SLOW RIVER | Kirkus Reviews

<!DOCTYPE html> <html lang="en"> <head> <title> SLOW RIVER | Kirkus Reviews </title><meta charset="utf-8" /><meta http-equiv="X-UA-Compatible" content="IE=edge,chrome=1" /><meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0"><meta name="keywords" content="" /><meta name="description" content="When Lore, scion of the rich and powerful Van Oesterling family, is kidnapped, her family refuses to pay the ransom. After a courageous attempt to escape, she's dumped in the rain, naked and bleeding, in a northern English city. Spanner, a tough lady who makes a living from computer fraud and prostitution, offers her shelter. Once recovered, Lore assists Spanner with her intricate swindles and agrees to participate in sex shows for wealthy clients made tolerable by a powerful aphrodisiac drug. Another narrative strand details Lore's early training for the highest echelons of the Van Oesterling empire, founded on patented, genetically engineered bacteria that chew up pollutants. But Lore's father, Oster, attempted to sexually abuse her as a child until her eldest sister, Greta, put an unbreakable lock on her door. Lore's other sister, Stella, wasn't so fortunate, and eventually killed herself. In a third storyline, Lore breaks away from Spanner following the appalled realization that all their money is being spent on the sex drug. She takes legitimate employment at a sewage reclamation plant, where her Van Oesterling expertise helps avert a sabotage attempt by a rival company. Finally, Lore confronts her father, learns that her mother was the abuser, and discovers that Greta, who was running a secret dirty-tricks department within the family business, set up her kidnapping and then pocketed the ransom paid by Oster. Griffith (the Lambda Award-winning paperback Ammonite) handles her explicitly lesbian drama with skill and charm. Despite irritating switches in narrative tense and viewpoint, her grim near-future is persuasive." /><meta name="news_keywords" content=""/><meta name="facebook-domain-verification" content="xsygoj395zkepbhzqfobzjogu71za5" /><meta name="robots" content="index,follow,noodp,noydir" /><meta property="og:site_name" content="Kirkus Reviews" /><meta property="og:title" content="SLOW RIVER | Kirkus Reviews" /><meta property="og:description" content="When Lore, scion of the rich and powerful Van Oesterling family, is kidnapped, her family refuses to pay the ransom. After a courageous attempt to escape, she's dumped in the rain, naked and bleeding, in a northern English city. Spanner, a tough lady who makes a living from computer fraud and prostitution, offers her shelter. Once recovered, Lore assists Spanner with her intricate swindles and agrees to participate in sex shows for wealthy clients made tolerable by a powerful aphrodisiac drug. Another narrative strand details Lore's early training for the highest echelons of the Van Oesterling empire, founded on patented, genetically engineered bacteria that chew up pollutants. But Lore's father, Oster, attempted to sexually abuse her as a child until her eldest sister, Greta, put an unbreakable lock on her door. Lore's other sister, Stella, wasn't so fortunate, and eventually killed herself. In a third storyline, Lore breaks away from Spanner following the appalled realization that all their money is being spent on the sex drug. She takes legitimate employment at a sewage reclamation plant, where her Van Oesterling expertise helps avert a sabotage attempt by a rival company. Finally, Lore confronts her father, learns that her mother was the abuser, and discovers that Greta, who was running a secret dirty-tricks department within the family business, set up her kidnapping and then pocketed the ransom paid by Oster. Griffith (the Lambda Award-winning paperback Ammonite) handles her explicitly lesbian drama with skill and charm. Despite irritating switches in narrative tense and viewpoint, her grim near-future is persuasive." /><meta property="og:type" content="book" /><meta property="og:locale" content="en_us" /><meta property="og:url" content="https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/nicola-griffith/slow-river/" /><meta property="og:image" content="https://d1fd687oe6a92y.cloudfront.net/img/user-media/titles/title/cover/f3ab1282d0b643178f486fcf408e8d0a/0345391659.jpg.300x0_q85_autocrop.jpg" /><meta name="p:domain_verify" content="37b87ca836c480e9b2aef3af8de907aa" /><meta