What the River Knows

I genuinely don't know how to review What the River Knows.

There were parts of this book that I truly enjoyed, but for the most part I found myself baffled that it got published at all. I guessed almost every single ‘twist' before it had even happened, which isn't necessarily bad writing, buuuut woof. When things are telegraphed THIS BOLDLY, yeah it comes across as being written poorly. The only twist I still can't make sense of is the one in the epilogue. It's vague enough that I literally have no idea what it's talking about. There's too many different things it could be about. If that's not bad writing, I don't know what is.

There's magic, but it's thrown into the book in such an odd and half-hazard way that it makes no sense. Like, if you took the magic out, the book would pretty much be the same thing. There's no real reason it's there. It doesn't affect society in a way that makes life better or worse. It's just...there. Doing silly little things that don't really matter. What's the point of magic if it's not going to affect your world building in any way whatsoever? LAME.

The ‘romance' doesn't make any sense either. The main character suddenly decides that she's attracted to the ‘bad boy' archeologist despite the fact that he teases, berates and is generally mean to her. Oh but wait that just means he's flirting. Ish. But she can't trust him because he works for her uncle. But wait! She's going to trust him anyway, but it back fires!!!

MADE. NO. SENSE.

And don't even get me started on how idiotically stupid the main character, Inez, is at MULTIPLE POINTS in this book. She's 19, finds out her parents have been murdered, and the first thing she does is run off to Egypt. By herself. To a country that she's never been to before, and then has zero plans past that because she's hopeful her uncle will come rescue her. DUMB, DUMB, DUMB.

If you enjoyed What The River Knows, I'm happy for you. I wanted to like this so much more than I did. Ancient Egypt and archeology are endlessly fascinating, and I had high hopes that the story present here would live up to that. Unfortunately, it did not. To me, What The River Knows was mostly a jumbled-up, badly written mess.