I struggled with The River Within almost from the very beginning. The story was choppy? disjointed? I can't seem to pin down the right word for it, but whatever it was, it just did not work for me. The story is atmospheric, I'll give it that, but I couldn't connect with any of these characters. Part of that may be because not everything felt fully fleshed out. There were some things I was curious enough about to ask questions, but those things seemed to just fade into the background to be forgotten. On a positive note, the narration was as good as it could be considering I wasn't feeling the story. Helen MacFarlane's voice is easy to listen to and I'd listen to her again.

I did not finish this read. The story did not hold my interest. The writing was good, but I did not care about the story. The structure was a bit difficult to follow in audio form. I will probably come back to this at another time.

I received a free digital advance listening copy from Dreamscape Media/Europa US via NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.

The River Within by Karen Powell combines a propulsive plot with evocative language. From the first paragraph, in which one of the main characters, "Danny Masters came home one afternoon. . ." you quickly learn that this is not a typical homecoming - rather, Danny's body shows up in the river flowing through the Yorkshire estate where he grew up. How he came to drown in the river is just one, but not the sole, question driving the story forward. The story is at times almost melancholic, but in a way that kept me turning the pages to find out how the various storylines involving unrequited love and loss come together. The chapters alternate between the perspectives of Venetia, recently widowed and wife of the estate owner; Lennie, daughter of one of the estate workers who is in love with Venetia's son; and Danny himself. Powell uses this structure very effectively, often leaving the reader with a cliffhanger at the end of each character's chapter that is then not picked up again until several chapters later.

Powell conveys a strong sense of place with vivid descriptions of the river, the forest, and the surrounding countryside. I could see and feel the "crocodile-hide bark" of the oak tree against which Lennie presses her cheek in the opening chapter, and later a "procession emerging from the wood and moving flat against the tree line like a panel from a stained glass window." I would have liked some additional development of a couple of the characters to better understand their motivations and actions.

Most of the book is set in the 1950s, with some flashbacks to the 1930s and late 1940s. The toll that World War II took on the land and the villagers is still very evident, but it was refreshing to read a book set in this time period rather than during the war.

The audio narration of this book did not work for me, unfortunately. Even though I was very interested in the plot, I found it hard for the narration to keep my attention. I usually enjoy books that alternate between different characters' perspectives and between different time periods, but for this book, I found those elements especially hard to follow on audio. I tried speeding up, slowing down, and starting over at one point before I gave up. Luckily, I was able to borrow the book from my library, and I greatly enjoyed the book in that format.

The River Within by Karen Powell is written in the style of literary fiction. The story centers on four characters who live in the same town. You find out at the beginning of the book that one of the characters has died under suspicious circumstances. It is not clear if he died by his own hand, accident, or murder.

The story is told from the four points of view of the main characters. It jumps back and forth in time, leading and misleading the reader.

Some stories translate well to audio and some do not. This one failed miserably. Let me rant count the ways:
1. When a story is told from multiple points of view, each character should have a distinct voice (accent, cadence, pitch, speech pattern, etc.) While listening to this book, I quite frequently could not distinguish which character was speaking. This is a basic element of a quality audiobook. I am baffled that a publishing house would allow this to make it to the market.
2. I started this book four times. Literally! I listened to a few chapters then berated myself for not following the story, and started over - rinse, repeat. I swear to you, I thought I was having a mental break. I finally gave up and just let the book keep playing. It was about the 50% mark that I started to figure out what was going on.
3. This was about the time that I realized the author was intentionally confusing the reader, in order to make a big reveal at the end. There are so many well-written books with big reveals. This is definitely not one of them. My best characterization of the first 50% of this book - torture. Pure unadulterated TORTURE!
4. I love literary fiction! Give me Edgar Allen Poe or Jane Austin any day. This book is written in that style. Honestly, I felt like I had read this story a thousand times before. It is tired.
5. Jumping around in time is a recipe for disaster if not done right in an audiobook. You have to help the reader keep up. Reading the date and city in the same voice we have heard throughout the entire book is simply not enough. Imagine with me - a play with no set, one male actor playing two parts, one female actor playing two parts, both actors use the same voice for all of their parts so that you can't tell who is who except for the speaker tags. Now, imagine that the year keeps jumping around, and the only thing that you have to indicate this is a 2-3 second warning from the narrator. But wait, the warning is stated in the exact same tone, cadence, pitch, etc as all of the other narration. So that if you are already bored out of your mind, there is no way in hell that you are going to catch it. Calgon, take me away!
6. Sensitivity Trigger #1: Postpartum depression - One of the characters experiences a severe case of PPD that borders on postpartum psychosis. If you have ever experienced PPD, then this may not be the book for you. The author digs deep into this well. I have never, in my entire life, been offended by an author's portrayal of PPD, but OH MY WORD!!!! What was she thinking!? I was disgusted, offended, and angered. The graphic images and comparisons that the author makes are downright disturbing. Now, I also have to say that I only experienced a very light case of PPD, so I don't have a comparable personal history to draw from.
7. Sensitivity Trigger #2: Breastfeeding - If you had a hard time breastfeeding, you may want to pass on this book. After reading this, I felt worse about my inability to breastfeed than I did 14 years ago when my daughter was a baby. One of the character's thoughts during her PPD episodes will make you cringe and think thoughts you had never even considered!
8. The last 25% of the book was ok, but the first 75% was torture. I would strongly NOT recommend this book to anyone.
9. It is depressing to read. Don't look for any happy endings here.
10. Just when you think it can't get any worse, it does. Then it does again, and again, and again. Wait, it should be getting better here somewhere. There has to be a light at the end of the tunnel. Some reason that the reader has to recommend this book to other readers. NOPE! This book just digs you deeper and deeper into the sludge pit of humanity.