name="msvalidate.01" content="3EDA8C6B7ED6E8AEDFD2D5EA872FC0F4" /><meta property="fb:app_id" content="128362250569507" /><meta property="fb:admins" content="1016584496" /><meta name="twitter:card" content="summary"><meta name="twitter:title" content="SLOW RIVER | Kirkus Reviews"><meta name="twitter:description" content="When Lore, scion of the rich and powerful Van Oesterling family, is kidnapped, her family refuses to pay the ransom. After a courageous attempt to escape, she's dumped in the rain, naked and bleeding, in a northern English city. Spanner, a tough lady who makes a living from computer fraud and prostitution, offers her shelter. Once recovered, Lore assists Spanner with her intricate swindles and agrees to participate in sex shows for wealthy clients made tolerable by a powerful aphrodisiac drug. Another narrative strand details Lore's early training for the highest echelons of the Van Oesterling empire, founded on patented, genetically engineered bacteria that chew up pollutants. But Lore's father, Oster, attempted to sexually abuse her as a child until her eldest sister, Greta, put an unbreakable lock on her door. Lore's other sister, Stella, wasn't so fortunate, and eventually killed herself. In a third storyline, Lore breaks away from Spanner following the appalled realization that all their money is being spent on the sex drug. She takes legitimate employment at a sewage reclamation plant, where her Van Oesterling expertise helps avert a sabotage attempt by a rival company. Finally, Lore confronts her father, learns that her mother was the abuser, and discovers that Greta, who was running a secret dirty-tricks department within the family business, set up her kidnapping and then pocketed the ransom paid by Oster. Griffith (the Lambda Award-winning paperback Ammonite) handles her explicitly lesbian drama with skill and charm. Despite irritating switches in narrative tense and viewpoint, her grim near-future is persuasive."><meta name="twitter:image" content="https://d1fd687oe6a92y.cloudfront.net/img/user-media/titles/title/cover/f3ab1282d0b643178f486fcf408e8d0a/0345391659.jpg.300x0_q85_autocrop.jpg"><meta name="twitter:site" content="@KirkusReviews"><meta name="twitter:url" content="https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/nicola-griffith/slow-river/"><link rel="canonical" href="https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/nicola-griffith/slow-river/" /><link rel="apple-touch-icon" href="https://d1fd687oe6a92y.cloudfront.net/img/kir_images/header/apple-icon.png"><link rel="shortcut icon" href="https://d1fd687oe6a92y.cloudfront.net/img/kir_images/header/apple-icon.png" type="image/png"><link rel="icon" href="https://d1fd687oe6a92y.cloudfront.net/img/kir_images/header/favicon.png" type="image/png"><link rel="stylesheet" href="https://d1fd687oe6a92y.cloudfront.net/css/vendor/progressive-image/progressive-image.css"><link rel="stylesheet" href="https://d1fd687oe6a92y.cloudfront.net/fonts/fontawesome/font-awesome.css"><link rel="stylesheet" href="https://d1fd687oe6a92y.cloudfront.net/css/app.min.css" media="screen"><link rel="stylesheet" href="https://d1fd687oe6a92y.cloudfront.net/css/vendor/selection-sharer-1.2.2/selection-sharer.css"><noscript><iframe src="//www.googletagmanager.com/ns.html?id=GTM-P8CBP8" height="0" width="0" style="display:none;visibility:hidden"></iframe></noscript><script> (function (w, d, s, l, i) { w[l] = w[l] || []; w[l].push({ 'gtm.start': new Date().getTime(), event: 'gtm.js' }); var f = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0], j = d.createElement(s), dl = l != 'dataLayer' ? 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class="first-alphabet book-content text-left"> <p> When Lore, scion of the rich and powerful Van Oesterling family, is kidnapped, her family refuses to pay the ransom. After a courageous attempt to escape, she's dumped in the rain, naked and bleeding, in a northern English city. Spanner, a tough lady who makes a living from computer fraud and prostitution, offers her shelter. Once recovered, Lore assists Spanner with her intricate swindles and agrees to participate in sex shows for wealthy clients made tolerable by a powerful aphrodisiac drug. Another narrative strand details Lore's early training for the highest echelons of the Van Oesterling empire, founded on patented, genetically engineered bacteria that chew up pollutants. But