REVIEW: Rivers of London by Ben Aaronovitch

Title: Rivers of London (Peter Grant #1)
Author: Ben Aaronovitch
Genre: Adult, Fantasy, Crime.
Publication Date: August 2011
Publisher: Gollancz
Format: Paperback
Pages: 390
Challenge: YALC
Rating: 4/5

 "I used to be probationary constable in that mighty army for justice known to all right-thinking people as the Metropolitan Police Service, and to everyone else as the Filth…"

Meet DC Peter Grant. He will show you his city. But it's not the capital that you see as you make your way from tube to bus, from Elephant to Castle. It's a city that under its dark surface is packed full of crime. And of magic. A city that you never suspected…

Gran't story starts when he tries to take a witness statement from a man who was already dead. And take him down a twisting, turning centuries' old mystery that reckons to set London on fire...

Rivers of London is another one of those books that has been on my radar for a while, but I was never really desperate to read. I honestly knew nothing about it, apart from the fact it was set in London. I probably never would have read it, but then I found it for $5 brand new in a bookstore and thought I might as well pick it up. I was a little more interested in reading it after that, but then I found out Ben Aaronovitch was going to be at YALC and now I had to read it.

I’m really glad that I did pick it up eventually because this is a great book. It has three of my favourite elements in a book—magic, detectives and London. Is there anything better in this world? I’ve never actually read anything that had all three things together—it’s usually magic in London or detectives in London, so having all three was kind of all sorts of amazing. I really liked how each thing was dealt with. The magic system was really interesting and unique. The detectives read like actual detectives—I think Ben Aaronovitch must have had some experience with the police because it was just written so believably. London was just brilliant. There were so many little facts and the way in which everything was described just made me feel like I was running around with Peter.

Speaking of Peter, he was a great character. In fact, he didn’t even feel like a character but rather like a real person instead. He was funny and realistic and I just really enjoyed reading about him. I really liked the other characters too—Nightingale is amazing and I absolutely adored Beverly. I’m really, really excited to see how they’ll all grow in the rest of the series.

Finally, the plot. Oh my god, I loved the plot. There’s a couple of different plotlines going on at the same time which don’t really seem connected until towards the end where everything just clicks. They were really well thought out and I absolutely loved how it all came together. I’m very, very interested to see where the rest of the series is going to go from here.

* This is also published under the title 'Midnight Riot'. 

My YALC TBR

So, in my Top Ten Tuesday post the other day, I mentioned that I had a few TBRs for my upcoming Europe trip to share with you all. Today, we're starting that little miniseries with probably the biggest TBR you've ever seen in your life. I present to you... my YALC TBR. (If you'd like to learn more about YALC, check out the official website here).

(BUT FIRST, little bit of this gorgeous human being drum rolling for you all)

I'm sorry about the oddly stylish pattern here at the bottom. Apparently, I don't have enough books on my TBR.

YEPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPP.

Okay, so obviously I'm not going to list every single book here and why I want to read them or what I think about them individually but I will highlight just a select few. Also, I'm writing this a few weeks in advance so hopefully I've read something off here!

Rivers of London by Ben Aaronovitch

One of the few on here that I actually currently own a physical copy of. 

Skulduggery Pleasant by Derek Landy

I've heard such great things about this series, mainly from Cait and Miranda, but I'm excited.

Crow Moon by Anna McKerrow

Maybe my favourite cover on here. It reminds me a little of The Raven Boys.

Legacy by C.J Daughetry

This is the sequel to Night School which I read...last year, maybe? and reasonably enjoyed. I haven't heard the greatest things about this one, but I'm going to give it a try.

Read Me Like a Book by Liz Kessler

I believe this is a teacher/student romance, but ALSO, LGBTQ+

The Manifesto on How To Be Interesting by Holly Bourne

I borrowed this from the library today (my plan is to read as many of these before I leave Melbourne through my library so I can decide what to buy over there). It's absolutely gorgeous, like really gorgeous because of its red/orange-y pages. Very excited to read this one.

So those are a few of the ones I've picked out. I know this is a crazy TBR guys and I don't honestly expect to read them all. I wanted to give myself options, and I really hate meeting authors without reading at least one of their books first because I like to tell them how much I enjoyed their books and my favourite characters and etc. 

If you're going to YALC, let me know what's on your TBR and who you're most excited to see. For me personally, it's a tie between Patrick Ness, Marie Rutkoski and Alice Oseman. If you're not going, let me know if you've read any of these books and what you thought about them.