If this audiobook was going to be successful with all of the time-jumping, it really needed a full cast or a narrator with a full repertoire of character voices.

Beautiful and poetic. This story is delicate,heartbreaking and full if tragedy that is kept me absorbed. I would say I couldn’t put it down but I listened to it and I couldn’t turn it off till it was finished. Multi generational story of love and loss. Seamlessly woven between the decades.

Fans of historical fiction genre will surely find something to like here. Perfect cozy read for this winter! This broke my heart but did leave me with some feelings of hope!

The River Within seems like a classic story of love, loss, class distinction and tragedy. What makes the story unique is Powell’s poetic language and the sense of place that permeates the story. Even though the story opens with a death (not a spoiler), this is a delicate telling of human emotion. It is told by the alternating narration of the four main characters and multiple timelines which can be a challenge to keep straight, but it helps to maintain the tension of the story. I enjoyed this story and will look for more from this author. Thank you to Net Galley and Europa US, and Dreamscape Media for the Advanced Listener’s Copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. #theriverwithin #karenpowell #netgalley #europaus #europaeditions #dreamscapemedia #bookstagram

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC/audiobook in exchange for an honest review.

This book is beautifully read, and the language is just lovely. For me, as an audio book rather than one I would read, it just moves a little too slowly. I think I would LOVE to read it as a written book.

Because I didn't finish it, I didn't finish it but have to leave stars, so I am going to leave 3, just because it was beautifully written, I was just too impatient to move more quickly!

I’m not sure if a story set in 1955 qualifies as historical but, if so, this is an English set historical mystery. There are three main characters, all of whom are impacted by the death of their friend, Danny. Alexander is the heir to an estate while Lennie (of a different class) is in love with him. There is also Tom, the third friend, who is there when Danny’s body is found.

What happened? Why? What lives will be altered in the process of learning the answers? Find out by listening to this audio book. It could be worth your time.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this title. All opinions are my own.

Such a beautifully written, multi-generational story 0f love, loss and class distinctions set in Yorkshire, England in 1940’s and 1950’s. What elevates this novel is the poetic language and wonderful descriptions of emotions and landscape that Powell employs. This story does alternate narrators and dates quite frequently, so that may be off putting to some, but I found it enhanced the story as an illustration of the continuity of issues, regardless of social standing. The story is seemingly focused on the death of a young villager, but that is simply the centrepoint of a broader story of human emotion. A fine work of literary fiction!

I received this audiobook advance, and I found the beginning of the book interesting. However, the audiobook narrator was so hard to understand and her voice just grated on me. I could not listen to it any more. I hope to pick up a copy of this in book form as it sounds good and has been recommended to me. However, this was an audiobook failure for me.

*received for free from netgalley for honest review* Not bad but it was kinda hard for me to follow at times or i found myself zoning out when listening to it but i mean i would reread it

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for letting me listen to an advance copy of this book.

This is very hard to review. I had a difficult time listening to the narrator. She sounded like she was shrieking the entire book. Some of her "voices" were good but many of them sounded alike. It was hard to concentrate and I almost gave up. So I read a couple of reviews and they were all excellent--none were of the audio version of the book. I decided to keep going and I'm very glad I did. In the end, I enjoyed the book. I thought it was a thoughtful study of English classes and the difficulty of mingling.

