Zalika Reid-Benta’s new Novel River Mumma is ONE for the Culture!

“Ah yes, mi a vision fi true, but yuh eye nuh deceive yuh.”

Alicia, our protagonist, in River Mumma is in a weird space in her life. Having recently graduated from University she has no real career prospects on the horizon, like her former classmates. Instead, she is living with her mother in Toronto while working at a large chain retail store and trying to figure it all out. 

Other than her non-existent publishing career, Alicia can’t muster the energy to have much of a social life, socializing isn’t really her thing. As the story opens we meet Alicia at her friend/co-worker Heaven’s house who is having a small party because her parents have gone away for the weekend. Alicia shows up in sweatpants making zero effort to look pretty or be social. 

During the party, Alicia also meets a friend of Heaven’s, Oni who is both intriguing and spiritual and does a card reading on Alicia, that rocks her to her core. Alicia decides to leave the party and walk the few blocks home, in the wintery cold. On her way home she encounters the mystical deity River Mumma, who is said to protect bodies of water and the people who pay her tribute. River Mumma sets Alicia on a quest to find her stolen comb that was taken by a tourist, and she wants it back or else she will dry up all the bodies of water. 

“A boulder emerged in the middle of the river where there hadn’t been one before. A figure sat atop the rock. It looked to be a beautiful woman but that was too ordinary a description. A shapely woman with blue-black skin and gorgeous loc’d hair. Coiled black strands that fell beneath her bare shoulders, covering her naked breasts. She wore nothing but beaded necklaces of varying lengths and colours. Some red. Some blue. Alicia spotted some orange. Both of her wrists glinted with golden bangles that nearly reached her elbows. Her face was a mystery. Neither young nor old, or maybe she was both at once, Alicia couldn’t be sure. She couldn’t be sure of anything because the most striking detail about this woman was that in place of her legs was a scaled green fishtail.”

Alicia doesn’t know why River Mumma chose her and doesn’t want this responsibility. She spends most of the book questioning herself and her abilities. Thinking she needs to figure this out on her own, she’s surprised when Heaven as well as their co-worker Mars travel across Toronto to help Alicia find the missing artifact before it’s too late. 

River Mumma is a captivating book that weaves Jamaican folklore in a contemporary Toronto setting and it is a truly magical journey. If you were ever in doubt that Zalika Reid-Benta is here for the culture then this book will set you straight. 

Zalika Reid-Benta is a Toronto-based writer whose debut story collection, Frying Plantain, was longlisted for the Scotiabank Giller Prize, and it was shortlisted for the Toronto Book Award. 

I loved so many aspects of this book that I cannot go through it all without giving everything away. The way Reid-Benta weaves the past and the present with folklore and culture is so delightful. If you’re from Toronto the debate over the best patties in the city rages on and while we have a few great contenders in this book, there’s yet to be an actual winner. 

To say I loved this book is an understatement. It delighted and enthralled me in the best possible ways and I could not put it down.

The sprinkle of Jamaican culture mixed with the backdrop of Toronto culture was the perfect blend that made my heart full.

I truly read this book in one day a few chapters on LibroFM, who sent me an advanced copy and the audio was AMAZING! 

And the rest I read through NetGalley. 

Thank you to Netgalley, Penguin RandomHouse Canada, and LibroFM for providing a copy of this book.