Reviews with content warning for Xenophobia - What the River Knows

Reviews tagging 'Xenophobia'

What the River Knows by Isabel Ibañez

13 reviews

oweatherwax's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional hopeful inspiring tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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bibliomania_express's review

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3.5

What the River Knows by Isabel Ibañez is a historical fantasy steeped in 1880s Egypt. Inez is looking for answers about the death of her parents. She travels to Egypt from Buenos Aires to find out what happened, but nothing is as she expects when she arrives. Now she'll have to rely of her stubbornness and resilience to find out the truth.

I'm conflicted about this book. On one hand, I absolutely enjoyed the atmosphere and the way Ibañez weaves history, politics, and culture into the narrative to make it feel very grounded. There are so many great details about the weather, the markets, the languages, and how people get around. I liked that Inez wasn't a push-over when it came to going after what she wanted.

On the other hand, this book relies a bit too much on twists and the magic system isn't very well explained. It's a little unclear how common magical items are or how it all works. I was also annoyed at Inez for a lot of the book. While she stubbornly pushes forward, she also doesn't have great instincts and is somehow both too suspicious and too trusting. There's one major twist that became more obvious as the story went on. But the whole things relies on a bunch of people straight up refusing to communicate and I was annoyed at the lot of them.

I'm also just mad at it for the cliffhanger ending. Of course I want to know what it's all about, which means waiting for the next book in the series. But the way these things go it's definitely more for shock factor than intrinsic truth

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libraryofmoss's review against another edition

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Enjoyed the narration in this but it was not enough to save this bad book. Magic is what? a smell? A vague hunch? I could forgive a bunch of anachronisms by pretending this was set in the 1930s in pretend Egypt but literally no colonialists would have given a second thought about looting Egyptian tombs, I do not believe them.

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vievef's review

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adventurous dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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

3.5

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laurenleigh's review

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adventurous slow-paced

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

3.5

I’ve really enjoyed previous work by this author, but this one didn’t do it for me. It was pitched as having The Mummy vibes, but that gave me the expectation this would be fast-paced and have a lot more action. I enjoyed the romance and the characters though. I considered DNF-ing a few hours in, and even though I didn’t, it’s a good reminder for me that it’s OKAY to put a book down. I can trust my judgement more in my 2024 reads!

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charliauthor's review against another edition

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lighthearted fast-paced

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

2.0

I have thoughts and none of them are particularly good!

This was meant to be an Egyptian adventure akin to The Mummy about a girl whose parents go missing in Egypt and she travels to find out what happened to them with the help of a magical ring.

Now, the main reason this book didnt work is because of the FMC, Inez Olivera.
She's immature, rash, naive, stubborn and none of it was redeemable at any point or by the end. She jumps into situations head first without any thought for her safety or others and someone actually dies because of her stupidity! She is enabled by people around her and was just a waste of time every time she made ridiculous choices.

The MMC/love interest Whit, was a complete bore with absolutely no sex appeal whatsoever.
He resembled Rick from Rick and Morty rather than Rick from The Mummy! His whole description was giving drunken hobo rather than unkept rogue and i was just not here for it. His backstory was boring, his personality even more so and the romance was simply non existent. The romance was incredibly forced and at no point was i anticipating them getting together.

There were some suitable red herrings at the start and while there was some interest once the 'real' villain was revealed, it was all a little unsatisfying. The magic system was also a big let down. It was set up that the essence of magic can linger in objects so if you touch it, you can see someone's life/memories. Can everyone do this or just Inez? If they can, whys everyone not walking around going back into the past whenever they feel like it? Everything about it was largely unclear.

Once we actually got to Egypt the adventure was short lived because everything was discovered so quickly that there was no real excitement about it and everything fell flat.

Overall, this failed because of the main character who was ridiculously annoying as well as having quite juvenile and repetitive writing that i personally didnt mesh with. It had all the potential of an amazing adventure story but simply didnt deliver.

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vif's review

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adventurous emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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cassielaj's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging emotional funny inspiring mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

So close to being 5⭐️ because I loooved this. The first part was a bit slow, but once part two came around, things picked up and never stopped. From page 111 to the end, I didn’t want to put this book down (I do have a job, so I had to. Boo). Inez is such a good main character — smart and spirited, but still so clearly young and naive. The tension and mystery throughout kept me guessing: there were a few things I guessed, but plenty of others that surprised me (the ending?! What?!). I loved the other characters as well: Whit is the perfect complement to Inez, Ricardo is fascinating, and I can’t wait to see more from some of these smaller characters in future books. As a start to a series, this book is really strong — I want the next one asap!

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taque's review against another edition

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2.75

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yvo_about_books's review against another edition

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3.75

Finished reading: November 11th 2023

"Grief was like a memory keeper. It showed me moments I'd forgotten, and I was grateful, even as my stomach hollowed out."

*** A copy of this book was kindly provided to me by Netgalley and Hodderscape in exchange for an honest review. Thank you! ***

I loved my first experience with the writing of this author when I read Woven In Moonlight back in 2020... While I somehow never picked up that particular sequel (something I hope to remedy soon), I couldn't resist adding What The River Knows to my wishlist as soon as I first heard about it. I have a weak spot for stories with a Latin American flavor, and of course I HAD to read a story that is partly set in the country I now call my home. I also love a good dose of armchair travel, and 19th century Egypt sounded like a particularly fascinating destination. And what a read What The River Knows turned out to be!

It's hard to put this story in a neat little genre box; What The River Knows is a very successful mashup of different elements and genres and the resulting cocktail works like a charm. With its late 19th century Egypt setting, the story is part historical fiction. There is also magic involved, making this story tip its toes in the fantasy genre. BUT. This first book of a new series can also be considered an adventure/quest for example with their mission to find Cleopatra's tomb. And don't forget the danger factor, plenty of lies, betrayal and a healthy dose of rival-to-lover romance. This might seem like a lot, but somehow this mix works surprisingly well.

One of the things that stands out the most is without doubt the historical Egyptian setting. There is so much attention to detail with the descriptions of the different settings and all things late 19th century Egypt, and it really made you feel like you traveled back in time to that era. True, some might feel there is a bit too much information being thrown at you at times, but I personally didn't mind as I enjoyed learning more about Egyptian culture and history. The visit to Argentina was brief and not as present, although there are plenty of Spanish words and phrases to make my inner philologist happy.

There were some minor niggles along the way though. I was surprised by the fact that the pace was quite slow at times, and it took me longer than expected to finish this story. This might have had to do with the longer descriptions and attention to detail, which in a way I also appreciated, but the fact is that the story didn't flow as well as I expected. I did enjoy the writing style itself though. One of the things I struggled the most with was probably the romance though. I just never believed in the attraction between Inez and Whit, and as a result the rival-to-lover trope fell flat for me. Did I like the initial sass and Inez standing up for herself? Yes. But especially in the second half I started to resent their growing connection.

What The River Knows has a dual POV structure and switches between Inez and Whit. I'm not sure if I liked Whit's POV all that much, and I think I would have preferred to stick with just Inez instead... They seem to be mostly in the same place anyway, and I just didn't think his thoughts were all that interesting (with a couple exceptions). That said, the plot has quite a few surprises and twists in store, and some I definitely didn't see coming. A little warning though: What The River Knows ends with a major cliffhanger, and for someone who didn't realize until recently this was actually the first book of a series this was a hard blow. Let's hope the wait for the next book won't be too long!

If you enjoy a well written historical fantasy with a dose of adventure, murder, magic and danger as well as romance, you should try traveling to Egypt with What The River Knows. The pace might be a tad slow at times, but there is no doubt that this story is rich and immersive!

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