Riverkeep

Starred review from May 9, 2016
Debut novelist Stewart creates a fantastical world packed with magic and monsters, set on the fictional shores of the Danék River. Wulliam, 15, is to become the new Riverkeep, a job that generations of men in his family have done without complaint. Though an obedient child, Wull plans on running away before he can take up the oars of the family bäta and follow in his father’s footsteps of keeping the river free of corpses. After Pappa is attacked by a bohdan, which inhabits the bodies of its victims, Wull attempts to save his father by going after the mormorach, an enormous, magical aquatic creature that might hold a cure. Stewart assembles a slew of imaginative and memorable characters, including Mix, a stowaway girl with strange markings on her barklike skin; Tillinghast, a “not technic’ly alive” homunculus made from human parts; and Remedie, a witch who hopes to bring her wooden child back to life. Filled with wild adventure and hilarious dialogue (Tillinghast has a particularly saucy mouth), this vivid, engrossing fantasy will delight readers, even those who occasionally find the dialect tricky to navigate. Ages 12–up. Agent: Molly Ker Hawn, Bent Agency.

Starred review from May 15, 2016
In a desperate effort to save his stricken father, naive young Wulliam sets off down a river strewn with deadly hazards...to tackle the sea monster at its mouth.The quest quickly becomes an intense bildungsroman as darkly comical as it is terrifying and violent. Hopelessly unready to take over on his upcoming 16th birthday the family job of keeping a stretch of the icy Danek free of floating corpses and navigational hazards, brown-skinned Wulliam resolutely shoves off in a small boat with his beloved father--rendered a fretful zombie by a bohdan, a watery parasite that eats its victims slowly from the inside out. As Wulliam travels, his hope of killing the massive mormorach, a mythic, ship-crushing creature from myth that may cure his father, grows increasingly forlorn. He is also joined willy-nilly by three quarrelsome, mysterious fellow travelers. All three are show stealers, but chief among them is the Falstaffian Tillinghast, an outsized, blue-skinned homunculus with an irrepressibly libidinous line of banter and a murderous hit man hot on his trail. Stewart shows a dab hand at crafting memorable characters and thoroughly frightening opponents for them to face. Leaving several supporting storylines up in the air, he navigates the quixotic main mission to a solid resolution that leaves Wulliam truly prepared at last to take up his riverine duties.A rich debut: Huck Finn meets Moby-Dick. (map) (Fantasy. 14-18)

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May 1, 2016

Gr 6-10-Wull is approaching his 16th birthday, the date on which he will take over the grim, hereditary position of Riverkeep from his father. When Wull's father is possessed by a demon that will consume him from the inside out, the only way to save him is to journey to the mouth of the river to slay the Mormorach, a sea monster with healing properties. Along the way, Wull collects a motley assortment of traveling companions: Homunculus Tillinghast, stowaway Mix, Remedie Cantrell and her resurrected wooden baby, and Rushworth the Bootmunch. Some very bad men are chasing Tillinghast, who has stolen a valuable mandrake for reasons of his own, and everyone is trying to slay the Mormorach while Capt. Gilt Murdagh looks on, learning from every failed attempt. With a humorous, light touch and an excellent feel for dialogue, Stewart has created a first-rate fantasy. Unfortunately, in order for the plot to work, the river has to flow both ways, an impossible feat in a world where magic doesn't govern river current. While casual readers won't notice, fantasy lovers, the title's target audience, will. Tillinghast's ribald wit will go over the heads of younger readers and guarantees the comedic elements of the book will be best appreciated in the teen section.

Copyright 2016 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

June 1, 2016
Grades 6-9 Wulliam is about to turn 16 and take over his father's job as Riverkeep. This job, safeguarding a section of the Danek, is passed from father to son and includes fishing out bodies for burial. Then his father becomes possessed by a bodhan, and Wull's only chance to save his beloved Pappa is to harvest part of a mormorach, a gigantic mythical sea monster recently sighted in nearby waters. Helping Wull in his quest are the homunculus Tillinghast; a young stowaway girl named Mix; and Remedie, a woman who believes the wooden baby she clutches to be a real infant. While Stewart certainly draws from many different folklore sources, he constructs a unique and distinctive fantasy world, ably conveyed through very readable dialect and buoyed by near-constant action. Chapter headings include glossary definitions from scholarly works of Stewart's imagining, effectively answering readers' questions while supporting the narrative flow. While knowledge of folklore and mythology will enhance a reader's experience, it's not essential to enjoyment of this riveting read.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)