What readers think of The River King, plus links to write your own review.

The River King was a beautiful, magical novel that evokes the power of love and intertwines it with the mystery of nature. Once again Alice Hoffman has illuminated a world that could be my own in a way that is both painfully dark yet exquisitely light. I cried within the first half hour I began reading it, and read the book in its entirety without the ability to put it down once. TextText

This is, like many of Hoffman's other works, a fabulous novel. It has the power to make you cry, or at least to seriously rethink your life and why you choose to trust the people you do.Hoffman's writing technique is sparkling and dreamlike, her descriptions are excellent and never overdone. I read The River King in one sitting, and spent a few hours in an idyllic New England town with many secrets to tell.

"The River King" was a very intriguing and well-written novel. I thought the story line and plot were superb and full of depth. As much as the plot was good, I felt the novel was mainly character-driven which also added to the brilliance of the novel because as a reader I felt like I knew these characters personally. This made the book emotionally exciting and rewarding. However, there were times when the author strayed away from the main plot of the story and got a little too wrapped up in the setting of the story which made some parts quite dull. Also some of the supposed main points of the story were never fully explained. There were also way too many extra characters that served absolutely no purpose in the story. They only confuse and complicate an already complicated story. But otherwise this book is excellent and I recommend it to all.

The River King's mystical elements remind me of the works of Isabela Allende whose characters also are involved in magic. The use of magical realism in South American literature is common. I don't find it in North American lit. I'd like some input about the question in the reader's guide as to why Abe could be dubbed The River King. Since water can be seen both as a saving life element and a death image, it would be interesting to hear other's opinions about this.

I give this book a 4 because some parts in the book were questionable. I mean the book was really good but I felt that the author could have given it more suspense. Like she could have made it more exciting yet chilling to readers that read the book. I'm a 10th grader and I find that most highschool students want those books that keep you on the edge, to keep you wanting more. Most of the time I felt like I knew what was going to happen. It was like the author used too much foreshadowing that you knew the rest of the book before you finished it. All in all my intents are not to bad mouth the book because I would recommend this to any of my friends but in my opinion I feel that it could have had a little more interesting points to it.   
   EXAMPLE: When Abel Grey takes a test from Eric Herman's living quarters and places it in Harry McKenna's room, I thought that the punishment that Harry was going to get was going to be slow and painful, but just getting kicked out of school was pretty lame.(Coming from my point of view.)

Although this book was unmatched in its display of feelings and emotion but it was so incredibly slow moving that i hardly got to the end, which did not complement the excellence of the rest of the novel.

This book was not that good. There were about 250 unnecessary pages. This novel was not spell-binding at all, if I were not required to read it for class, I would have stopped within the first 10 pages. The 'who done it' aspect was horrible, the plot was predictable, the 'magical world' created by Alice Hoffman was merely that of a B-grade movie. As far as this book being a journey of three people, the journey really doesn't take you anywhere. As far as the main female character is concerned, she isn't a dynamic character, she gains and loses a friend in a short period of time, not a big journey. Two people find love, which is predictable. The man who endulges in only physical passion falls falls in love with a woman who rushed into engagement with a man who proved to be merely convienant. Once again, definately B-grade movie material. So buy this book if you want, I wouldn't.