Lore's father, Oster, attempted to sexually abuse her as a child until her eldest sister, Greta, put an unbreakable lock on her door. Lore's other sister, Stella, wasn't so fortunate, and eventually killed herself. In a third storyline, Lore breaks away from Spanner following the appalled realization that all their money is being spent on the sex drug. She takes legitimate employment at a sewage reclamation plant, where her Van Oesterling expertise helps avert a sabotage attempt by a rival company. Finally, Lore confronts her father, learns that her mother was the abuser, and discovers that Greta, who was running a secret dirty-tricks department within the family business, set up her kidnapping and then pocketed the ransom paid by Oster. Griffith (the Lambda Award-winning paperback Ammonite) handles her explicitly lesbian drama with skill and charm. 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col-xs-12"> <p><b>Pub Date:</b> Aug. 1, 1995</p> <p><b>ISBN:</b> 0-345-39165-9</p> </div> <div class="col-lg-4 col-md-4 col-sm-12 col-xs-12"> <p><b>Page Count:</b> 352</p> <p><b>Publisher:</b> Del Rey/Ballantine</p> </div> <div class="col-lg-4 col-md-4 col-sm-12 col-xs-12"> <p><b>Review Posted Online:</b> May 19, 2010</p> <p><b>Kirkus Reviews Issue:</b> June 1, 1995</p> </div> </div> <div class="row content-row"> <div class="col-lg-12 col-sm-12 col-xs-12 mb-3"> <div class="category-flex-container"> <div class="category-label flex-child" style="max-width: 68px"> <span class="cat-genre"><b>Categories:</b></span> </div> <div class="category-links flex-child"> <p class="article-category"> <a href="/discover-books/fiction/science-fiction"> SCIENCE FICTION</a> | <a href="/discover-books/science-fiction-fantasy/general-science-fiction"> GENERAL SCIENCE FICTION</a> | <a href="/discover-books/science-fiction-fantasy/general-science-fiction-fantasy"> GENERAL SCIENCE FICTION & FANTASY</a> </p> 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class="list-inline-item align-middle"> <p class="title w-75 mx-auto metacritic-centered">New York Times Bestseller</p> </li> </ul> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> <div class="right-col-book-review col-lg-8"> <img src="https://d1fd687oe6a92y.cloudfront.net/img/bubble.png" class="book-review-bubble d-none" alt="Next book"> <div id="review-body" class="container book-description book-description-pagination mx-xl-0 mx-lg-auto"> <h1 class="article-title">DEVOLUTION</h1> <p class="article-author"> by <a href="/author/max-brooks/"> Max Brooks </a> <span class="hide-on-mobile"> ‧</span> <span class="pub-date-mobile">RELEASE DATE: June 16, 2020</span> </p> <p class="description-title kirkus-title"> A tasty, if not always tasteful, tale of supernatural mayhem that fans of King and Crichton alike will enjoy. </p> <div class="divider-bottom"></div> <div class="show-on-mobile hide-on-desktop mobile-two-buttons d-xl-none d-md-block"> <div class="row"> <div class="col-xs-6 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</div> </div> <div class="show-on-mobile hide-on-desktop d-xl-none d-md-block"> <div class="book-review-metacritic mt-4 justify-content-center" data-id="2000200676" data-meta-len="3"> <div class="row ratings p-0 mt-0"> <div class="row mt-2 p-0 m-0 w-100 justify-content-center"> <p class="font-weight-bold">Awards & Accolades</p> </div> <div class="row rating-sec p-0 m-0 w-100 justify-content-center"> <div class="ratingcolumn"> <p class="title mb-2 metacritic-vote">Likes</p> <ul class="list-inline text-center"> <li class="list-inline-item align-middle"> <img class="img-fluid" src="https://d1fd687oe6a92y.cloudfront.net/img/kir_images/icons/like.png" alt="Readers Vote"> </li> <li class="list-inline-item align-middle"> <p id="2000200676-total-likes" class="count">228</p> </li> </ul> </div> </div> <hr class="w-50"> <div class="row rating-sec p-0 m-0 w-100 justify-content-center"> <div class="ratingcolumn"> <p class="title metacritic-verdict">Our Verdict</p> <ul class="list-inline 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We are—well, ask Bigfoot, as Brooks does in this delightful yarn, following on his bestseller <i>World War Z</i>(2006).