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chronicallybookish 's review for:
The Valley and the Flood
by Rebecca Mahoney
Thank you so much to Penguin Teen for an early ARC! All thought and opinions are my own.
Quick Stats
Overall: 4.5 stars
Characters:5/5
Plot:4/5
Setting:4/5
Writing:5/5
First of all—dang that book was a brain-twister. Very weird. Very intriguing. Very entertaining.I loved it. Now let’s get into the nitty gritty.
Rebecca Mahoney masterfully weaves a tale of loss, intrigue, and paranormal happenings. The book involves frank, realistic depictions of PTSD, panic attacks, grief, and more.
Rose, our main character, is a entertaining, real, honestly quite broken, and occasionally a bit of an unreliable narrator. Her raw emotion drew me in from the start. I felt like I was right there with her, inside her head, experiencing the events of the book along with her.
Rose experiences a couple panic attacks in what are essentially flashback scenes, and as someone with severe anxiety and a history of panic attacks, I rarely resonate with books’ descriptions of panic attacks. They’re not wrong, by any means, but they just don’t fit my experiences. Mahoney’s descriptions of panic attacks, however, were pretty much spot-on with my own experiences. She describes them in a real way that never strays into the cliches that sometimes are present while describing panic attacks.
Secondly, I would like to talk about how much I ADORE Alex Harper. I wish we saw more of him, as we do Felix and Cassie. Alex had a terminal illness (essentially) that was cured magically (again, essentially). This toes the line of the magical healing trope, which I absolutely loathe, but in my opinion, because of the circumstances of his situation, and the fact that he has lasting effects stays firmly planted in A-OK territory. My favorite thing about him is his constant—and rightful—insistance that he is not fragile, despite chronic illnesses and his past illness. The other characters (mostly Felix) try to coddle him, and Alex has NONE of it. And I love it. That’s one of the things I hate the most about being chronically ill—the way I’m often treated like I’m breakable. Alex did a really good of articulating, and showing, how frustrating and kind of offensive that is, no matter how honorable the intentions.
The story unfolded naturally, and the pacing was really good. I typically don’t like books that take place over such a short period of time because the pacing is very hard to get right, but I think Rebecca Mahoney did a magnificent job. I was never bored, and it never felt rushed. Every next step was logical. The earlier twists and turns were appropriately surprising while still making perfect sense. The last couple twists/reveals felt as if the author showed her hand just a chapter or so too early leading up to the big reveal, but it wasn’t too big of an issue. That final resolution was not what I expected, but I really, really liked it. The morals were slightly heavy-handed, but they were important enough, and incorporated enough that it didn’t bother me.
All in all, Mahoney crafted a really solid debut novel that gave me a little bit of The Raven Boys vibes (it’s not at all similar, it just for some reason reminded me of that series), and I can’t wait to see what she comes out with next. Highly recommend!
Quick Stats
Overall: 4.5 stars
Characters:5/5
Plot:4/5
Setting:4/5
Writing:5/5
First of all—dang that book was a brain-twister. Very weird. Very intriguing. Very entertaining.I loved it. Now let’s get into the nitty gritty.
Rebecca Mahoney masterfully weaves a tale of loss, intrigue, and paranormal happenings. The book involves frank, realistic depictions of PTSD, panic attacks, grief, and more.
Rose, our main character, is a entertaining, real, honestly quite broken, and occasionally a bit of an unreliable narrator. Her raw emotion drew me in from the start. I felt like I was right there with her, inside her head, experiencing the events of the book along with her.
Rose experiences a couple panic attacks in what are essentially flashback scenes, and as someone with severe anxiety and a history of panic attacks, I rarely resonate with books’ descriptions of panic attacks. They’re not wrong, by any means, but they just don’t fit my experiences. Mahoney’s descriptions of panic attacks, however, were pretty much spot-on with my own experiences. She describes them in a real way that never strays into the cliches that sometimes are present while describing panic attacks.
Secondly, I would like to talk about how much I ADORE Alex Harper. I wish we saw more of him, as we do Felix and Cassie. Alex had a terminal illness (essentially) that was cured magically (again, essentially). This toes the line of the magical healing trope, which I absolutely loathe, but in my opinion, because of the circumstances of his situation, and the fact that he has lasting effects stays firmly planted in A-OK territory. My favorite thing about him is his constant—and rightful—insistance that he is not fragile, despite chronic illnesses and his past illness. The other characters (mostly Felix) try to coddle him, and Alex has NONE of it. And I love it. That’s one of the things I hate the most about being chronically ill—the way I’m often treated like I’m breakable. Alex did a really good of articulating, and showing, how frustrating and kind of offensive that is, no matter how honorable the intentions.
The story unfolded naturally, and the pacing was really good. I typically don’t like books that take place over such a short period of time because the pacing is very hard to get right, but I think Rebecca Mahoney did a magnificent job. I was never bored, and it never felt rushed. Every next step was logical. The earlier twists and turns were appropriately surprising while still making perfect sense. The last couple twists/reveals felt as if the author showed her hand just a chapter or so too early leading up to the big reveal, but it wasn’t too big of an issue. That final resolution was not what I expected, but I really, really liked it. The morals were slightly heavy-handed, but they were important enough, and incorporated enough that it didn’t bother me.
All in all, Mahoney crafted a really solid debut novel that gave me a little bit of The Raven Boys vibes (it’s not at all similar, it just for some reason reminded me of that series), and I can’t wait to see what she comes out with next. Highly recommend!