Official Review: American River: Tributaries

[Amanda Nixon]

You did great making this book sound extremely interesting. It is definitely intriguing to read an actual well put together book about immigrants and not just the same cut and paste tragic hero approach (not that a lot of immigrants haven't had a tragic past to overcome, it's just that it's nice to also hear about the other important moments in their life). I lost quite a bit of interest in reading it when I got to the part of the review about the rape line and am going back and forth on whether I want to read it. Thanks for the thorough review!

[speedie]

From your review, it sounds like this book should have been made into a series. I love this kind of book and it does sound interesting.

[ktom]

Thanks for such a detailed review. I don’t think I’ll read this one, however. The book sounds interesting enough, the way the stories come together several years later, but I trust your rating and will probably not enjoy it. I also agree with that comment about rape being in poor taste. Yikes!

[Faith Atieno okoth]

Nice review, hut I am not that much into immigrants, because their story a times complicates

[MsDree]

Quite insightful review. Interesting perspective and characters. Though I must say, this book isn't my kind of read despite under historical fiction genre. Tributaries is probably why because I don't mind learning others' cultures.

[YUNGPROF1994]

Having gone through the review is needful to say that the book will good for historical based knowledge acquisition for intellectuals

[DisneyDoug2018]

Diversity in the 19th century is a topic that should be explored more. The reviewer is spot on with her assessment of the writer’s strength and weaknesses, I just thought it warranted a 3 rating rather than a 2.

[Samy Lax]

I like the way birds, geography, and art are woven into this book that talks about racism, loss, and more. I look forward to the next books in the trilogy as well.

[Katiemhardy813]

I loved the scope and ambition of the stories - there were definitely shades of A Hundred Years of Solitude there for me, and I loved hearing those echoes! However, I did have some of the same issues I'm hearing from a lot of readers - there were so many characters and stories that we kept jumping between that I started keeping an index card with names and "cheat codes" on it so I could follow along! Even then it was a bit distracting. I look forward to reading more of O'Connor's work because I see a lot of promise in her writing! I'll definitely seek out her other work.

[Carmel Bachelor]

I'm surprised you gave it only 2 stars despite the amount of good feedback you gave it. I've read a lot of immigrant stories, fiction and non-fiction but have never seen one that follows three very different families this way. Very intrigued! I'm also curious if it was self-published, I can't imagine a lot of professional editors would have let the rape comment go through.

[Scrawling Pen]

I hope that I get a chance to read this book--it sounds like it will be a good experience. Just from the sample, I enjoy the dialogue between characters, and I hope that it can open my eyes a bit wider to the world around me. Thanks for the review!

[AA1495]

I understand your point about not being able to remember the characters. I'm glad you loved some aspects of the book though.

[BookishCreature]

Great review! I really love immigrant stories, especially when they explore a variety of cultures. It sounds like the author did a great job of capturing the immigrant experience. Thanks for the write-up!

[jennibabe31]

Good review. I'm not a huge fan of historical books,but I thought I would try the sample. Unfortunately I'm already starting to get confused with all the characters. But the plot does seem interesting so far.

[Irene C]

I can see what you mean about the structure of the book being somewhat hard to follow, but I think that adds to the richness of the narrative. And from the excerpt, it does look very well written overall. The descriptions are so vivid, they really pull you in.

I'm sorry to hear that there is a scene that makes light of rape. I'd be curious to know the context