Wicked River

Title: Wicked River
Author: Jenny Milchman
Genre: Mystery/Thriller
Source: Kindle Ebook from NetGalley
Rating: 2 out of 5 paws


Natalie and Doug have just gotten married and are spending their honeymoon in the Adirondack mountains.  This is a chance for them to start a new life together, to become something new.  They begin to explore their own hearts and dive deeper than they ever have before.  But the couple learn quickly that they are not alone.  Something or someone more sinister lurks between the trees.  The mountains are a beautiful place to be, but also a place where someone can hide, or for someone to go missing without a trace.  Someone watches them, waiting for them to come closer.  Then he will ensure they never make it out of the mountains again.

I couldn't be more excited to have received this book from the kind publishers and those at NetGalley for an honest review. I am always excited to find new authors and potential find something out of my normal read.  That was my hope with this novel.  The synopsis makes it sound so thrilling and exciting to read, sadly it missed the mark.


From the beginning readers will see the sentence structure is a little different than what we may be used to with sentences like the first one "Twigs and branches tore at her arms like razor wire, so fast she was running."  The second part of that sentence is what made me stumble a little bit, but the structure does get easier to read.  Also some of the vocabulary makes it feel like the author is trying to hard at something.  Some of the words in the first few pages I had to look up because I never seen them used before like "fleeter" which she could have used something more common like "nimble". 


The story takes a very long time to develop and the characters weren't all that interesting aside from Mia, but she's a secondary character.  The idea for the story is interesting in itself, but I don't think Michman executed as effectively as she could have.  About 8-9 chapters in and readers are still basically at base camp of the story, and find themselves wondering when will the action begin.  It almost feels like you are pushing yourself to read more just to get to "the good part."


I wanted to enjoy this book so much, but I was really disappointed in it.  The excessive use of uncommon vocabulary was rough, but you get used to it, the drab characters happen sometimes, as so the slow moving story, but all of it mixed together makes for a book that is really difficult to finish.  I don't think I would recommend this book.