Natela read and liked Amanda's review of The River King:

"I want to like Alice Hoffman books but they're really hard for me to get into. I'd like to think that I just read them at bad times, like when my mind is on something else. But I gave this one a really good try, and I found that it wasn't too bad, o...more I want to like Alice Hoffman books but they're really hard for me to get into. I'd like to think that I just read them at bad times, like when my mind is on something else. But I gave this one a really good try, and I found that it wasn't too bad, once I get past all the things that don't mesh well between me and Hoffman's writing.

This book centers around a boarding school in New England, a quiet one where the "rich kids" are sent and silently scorned by the townies. When a young boy is found dead in the river, a local detective takes it upon himself to solve the mystery while the rest of the department takes the school's bribe and writes it off as a suicide.

The friend of the dead boy, attempts to find her own place in the world, coming to terms with his death, withdrawing from her own boyfriend, and befriending the school's eccentric photography professor and one of the department heads who has a reputation for being mean. Along the way, she is given clues of his presence still with her: wet bus seats and minnows swimming in her pockets.

The story is actually quite haunting and well told, blending a little bit of realism and a little bit of supernatural for a good literary effect. What makes it hard for me to read Alice Hoffman's work is that 1) she's overly descriptive. I feel the story should move at a much quicker pace, but it doesn't because she overdescribes things. And 2)she's overly omniscient. I know many readers like having the angle from as many people as possible, and to an extent I do too. But I enjoy books that pause with a break or a chapter before moving to the next person's point of view. Hoffman tends to switch POV in the middle of a paragraph. I find this annoying and it makes it hard to hold my interest.

Because I WANT to like her, I'm going to attempt to get through "Turtle Moon." Her books aren't bad at all, and this one showed me that if I can just put myself into the right frame of mind, I can get through it and enjoy the well woven plot. (less) "