NOVEMBER BOOK CHOICE
Rivers Of London By Ben Aaronovitch
Ten members were welcomed by Brenda to our December Book Club Meeting with several apologies with thoughts and views to be added to the discussion pot. Thanks were given to Hilary who baked the delicious mince pies for the evening and to Brenda and Pam for providing the chocolates too.
The discussion began in a fairly negative form with a fair few members saying they were either unable or felt that they could not finish the book. The remaining few who did finish the book agreed that it was NOT one they would have chosen to read themselves as contained several elements as it progressed: fantasy, ghosts and magic – a genre not tackled by the Book Club before. These elements seemed to be the stumbling block for those members not finishing it, as it was felt by them too unreal, not credible, implausible and to some even “silly and daft”. One Member felt that the book started in a fairly ordinarily way but soon took a turn for the bizarre when the ghost appeared and the storyline of the Ministry of Magic working with the Murder Squad. It was felt by those members who did finish that you had needed to persevere to the “Punch & Judy” chapters when the story did make a little more sense. One or two Members felt that this Punch & Judy re-enactment from the Spirit World was cleverly done and indeed original, although when the Thames & Rivers section “emerged” most members “lost the plot” too!!
A few members agreed that there were too many characters and that the different stories within the story were not fully explained. It was agreed that when Peter Grant, the Police Constable (and not a very good one at that), went on to become the Inspector Nightingale’s Assistant novice wizard and exercised poor judgement when not supervised by Inspector Nightingale (the Wizard), it showed within the writing of the story that he was not a strong enough character to be portrayed as the hero of the plot. One of the members who did read to the end said she had personally been interested in the River areas depicted in the story as she had as a young girl lived and grown up around these areas and places and felt she could follow that particular part of the storyline with added different interest. Even when the general storyline was “explained” members said it would not have persuaded any of them ever to be enthusiastic at all to pick up the book again.
Overall it was generally a “thumbs down” book although those who read it agreed they did not actually HATE it but more disliked it. The book would be a difficult one to pass on unless you knew of someone who enjoyed this genre and maybe a wish to gain a more intricate knowledge of London itself.
Another member summed it up as “A written account of a hallucination”!!!