to his, and her fingers pinched his nostrils shut." (loc 6985),

During a flood: "He thought of the fish that strayed without knowing it from the main current and now found themselves swimming through grass a few inches above the ground, sharing territory with him and with his horse. He hoped Fleet would not tread on any creature lost in this landscape that no longer belonged clearly to earth or water. He hoped they would all be well." (Loc 7231)

Her first novel, The Thirteenth Tale, is one of my all-time favourite books, with Bellman and Black close behind. My only regret is that Diane Setterfield doesn't publish books more often.

Don't miss this one.

A beautifully written, fantastical tale about a little girl who emerges from a river and floods the lives of all who encounter her with self-awareness, hope and magic. The story flows so beautifully and the characters are portrayed in such a human way that it is easy to get swept up. I couldn’t put this book down and as soon as I finished it, I wanted to read it again. This author is a rare storyteller and this book is a gem.

“A river no more begins at its source than a story begins with the first page.” So begins this tale set along the Thames River and its tributaries, starting at the Swan inn at Radcot, famous for its storytelling. It’s solstice night, the longest night of the year, “a time of magic. And as the borders between night and day stretch to their thinnest, so too do the borders between worlds. Dreams and stories merge with lived experience, the dead and the living brush against each other in their comings and goings, the past and the present touch and overlap. Unexpected things can happen.” A stranger stumbles into the inn, carrying a little girl who, for all intents and purposes, is dead. “A body always tells a story – but this child’s corpse was a blank page.” Then she shows signs of life. “Is it a miracle?” It is “as if they had told a tale of a fairy princess and finished it only to find her sitting in a corner of the room listening.”

The girl is later claimed by no less than three different families:

Bess and Robert Armstrong, farmers from Kelmscott, believe she is their grandchild Alice, the daughter of their son Robin.

At Buscot, Helena and Anthony Vaughan mourn the disappearance of her daughter Amelia two years earlier. Can this be her?

And Lily White, the parson’s housekeeper, claims the child is her sister Ann, who died many years ago. How can this be so?

But they’re not the only ones who want her. Innkeeper Margot, who already has thirteen children, wants to keep her. Henry Daunt, the photographer who rescues the girl, feels she is the daughter he wishes he’d had from his failed marriage. Even Rita Sunday, the nurse who never wanted to have a child, wishes she were hers. And then there’s Mr. Quietly, the ghostly ferryman whose daughter drowned in the river. The girl herself does not speak and seems perfectly content with whoever takes her. But she has an endless fascination with the river. Who is she really?

The narrator speaks to us directly, involving us in the narrative:

“That photograph, do you remember?”

“And now, dear reader, the story is over.”

The main story detours into rich backstories which we think are irrelevant but which all tie together masterfully. We are introduced to an array of characters whose stories are woven into the original narrative via the river, as these scenes take place along tributaries of the Thames. The ever-present river is anthropomorphized and becomes a character in its own right:

“The water, bright and cold and fast-running, hissed as it passed. At irregular intervals it spat …”

“… in the background, the breath of the river, an endless exhalation.”

“… she gazed into the darkness and listened to the sound of the river as it rushed by.”

The book contains great descriptive passages:

“By night (and this story begins at night) the bridge was drowned black, and it was only when your ears noticed the low and borderless sound of great quantities of moving water that you could make out the stretch of liquid blackness that flowed outside the window, shifting and undulating, darkly illuminated by some energy of its own making.”

“Outside, the cold sliced through her coat without resistance and sharpened its blade against her skin, but she scarcely noticed.”

The author’s simple, yet powerful prose allows us to see things in a whole new light:

“Rita Sunday was not afraid of corpses. She was used to them from childhood, had even been born from one.”

“Drowning is easy. Every year the river helps herself to a few lives.”

“They were collectors of words, […] They kept an ear constantly alert for them, the rare, the unusual, the unique.”

“She walked through the warm steam of her own exhalation, felt it lay itself as wetness on her face.”

