Rivers of London – Review

Title: Rivers of London.

Author: Ben Aaronovitch.

Format: Paperback.

Publisher: Gollancz.

Page count: 390.

Release day: January 10^th 2011.

Genre: (urban)fantasy, mystery, supernatural.

Rating: 3 stars.

What is it about? (Summary from GoodReads)

Probationary Constable Peter Grant dreams of being a detective in London’s Metropolitan Police. Too bad his superior plans to assign him to the Case Progression Unit, where the biggest threat he’ll face is a paper cut. But Peter’s prospects change in the aftermath of a puzzling murder, when he gains exclusive information from an eyewitness who happens to be a ghost. Peter’s ability to speak with the lingering dead brings him to the attention of Detective Chief Inspector Thomas Nightingale, who investigates crimes involving magic and other manifestations of the uncanny. Now, as a wave of brutal and bizarre murders engulfs the city, Peter is plunged into a world where gods and goddesses mingle with mortals and a long-dead evil is making a comeback on a rising tide of magic. 

My thoughts:

Okay so I’m having a hard time writing down my thoughts for this one.

On the one side I really liked it. I really liked the world, and the creatures and definitely the magic system. But then I was very confused about the mystery part and sometimes I liked Peter and sometimes not at all..

So you know, I went for the middle rating haha.

For some reason I expected this book to be like A darker shade of magic, I guess because of the title, and they were standing next to each other in the shop. But I can tell you, it is not similar at all! So this made the beginning slightly confusing to read, but that was 100% my fault.

As soon as I got that this was a mystery I go interested in it, but there are some parts about this guy they were looking for that took me so long to understand (I’m not sure if saying it would be spoilery, so I’m not). Which is the main reason why the mystery was confusing to me.

I liked Peter most of the time, I liked figuring out the magic together with him. But sometimes he made these weird comments, which I was not necessarily a fan of.

I did really like the writing style of this book, but it was quite different than most of the books I read. For some reason I read this book way slower than I normally read books. I’m not sure if it is because of the writing, or maybe I was just busy or something?!

Since I’m very very interested in the magic and creatures in this world, I will definitely continue on with this series!

Have you read this book? What did you think?