There are two things any reader can count on when coming to Alice Hoffman: her prose and a remarkable empathy for those who live on the fringes of society. I adore her books and she has become my alltime favorite author.
Set in a tony private school located in a small New England town, the River King traces an intricate weave of intersecting lives over the course of a year. A tremendous storm hits the town and floods the grounds of The Haddan School. The school is never the same, it develops a musty odor, roses planted by Annie Howe, a villager who married the headmaster and later hanged herself. have an unusual effect on sensitive girls.
As with all Hoffman novels, there is magic and this one was no different. Hoffman spins her web of love and heartbreak and transcendence with a sure hand, and in the process creates characters so palpably human in all their petty flaws and small instances of heroism that one almost expects them to step out of the book and into the room.
***Rated a 3/5. Although this is not my favorite book by Alice, I will continue to read everything she writes and eagerly anticipate the next book.
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