The book started with a death and I thought it was going to be a mystery. Not a mystery, just sad. The story is told by four different characters. The mistress of Richmond Hall; her son, Alexander; Alexander's girl friend Lennie, the daughter of a servant at Richmond Hall and Danny Masters also from the lower class. To get from where Danny and Lennie live, one has to walk along the river path; the river plays a huge role in the book.

I recommend this book but not the audio version.

I'd heard about this one from some English bookish people I follow in the media much earlier this year and the premise intrigued me so that I was excited to request an ARC from the publisher, Europa. They granted this request and I jumped in...and then floundered.

Thinking back on it, I don't think that I recall any of those bookish people in England reporting back having actually read this one, and I suspect it's because they didn't want to provide a negative review or were just left unmotivated, which was my ultimate reason for failing to finish this one.

The good, here, is that I appreciated the actual writing (as in the words, the sentences, the language), and that's the primary reason I stuck with it for as long as I did. I unfortunately found the rest of the elements - the structure, the characterizations, the movement of the plot - all frustrating or simply not working for me.

In a year when I am very intentionally DNFing even books I've bought if they fail to snare me (or even just retain my bare curiosity), unfortunately the confusing timelines and the wholly unsympathetic characters just couldn't win.

With a basic theme of death and a beginning as depressing as three people finding the body of someone they have known their whole lives is a tricky line to walk. The writing style was overtly aware of itself trying to emulate the writing of a different era. I ended up feeling like the author and narrator were reading in a language they could phonetically decipher but whose meaning was lost to them. It was disjointed. On top of that you had a story that went back and forth in time, but not a significant amount of time to make the different times really separate. Sometimes we just went back and forth weeks. Throw in characters that are shallowly written and hard to like and you have something that a decent plot couldn't really save.

The River Within by Karen Powell was an interesting book. It kind of sucks you in when you aren't expecting it. I had a hard time getting into it for the first few chapters, but then it takes off. The story is told from three different time perspectives and view points; Venetia, Lenny, and Danny are the narrators. Danny is found dead in the river at the beginning of the story. Lenny fancies herself in love with Venetia's son, Alexander, while Venetia seems to be reliving the past as she tries to face a future without her husband, who recently passed. As the story progresses, their lives are entwined in unexpected ways, but still pulled in different directions. I enjoyed the story, especially the narrator's voice. She had a great ability to tell the story.
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read and review this story. All opinions are my own.

The River Within by Karen Powell
Narrated by: Helen MacFarlane
Publication Date: December 1, 2020
.
Description from NetGalley...
“It is the summer of 1955. The body of Danny Masters is found by three of his friends in the river that runs through Starome, a village on the Richmond estate in North Yorkshire. Alexander, one of the three friends that found Danny and the sole heir to Richmond Hall, has always been unpredictable but lately he has grown elusive, his behaviour becoming increasingly erratic. His mother, Lady Venetia Richmond, is newly widowed and too busy trying to keep the sprawling family estate together to worry about Alexander, though she could use his help.

A second friend, Lennie Fairweather, “child of nature” and daughter of the late Sir Angus Richmond’s private secretary, has other things on her mind too. In love with Alexander, she longs to escape life with her over-protective father and domineering brother, Tom, who was also there when Danny’s body was discovered.

In the weeks that follow the tragic drowning, the river begins to give up its secrets. As the circumstances surrounding Danny’s death emerge, other stories surface that threaten to disrupt everybody's plans and to destroy an entire way of life.”
.
Thank you to @NetGalley @dreamescape_media for the audiobook ARC in return for my honest review.
.
My thoughts...
The description sounded interesting. Unfortunately, the narrator did not do it for me. She seemed to be shouting the story instead of narrating it. The narration toned down a bit as the book progressed but her tone just felt so intense throughout. I wanted to like this story of class, standards and love versus infatuation. But, it moved really slow and it took awhile to connect everyone together. I like the writing of Graham Swift, which this book was compared to, but I just didn’t see it. It wasn’t the book for me.

I usually love historical fiction mystery books, but I could not get into this book. I wanted to like it. I tried, but I couldn't connect with the characters. I thought it was too disjointed and was moving too slow to push through to find out how everything is connected. I did not finish this book.

Thank you to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for a free audiobook ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.