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scarpuccia's review against another edition
2.0
Gets my vote for the worst ever depiction of Venice I’ve come across in literature. I wasn’t sure what Venice was even doing in this book. But I had the feeling the author had never been there.
Rivers has been compared to The Road but I’m afraid I found none of the artistry of Cormac McCarthy’s book here. Bit like comparing Jaws 3 with the original. Lots of generic characters (the lead character is sensitive, he’s generously attentive to women and animals but he can also be relied upon to win any fight), lots of superfluous chit-chat, lots of driving through rain and gun battles, lots of plot twists that had no plausible foundation. For me this was written by an author who’s much more influenced by popular cinema than he is by literature. Nearly every plot development feels forced. Often the author resorts to making characters act out of character to achieve the necessary twists. For example, the two kids who try to kill our hero are both, it turns out, nice kids. There’s no reason on earth why they have to kill our hero. We’re told the cult leader makes them do it. But the cult leader isn’t on hand to witness what they do. They have other choices. Another plot twist relies on a character taking years to realise something only when the plot needs him to. The house where our hero lives is miraculously immune to marauding outlaws until on the same day he’s carjacked the cult also finds his home. At the end of the novel a whole town breaks off looting to attack our hero for no apparent reason. Also, there are so many coincidences that I felt the map of this novel stretched to barely a square mile.
I thought it started off well. We’re in a post-apocalyptic America. The only weather is storms of varying intensity. The lead character, a maudlin chap who can’t let go of the past, is robbed by members of a cult. He wants his stuff back. The cult and its leader had my interest but the cult is just a temporary lay-by and the author drops it almost immediately. From then on, I’m afraid I felt like I was straddling an inflatable dinghy that had sprung a slow leak. I also took exception to its depiction of women who are reduced to providing love interest and having babies. Rather than set in the future it seemed set in a distant past in this regard, as if we were back in the Wild West.
I thought Gold Fame Citrus which has a similar premise and also, like this, includes a cult, was miles better.
Apologies to my friends here who liked this! Too much testosterone and not enough artistry for me.
Rivers has been compared to The Road but I’m afraid I found none of the artistry of Cormac McCarthy’s book here. Bit like comparing Jaws 3 with the original. Lots of generic characters (the lead character is sensitive, he’s generously attentive to women and animals but he can also be relied upon to win any fight), lots of superfluous chit-chat, lots of driving through rain and gun battles, lots of plot twists that had no plausible foundation. For me this was written by an author who’s much more influenced by popular cinema than he is by literature. Nearly every plot development feels forced. Often the author resorts to making characters act out of character to achieve the necessary twists. For example, the two kids who try to kill our hero are both, it turns out, nice kids. There’s no reason on earth why they have to kill our hero. We’re told the cult leader makes them do it. But the cult leader isn’t on hand to witness what they do. They have other choices. Another plot twist relies on a character taking years to realise something only when the plot needs him to. The house where our hero lives is miraculously immune to marauding outlaws until on the same day he’s carjacked the cult also finds his home. At the end of the novel a whole town breaks off looting to attack our hero for no apparent reason. Also, there are so many coincidences that I felt the map of this novel stretched to barely a square mile.
I thought it started off well. We’re in a post-apocalyptic America. The only weather is storms of varying intensity. The lead character, a maudlin chap who can’t let go of the past, is robbed by members of a cult. He wants his stuff back. The cult and its leader had my interest but the cult is just a temporary lay-by and the author drops it almost immediately. From then on, I’m afraid I felt like I was straddling an inflatable dinghy that had sprung a slow leak. I also took exception to its depiction of women who are reduced to providing love interest and having babies. Rather than set in the future it seemed set in a distant past in this regard, as if we were back in the Wild West.
I thought Gold Fame Citrus which has a similar premise and also, like this, includes a cult, was miles better.
Apologies to my friends here who liked this! Too much testosterone and not enough artistry for me.
baghaii's review against another edition
4.0
In this dystopia, storms are hitting coastal Mississippi so hard that The Line had to be drawn. At first, I thought of The Line as a floodplain where houses would not be built anymore, but it something more than that.
Basically, the US Government has withdrawn to exist only above The Line so the area below The Line has fallen into chaos. The storms that hit the coast are continuous and only break for a day or two.
Our hero Cohen is stuck below The Line because like in any good Southern story, the man cannot live without some ghost that haunts him. In this story, we learn whether he loves life more than he loves his ghost.
I think that it would be interesting to contrast this book with The Book of the Unnamed Midwife from last year.
In this story, every lock that is ever shot at with a gun falls unlocked. Women exist in their pre-dystopian way so the men can be brooding and authoritative. The life choices of the people do not seem to change in this world where every pregnancy can be a death sentence.
I enjoyed this book because it got the coastal geography correct, but I still think that Cohen would have died from an infected bullet wound early on in the story because that is what happens when an open wound is exposed to flood waters.
