Book Review: Riverkeep by Martin Stewart

Riverkeep by Martin Stewart is a book intended for teens and tweens. Fifteen-year-old Wulliam is dreading taking up his family's mantle of Riverkeep, tending the river and fishing corpses from its treacherous waters. But then everything changes. One night his father is possessed by a dark spirit, and Wull hears that a cure lurks deep within the great sea-beast known as the mormorach. He realizes he must go on an epic journey downriver to find it - or lose Pappa forever. The story feels sluggish and the interesting parts of it are few and far between.

Riverkeep is a book that I had trouble getting into, and in turn enjoying. Unfortunately little things bothered me about Wull starting at the beginning. I found him to be frustrating more often than I found him likable or sympathetic. I think the disconnect from the main character and a pacing that I found to be slow made it hard to get excited about the story or care about the characters or their world. I honestly picked up the book four or five times to read it, only to put it down in favor of whatever was next on my reading list. Finally I decided that I would tackle it- and still could not connect with Wull and his story. Sadly I could not finish the book. However, I think readers that like the very descriptive style might enjoy the read. Unfortunately, that is not me.