A Southern Gothic with a lot of gore. It’s a bit of a muddle, with names that invoke Shakespeare’s Tempest, elements of Eastern European mythology, all sloshing together in the muck of the swampy Arkansas bayous. The language is florid, and the action is violent and grim, of the sort that makes it hard for me to want to keep reading because horrible things happen unrelentingly to good people, and to morally ambiguous people, and to downright evil people, who outnumber the good ones by quite a lot. But I kept reading to see how it all turned out, despite that where and why things went the way they did wasn’t always entirely clear, even at the end.

On the plus side, the florid language did evoke the bayous’ sights, smells, and sounds almost tangibly. And there are two or three really interesting and well-drawn characters. ( )

Absolutely couldn't get into this. It felt written to death. Adjectives, adverbs, details clogging up everything. ( )

It’s gothic, it’s bloody, and it’s got a surprisingly literary bite, making The Boatman’s Daughter a satisfying read for horror fans and more, if not a bit difficult to comprehend at times. ( )

I loved the vibes and writing of this novel, which in some ways felt like a marriage of Carson McCullers and Cormac McCarthy, with just a touch of Joe Hill. Sinking into the scenes and the setting as things unfolded was a pleasure, and as the book kept going, the reading got faster and faster.

The issue for me, though, became clarity. So often, it felt like I needed just a bit more connective tissue and narrative to help be sure of how the characters related to each other, how their pasts connected, and exactly what was happening on the page. Especially in the middle of the book, there were moments where I loved what I was reading, but still wasn't quite sure of what was going on in that moment. At a certain point, all of those moments of confusion added up, and I was reading for vibes as much as meaning, letting the language and individual scenes pull me on even when I wasn't quite sure of the larger canvas and how it was coming together. Probably, this is a book that would benefit from multiple reads...but when it comes down to it, I never quite connected to the characters well enough that I'm tempted to re-read. In some ways, that makes me feel like this is a plot-driven novel which is written more in the style of a literary or character-driven novel. Not to say that all those things can't come together at once, but in this case, I'm not sure they did.

I look forward to trying more of Andy Davidson's work since I loved so many elements of this. I'm not sure I'd recommend this specific book, but it was immersive enough that I think I'm glad to have come across it. ( )

First, let me acknowledge how well the audiobook is read. Five Stars for Samantha Desz!

As for the author, Mr. Davidson, one must acknowledge his imagination and his ability to write sentences and paragraphs that conjure up visions of damp, dark places populated by interesting, if often despicable, characters. It is as a plotter that Mr. Davidson falls short. This book piles horrific scene upon horrific scene to the point of no return--it gets old after a while. It also isn't particularly clear how 11-year old Miranda manages to remain independent after the death of her father. The book's best--and worst--part is its long climax, which begins a bit over halfway through and cuts from scene to scene, cinematically, to leave the reader or listener hanging on the precipice of some new atrocity. For all the special effects, it doesn't all really come together. More problematic is the whole supernatural element of the book. Frankly, the story would have been better without it. The supernatural characters, who are never well explained, are not really an integral part of the story, which is more concerned with drug dealing, murder, and family relationships. Not sorry at all that I listened to this. Overall, I did enjoy it. But it is another example of a book that really needed a good, forceful editor. ( )