Reviews

Dark River by Rym Kechacha

fourfootedbeasts's review

dark sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

sarahliz__'s review

challenging dark sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

theaurochs's review

4.0

A beautifully written and imagined pair of tales, reflecting on each other and on central themes of calamity, motherhood, and inevitability. In one half we find ourselves in the not-distant-enough future where British society has collapsed into small city-states amid the climate breakdown, with the countryside abandoned. A mother takes her child northwards to escape the rising floodwaters and collapsing infrastructure of the capital. In the other half we find ourselves some 6000 years in the past on Doggerland. As the seawater rises to consume the landbridge, a mother follows her tribe to a sacred meeting place where the gathered people debate what to do about the oncoming waters. Both stories are written with deep humanity and empathy, and show a lovely throughline of family in the face of apocalypse. It is a timely reminded that we are not the only ones whose world has ended. Melancholic but affirming and somewhat hypnotising. I love the depictions of hunter-gather life and the clear reverence for nature.

Loses the fifth star mainly for not using speech marks; these exist for a reason and I don’t think I’ve ever been impressed by their absence, only annoyed.

gerbilreads's review

5.0

A truly excellent story of two mothers, separated only by time, as they try to get their young sons away from encroaching environmental catastrophe. It is as devastating as that sounds, yet saves the reader from absolute despair by being utterly human and soul-searingly tender. A heady mixture of hope and fear courses through the whole novel, such that having finished it I definitely need a lie down- but the ride was well worth it.

hitoritabi's review

dark emotional reflective medium-paced

• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.25