DNF Early Review – River Mumma by Zalika Reid-Benta (3/5 stars)
Reading Level: Adult
Genre: Magical Realism
Length: 257 pages
Publisher: Erewhon Books
Release Date: February 20, 2024
ASIN: B0C8Y9RPS3
Stand Alone or Series: Stand Alone
Source: eGalley from NetGalley for Review
Rating: 3/5 stars
“Alicia has been out of grad school for months. She has no career prospects and lives with her mom, who won’t stop texting her macabre news stories and reminders to pick up items from the grocery store.
Then, one evening, the Jamaican water deity, River Mumma, appears to Alicia, telling her that she has twenty-four hours to scour the city for her missing comb.
Alicia doesn’t understand why River Mumma would choose her. She can’t remember all the legends her relatives told her, unlike her retail co-worker Heaven, who can reel off Jamaican folklore by heart. She doesn’t know if her childhood visions have returned, or why she feels a strange connection to her other co-worker Mars. But when the trio are chased down by malevolent spirits called duppies, they realize their tenuous bonds to each other may be their only lifelines. With the clock ticking, Alicia’s quest through the city broadens into a journey through time—to find herself and what the river carries..”
Series Info/Source: This is a stand alone book. I got a copy of this on ebook from NetGalley for review.
Thoughts: I was on the fence about whether I should review this book or not. I only read the first 15% of the book and really struggled with it. This is one of those books where the author tries to spell out accents rather than just saying “the character talked in a heavy ___ accent”. I absolutely hate it when authors do that, it just makes things annoying and hard to read.
As far as I got…this was about a young woman, Alicia, who has a lot of education but can’t seem to land a decent job. She goes to parties she hates being at and isolates herself from everyone, until suddenly she starts to get caught up in dealing with some malevolent spirits called duppies.
Right off the bat I didn’t like the characters or the writing style. Everything about this rubbed me the wrong way. I struggled to read nearly every sentence and decided to set it aside.
My Summary (3/5): Overall I didn’t like this right away because the author kept trying to spell out character’s accents, which is a huge pet peeve of mine. I didn’t enjoy the characters or the writing style and decided to set this aside pretty quickly. This just wasn’t my thing. Again, I was reluctant to review because I read so little of the book but that in itself says something. I almost always give 3 stars to something I dont’t finish, so 3 stars for this one…I am giving it the benefit of the doubt that it gets better as it goes. I just didn’t have the patience to stick with it any longer.