“His head was alive with ideas and he walked rapidly to deposit them with the person who would surely want to know all about it.”

“When they had married, Robin was already on the way, put into her womb by another man.”

“… his words reached their target and hurt as his fists could never have done …”

She uses imaginative similes; for example, describing how stories change in the re-telling: “It was like a living thing that he had caught but not trained; now it had slipped the leash and was anybody’s.”

And watery metaphors:

“It had seemed then that her daughter’s absence had flooded Helena, flooded them both, and that with their words they were trying to bail themselves out. But the words were eggcups and what they were describing was an ocean of absence, too vast to be contained in such modest vessels.”

“The throng thickened to stagnation and he was obliged to stop altogether, then he found a sluggish current and inched forward again.”

And her description of the river’s path to the ocean, including a poetic description of the water cycle, is pure genius:

“… the river water clings to the leaves of the willows that droop to touch its surface, and then when the sun comes up a droplet appears to vanish into the air, where it travels invisibly and might join a cloud, a vast floating lake, until it falls again as rain. This is the unmappable journey of the Thames.”

Just like the storytellers at the Swan, the author’s storytelling is so engaging that I didn’t want to put the book down, and I didn’t want it to end. The author’s first book, The Thirteenth Tale, is one of my favorite books of all time. I’m so glad this one didn’t disappoint.

Warnings: mild sex scene, suicide, violence.

Once upon a time, there was a pub on the river near Oxford where stories are told. People have been telling stories at The Swan since the 1300s. Five hundred years later it looks like The Swan is about to become the setting for a new story. Once Upon a River begins on a dark and stormy night, when a stranger walks into the pub, badly beaten with what looks like a child in his arms. This beginning sets everything up superbly, and we are soon drawn into a story about stories.

This is a multi-character story and we are quickly introduced to three families that claim the child as their own. First, there are The Vaughans whose own child was kidnapped, who hope that this child is their Amelia. The Armstrongs who are led to believe that the child could be Alice, the granddaughter they didn’t know existed. Lastly, there is Lily White who believes that the child is her long lost sister Ann. During the story, we learn more about these characters’ histories and lives as the story meanders like a river opening new tributaries as we are introduced to each of them. There are also two more characters, who although they do not claim the child as their own, are interwoven into the plot and help drive the story; the first is Mr Daunt and the second is Rita who become linked to solving the mystery of whose child she really is.

Each character, however small their role, is remarkably individualistic, each with their own thoughts and intentions. Due to this the story has many layers and is intricately compelling as it draws you in. Although some things you may see coming, it is the way the reveals happen that keep you interested in finding out the truth about who the child is and where they came from. There is also the slight hint of the supernatural which never detracts from the story but does keep you guessing as to what is true and false in this world. This really is a book about stories, how we tell them to survive, as well as how we create ourselves. All of these different kinds of stories are explored as we follow the characters affected by this unusual encounter.

I really enjoyed how dark the book gets in places, where you realise how grim some of the characters lives are and yet how even these characters have a spark of hope that things may get better. Some of the characters are misguided about who they are and what they are entitled to. Once Upon a River is a wonderful book, which mixes fantasy, family life, treachery and the power of stories which is beautifully put together. I couldn’t ask for a more well-rounded story, there were twists that I didn’t see coming. The attention to detail is incredible in a story about life and death. I would happily reread Once Upon a River and hope that other people enjoy it as much as I did.

Diane Setterfield has a real feel for suspense and from the moment I started this book I was hooked into the story. . The tale revolves around a child, who is brought to the local pub and announced dead, but then it appears she is revived and comes back to life. Who is this child who has miraculously survived?
The locals at the pub are known for their storytelling and the girl who died and came back to life proves to be a story that grips everyone. As the story unfolds there are a number of possibilities to the identity of the little girl. The reader is drawn into a world of myth and mystery, the folk from the pub and others whom live around the river.
This is a gripping tale from the very first word.