Basically, the US Government has withdrawn to exist only above The Line so the area below The Line has fallen into chaos. The storms that hit the coast are continuous and only break for a day or two.
Our hero Cohen is stuck below The Line because like in any good Southern story, the man cannot live without some ghost that haunts him. In this story, we learn whether he loves life more than he loves his ghost.
I think that it would be interesting to contrast this book with The Book of the Unnamed Midwife from last year.
In this story, every lock that is ever shot at with a gun falls unlocked. Women exist in their pre-dystopian way so the men can be brooding and authoritative. The life choices of the people do not seem to change in this world where every pregnancy can be a death sentence.
I enjoyed this book because it got the coastal geography correct, but I still think that Cohen would have died from an infected bullet wound early on in the story because that is what happens when an open wound is exposed to flood waters.
abookishtype's review against another edition
3.0
Storm after storm has devastated the Gulf coast in Michael Farris Smith’s Rivers. The American government will not, or maybe cannot, pay to rebuild one more time only to see it all destroyed. So they drew a line and retreated. Anyone who stayed below the line was officially on their own...
Read the rest of my review at A Bookish Type.
Read the rest of my review at A Bookish Type.
mrsjenniferwheeler's review against another edition
5.0
OMG, what a heart pounding ending! Admittedly, it took me a while to get used to the author's prolific use of the word "and" to build run-on sentences. On reflection, I think maybe it was supposed to be a "stream of consciousness" type style to match the main character's somewhat simple thought patterns. But oh, that ending! It hurt my heart and my eyes may have gotten a bit watery. Not the ending I was expecting, or hoping for, but a fantastic conclusion all the same.
vylotte's review against another edition
3.0
A series of hurricanes and non-stop rain have left the south east US devastated and abandoned. A line has been drawn, and anything south of that is now lawless no-man's land.
This is a soggy, chilled read where one man's solitude and hopelessness is reflected in the land around him. His underlying decency first bring him to the edge of ruin, then give him a reason to live. As he finds a suffering group of people that he needs to save, he ultimately saves himself.
This is a soggy, chilled read where one man's solitude and hopelessness is reflected in the land around him. His underlying decency first bring him to the edge of ruin, then give him a reason to live. As he finds a suffering group of people that he needs to save, he ultimately saves himself.
glpresley's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
greenblack's review against another edition
slow-paced
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
editor_b's review against another edition
3.0
We read this for my science fiction book club, as the final book in a series on climate change. What's intriguing to me is that even though this book is set in a post-apocalyptic near-future version of the Mississippi Gulf Coast, it doesn't really read like genre science fiction at all. I think that's indicative of some larger shifts in the literary landscape, and perhaps in our collective vision of the future.
sunsoar25's review against another edition
5.0
Cohen, a man haunted by his past, lives below the Line, an area where American citizens will not receive any form government aid. The Gulf Coast area has faced unrelenting storms and has suffered widespread devastation and those who choose to stay below the Line, like Cohen, do so at their own risk in a now lawless land.
Cohen chose to stay behind because he couldn't stand to abandon his home especially after suffering the loss of his wife and unborn child, but staying behind means risking the constant exposure to unbelievably violent storms and dangerous mercenaries. Then, one day he is attacked, his home is ransacked, and his supplies stolen. The only thing left for him is to try and make a life for himself above the Line and avenge his losses along the way.
Lyrical prose, excellent storytelling, complex and relatable characters. Sure, it's no doubt a depressing future, but Smith has a beautiful way with words. I will be keeping my eyes on his career in the future! If you like The Road by Cormac McCarthy or the film Beasts of the Southern Wild, you may very well enjoy Rivers by Michael Farris Smith.
*I received a free copy of this book through the Goodreads First Reads program. Thanks for randomly drawing my entry!*
Cohen chose to stay behind because he couldn't stand to abandon his home especially after suffering the loss of his wife and unborn child, but staying behind means risking the constant exposure to unbelievably violent storms and dangerous mercenaries. Then, one day he is attacked, his home is ransacked, and his supplies stolen. The only thing left for him is to try and make a life for himself above the Line and avenge his losses along the way.
Lyrical prose, excellent storytelling, complex and relatable characters. Sure, it's no doubt a depressing future, but Smith has a beautiful way with words. I will be keeping my eyes on his career in the future! If you like The Road by Cormac McCarthy or the film Beasts of the Southern Wild, you may very well enjoy Rivers by Michael Farris Smith.
*I received a free copy of this book through the Goodreads First Reads program. Thanks for randomly drawing my entry!*
velms's review against another edition
1.0
DNF at 56 pages
I couldn't finish The Road either so I'm not sure why I thought this would be any different.
The main character has no personality and everything just seems like stream-of-consciousness descriptions of his surroundings, and not in a good way.
I couldn't finish The Road either so I'm not sure why I thought this would be any different.
The main character has no personality and everything just seems like stream-of-consciousness descriptions of his surroundings, and not in a good way.