What the River Knows – Isabel Ibañez

This book was almost four stars. Almost. It came so close… and then I lost it.

Inez belongs to the high society of Buenos Aires during the nineteenth century. She is expected to find a husband, forge connections, and be complacent. Her parents spend most of their time away from her, in Egypt, and she wants nothing more than to go with them and see what all of the fuss is about. When she receives a letter telling her that her parents are dead, she packs her things and sails to Cairo with nothing more than her inheritance, a golden ring her father gave her, and her sketchpads. Accompanied by a guardian and seeking answers from her uncle, she fights prejudice, lies, and is relentless in her pursuit of the truth.

This book is a historical fantasy. I’ve never read a historical fantasy before.

I still feel like I haven’t.

The magic in this book is vague. All the reader knows is that it is old magic that was lost and for some reason Inez, just like other people, can use it to track objects back to their owners. That’s it. I’m not a big fan of it. It feels more like a plot mechanism rather than a worldbuilding mechanism, and I dislike that use of magic.

Inez is incredibly infuriating.

I get it.

Her parents died and she wants answers.

She doesn’t do a very good job looking for them. I feel like she just gets dragged along the entirety of the book. She only gets information when people decide to tell her, and most of the time it’s the same people who have said they can’t tell her anything. An ignorant main character does not inspire mystery. They incur frustration.

I admire her for getting up and pursuing what she wants rather than laying in grief and letting it consume her. Iris in Divine Rivals did the same thing. I applaud them. I applaud Iris more for being able to choose a man that is decent. Inez did not.

The romance between Inez and Whit, her uncle’s mysterious, drunken assistant, is incredibly slow burn. There is a touch of forbidden vibes but Whit is not a decent guy. He has his moments where he shows genuine interest in Inez, but those moments don’t overshadow the fact that he only wanted to get her to turn around and go back to Argentina. He took every step he possibly could to make her feel like an outsider when she was just searching for pieces of her parents in the place they loved, the place they lived, the place they died. I had a hard time feeling the chemistry between the two.

The miscommunication between Whit, Inez, and her uncle had me wanting to pull my hair out. I was mildly intrigued to see what the truth was, but I was more upset that Inez was being jerked around so much. If anyone had been a little honest with her, half of the stuff in the book wouldn’t have happened. The plot felt disjointed and unorganized because of how much she was being jerked around.

The action in this book was not great. It messed with the pacing quite a bit.

I know. This is a lot of negative.

But I really did enjoy the book.

The writing in this book is beautiful. It reads like a love letter to Egypt. You can tell how much the author adores Egypt, not just in the prose, but in the historical facts. She argues against stealing artifacts from ancient tombs for profit and highlights how it negatively impacts the culture of Egyptians. I loved learning more about Egypt and gaining insight into some of these events that transpired.

Despite how annoying I found Inez, she is a strong female lead and I do have sympathy for her and what is happening to her.

The plot developments and twists in this book were unexpected to me. There were a few things that I was surprised to find out. I think this is because Inez was all over the place and everyone was lying to her, but it may have worked in the book’s favor. I was surprised. I’m also not the type of person to try to guess what happens. I’m just here for the vibes. And the vibes were good.

Mostly.

When I sit down and think about everything that was wrong with the book, I can’t bring myself to give it more than three stars. I tried! It gets three stars for the concept.

The ending upset me and confused me. I’ll be reading the second book, whenever it comes out.

I still think Whit is a piece of shit work.

3/5.

“Desperation made people dangerous.”

Isabel Ibañez, What the River Knows