</p> <p>A zombie apocalypse is one thing. A volcanic eruption is quite another, for, as the journalist who does a framing voice-over narration for Brooks’ latest puts it, when Mount Rainier popped its cork, “it was the psychological aspect, the hyperbole-fueled hysteria that had ended up killing the most people.” Maybe, but the sasquatches whom the volcano displaced contributed to the statistics, too, if only out of self-defense. Brooks places the epicenter of the Bigfoot war in a high-tech hideaway populated by the kind of people you might find in a Jurassic Park franchise: the schmo who doesn’t know how to do much of anything but tries anyway, the well-intentioned bleeding heart, the know-it-all intellectual who turns out to know the wrong things, the immigrant with a tough backstory and an instinct for survival. Indeed, the novel does double duty as a survival manual, packed full of good advice—for instance, try not to get wounded, for “injury turns you from a giver to a taker. Taking up our resources, our time to care for you.” Brooks presents a case for making room for Bigfoot in the world while peppering his narrative with timely social criticism about bad behavior on the human side of the conflict: The explosion of Rainier might have been better forecast had the president not slashed the budget of the U.S. Geological Survey, leading to “immediate suspension of the National Volcano Early Warning System,” and there’s always someone around looking to monetize the natural disaster and the sasquatch-y onslaught that follows. Brooks is a pro at building suspense even if it plays out in some rather spectacularly yucky episodes, one involving a short spear that takes its name from “the sucking sound of pulling it out of the dead man’s heart and lungs.” Grossness aside, it puts you right there on the scene.</p> A tasty, if not always tasteful, tale of supernatural mayhem that fans of King and Crichton alike will enjoy. </div> <ul class="list-inline article-social-share-mobile show-on-mobile divider-top d-xl-none d-md-block"> <li class="list-inline-item"> <a title="Counts" href="#"> <img src="https://d1fd687oe6a92y.cloudfront.net/img/kir_images/icons/add-to-shelf.png" width="18" height="18" class="img-fluid mx-auto d-block" alt="Like Counts"> <span class="counts p-0 text-dark">115</span> </a> </li> <li class="list-inline-item"> <a class="share-via-fb" title="Share via Facebook" href="#" data-url="https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/max-brooks/devolution/"> <img 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href="/discover-books/science-fiction-fantasy/general-science-fiction-fantasy"> GENERAL SCIENCE FICTION & FANTASY</a> | <a href="/discover-books/thriller-suspense/general-thriller-suspense"> GENERAL THRILLER & SUSPENSE</a> | <a href="/discover-books/fiction/science-fiction"> SCIENCE FICTION</a> </p> </div> </div> </div> </div> <p class="share-review-text" hx-get="/book-reviews/like-dislike/2000200676/" hx-trigger="revealed" hx-target="next .htmx-like-dislike" hx-swap="innerHTML" >Share your opinion of this book</p> <div class="d-flex justify-content-center justify-content-lg-start my-3 htmx-like-dislike"> <ul class="list-inline like-dislike-article"> <li class="list-inline-item"> <div class="like-icon"></div> </li> <li class="list-inline-item"> <div class="dislike-icon"></div> </li> </ul> </div> </div> <div class="container book-description mx-xl-0 mx-lg-auto"> <div class="related-article 2000200676-author"> <p class="related-content">More by Max Brooks</p> <ul class="list-inline 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</ul> </div> </div> <hr class="w-50"> <div class="row rating-sec p-0 m-0 w-100 justify-content-center"> <div class="ratingcolumn"> <ul class="list-inline text-center"> <li class="list-inline-item align-middle"> <p class="title w-75 mx-auto metacritic-centered">Booker Prize Winner </p> </li> </ul> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> <div class="first-alphabet book-content text-left"> <p>Atwood goes back to Gilead.