The River Has Teeth

May 31, 2021
When wealthy white college student Rochelle Greymont disappears near a Tennessee nature park, her 16-year-old sister, Natasha, becomes convinced that Rochelle’s boyfriend, Jake Carr, is responsible. The police disagree, so a vengeful Natasha pays 17-year-old Della Lloyd—the white descendant of Scottish witches whose house abuts the nature park—for a potion that will make Jake confess. Della complies, largely to redirect attention away from her mother, Ruby, whom she fears actually killed Rochelle. The previous year, a botched spell kick-started Ruby’s transformation into a wrathful river siren, and though Della and her Da keep Ruby locked in a nearby abandoned prison to protect herself and others, she occasionally escapes. Della initially has no compunction about misleading Natasha, but it’s not long before attraction sparks between them. Natasha and Della co-narrate, trading chapters. This horror-tinged tale from Waters (Ghost Wood Song) spotlights issues of racial and socioeconomic injustice. Convenient plotting abounds, the girls’ romance feels manufactured, and Natasha’s outsize fury can border on caricature, but Waters’s lushly written story is stocked with capable female characters of various ethnicities and sexual orientations. Ages 13–up. Agent: Lauren Spieller, Triada US.

July 1, 2021

Gr 9 Up-In this fast-paced fantasy, Waters tells the story of women-mothers, daughters, aunts, and partners-who are driven by their love for one another. Della Lloyd is a teenage witch who lives on the Bend, the parkland alongside a river that has been the source of her family's magic for generations. When she meets Natasha Greymont, their attraction is unmistakable, but there's one problem: Natasha's sister is missing and Della's mother may be responsible. This book has a thriller's pacing but it is also beautifully atmospheric as it shows Della's cluttered house smelling of earth and herbs and the foggy river bottom running by the Lloyds' house. Through this tale of sirens and monsters, Waters reaches for a deeper meaning-a story about women who band together against those who would victimize them. While this message is compelling, this book centers the experiences of white characters while using a Black character, Georgia, to speak about the disproportionate violence against women of color. As a secondary character, Georgia's perspective feels like an afterthought in an otherwise well-developed story around Natasha and Della. VERDICT A moving, if imperfect, fantasy about the strength of women, recommended for those who enjoy thrillers with a social justice bent.-Talea Anderson, Washington State Univ., Pullman, WA.

Copyright 2021 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

July 1, 2021
Grades 8-11 The reclusive Lloyds, who have lived along the same stretch of Tennessee wilderness called the Bend for generations, make their living selling spells. Seventeen-year-old Della can feel corruption in the Bend that's infecting their potions, but she can't pinpoint the source, even after a misfired spell transforms Della's mother into a bloodthirsty river siren who, Della worries, might be the reason girls have gone missing in the adjacent park. When Natasha, the sister of one of these missing girls, wants Della's magical help, she reluctantly accepts, since Natasha is certain her sister's abusive boyfriend is to blame. Their search leads them to the dark heart of the Bend's unnatural corruption, which has its roots in male violence. Both Della and Natasha are strong, differentiated characters, though their romance feels forced in contrast with Natasha's more realistic queer friend group. Despite uneven pacing and a few underdeveloped elements, like Natasha's abruptly powerful magical capability, Waters' Southern gothic thriller cleverly uses magic as a metaphor for the ways women resist the harm that men do.

COPYRIGHT(2021) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

Starred review from June 1, 2021
When girls start disappearing in a Tennessee nature park, a family of local witches worries they'll be blamed. The Lloyds have lived on the Bend--an area bordering a river and the nature park--for generations, and the land is imbued with their Scottish forebears' magic. The Bend, not their bloodline, is the source of the Lloyds' power, but lately it's felt corrupted, making their spells go awry and frightening off all but the most desperate customers. So when Natasha Greymont asks for help finding her missing sister, Rochelle, Della Lloyd is reluctant. The Greymonts' wealth and status should grant them access to resources Della can't even imagine, and solving the mystery may in turn destroy Della's own family. But Natasha isn't what she seems, and the two girls, both White, are irresistibly drawn together. Alternating chronological perspectives map their shift from antagonism to trust. There is a familiar, genuine rapport that grounds the recurring theme of chosen family between Natasha, who's bi, and her pansexual best friend, Georgia Greer, who is cued as Black, as well as with Rochelle's best friend, Margo Yoon, who is Korean and pansexual. This genre-blending contemporary thriller offers a searing indictment of men who prey on women while the book's fantasy elements offer a form of revenge and resolution. The broad narrative strokes that address the book's intersections of race, class, sexuality, and gender will prompt important conversations by readers. Potent, atmospheric, and wholly satisfying. (Thriller. 12-18)

COPYRIGHT(2021) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.