</p> <p><i>The Handmaid’s Tale</i> (1985), consistently regarded as a masterpiece of 20th-century literature, has gained new attention in recent years with the success of the Hulu series as well as fresh appreciation from readers who feel like this story has new relevance in America’s current political climate. Atwood herself has spoken about how news headlines have made her dystopian fiction seem eerily plausible, and it’s not difficult to imagine her wanting to revisit Gilead as the TV show has sped past where her narrative ended. Like the novel that preceded it, this sequel is presented as found documents—first-person accounts of life inside a misogynistic theocracy from three informants. There is Agnes Jemima, a girl who rejects the marriage her family arranges for her but still has faith in God and Gilead. There’s Daisy, who learns on her 16th birthday that her whole life has been a lie. And there's Aunt Lydia, the woman responsible for turning women into Handmaids. This approach gives readers insight into different aspects of life inside and outside Gilead, but it also leads to a book that sometimes feels overstuffed. <i>The Handmaid’s Tale</i> combined exquisite lyricism with a powerful sense of urgency, as if a thoughtful, perceptive woman was racing against time to give witness to her experience. That narrator hinted at more than she said; Atwood seemed to trust readers to fill in the gaps. This dynamic created an atmosphere of intimacy. However curious we might be about Gilead and the resistance operating outside that country, what we learn here is that what Atwood left unsaid in the first novel generated more horror and outrage than explicit detail can. And the more we get to know Agnes, Daisy, and Aunt Lydia, the less convincing they become. It’s hard, of course, to compete with a beloved classic, so maybe the best way to read this new book is to forget about <i>The Handmaid’s Tale</i> and enjoy it as an artful feminist thriller.</p> Suspenseful, full of incident, and not obviously necessary. </div> <ul class="list-inline article-social-share-mobile show-on-mobile divider-top d-xl-none d-md-block"> <li class="list-inline-item"> <a title="Counts" href="#"> <img src="https://d1fd687oe6a92y.cloudfront.net/img/kir_images/icons/add-to-shelf.png" width="18" height="18" class="img-fluid mx-auto d-block" alt="Like Counts"> <span class="counts p-0 text-dark">4</span> </a> </li> <li class="list-inline-item"> <a class="share-via-fb" title="Share via Facebook" href="#" data-url="https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/margaret-atwood/the-testaments/"> <img src="https://d1fd687oe6a92y.cloudfront.net/img/kir_images/icons/facebook-mobile.png" width="24" height="24" class="img-fluid mx-auto d-block" alt="Share via Facebook"> </a> </li> <li class="list-inline-item"> <a title="Share via Twitter" href="https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/margaret-atwood/the-testaments/&hashtags=kirkusreviews"> <img src="https://d1fd687oe6a92y.cloudfront.net/img/kir_images/icons/twitter-mobile.png" width="24" height="24" class="img-fluid mx-auto d-block" alt="Share via Twitter"> </a> </li> <li class="list-inline-item"> <a class="share-via-email" title="Share via Email" href="#"> <img src="https://d1fd687oe6a92y.cloudfront.net/img/kir_images/icons/email-mobile.png" class="img-fluid mx-auto d-block" alt="Share via Email"> </a> </li> <li class="list-inline-item"> <a title="Print" href="/book-reviews/margaret-atwood/the-testaments/print/"> <img src="https://d1fd687oe6a92y.cloudfront.net/img/kir_images/icons/print-icon.png" class="img-fluid mx-auto d-block" alt="Print"> </a> </li> </ul> <div class="divider-bottom divider-gap hide-on-desktop show-on-mobile d-xl-none d-md-block"></div> <div class="row content-row mt-5"> <div class="col-lg-4 col-md-4 col-sm-12 col-xs-12"> <p><b>Pub Date:</b> Sept. 10, 2019</p> <p><b>ISBN:</b> 978-0-385-54378-1</p> </div> <div class="col-lg-4 col-md-4 col-sm-12 col-xs-12"> <p><b>Page Count:</b> 432</p> <p><b>Publisher:</b> Nan A. Talese</p> </div> <div class="col-lg-4 col-md-4 col-sm-12 col-xs-12"> <p><b>Review Posted Online:</b> Sept. 3, 2019</p> <p><b>Kirkus Reviews Issue:</b> Sept. 15, 2019</p> </div> </div> <div class="row content-row"> <div class="col-lg-12 col-sm-12 col-xs-12 mb-3"> <div class="category-flex-container"> <div class="category-label flex-child" style="max-width: 68px"> <span class="cat-genre"><b>Categories:</b></span> </div> <div class="category-links flex-child"> <p class="article-category"> <a href="/discover-books/science-fiction-fantasy/general-science-fiction-fantasy"> GENERAL SCIENCE FICTION & FANTASY</a> | <a href="/discover-books/fiction/literary-fiction"> LITERARY FICTION</a> | <a href="/discover-books/fiction/dystopian-fiction"> DYSTOPIAN FICTION</a> | <a href="/discover-books/fiction/science-fiction"> SCIENCE FICTION</a> | <a href="/discover-books/science-fiction-fantasy/general-science-fiction"> GENERAL SCIENCE FICTION</a> </p> </div> </div> </div> </div> <p 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