Rivers of Gold by S. R. Nulton, 2021

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Midas made his daughter into an icon, a relic of living gold enshrined in a golden temple, fiercely defended, and ruthlessly isolated. She's the perfect, spoiled princess. Or is she?

Amy lives in a gilded cage, and she knows it. Her father ensured that when she was only eight. Whoever decided it was smart to give a king the ability to turn anything he touched into gold was a fool. She may not be a statue anymore, but she's just as trapped as she ever was. It turns out gold is just as hard to escape as iron.
Her last—well, only hope is the same man who saved her all those years ago. King Midas made the deal out of desperation, Amy's life for her hand in marriage, and the time has finally come to marry the river god.
But what happens when your prince comes for you, and your father won't let you go?

(207 pages)

Fair warning, this is the ninth in a series of interconnected fairytale retellings and I don't really remember most of the earlier books. All I remember is a few truly genius innovations on some otherwise pretty played-out fairytale tropes (my favorite was her Beauty and the Beast), a few incredibly bizarre retellings (The Salamander Prince is definitely . . . memorable), and a couple of the more recent books which left me rather bored.

So I picked up Rivers of Gold out of boredom, more than anything. I've only read one or two other retellings of the Midas story, and I was vaguely curious to see how Nulton would twist it.

I have to say, this definitely wasn't as fun as many of the other books in the series. But I suppose it does match some of the darker themes in earlier books, where abusive family members have been all too prevalent. It isn't necessarily a fun book, but I like it. I like that Nulton went down a more realistic path of domestic abuse, showing us the vile manipulation tactics Amy's father uses against her and the toll they take on her. Amy is not the unflappable, quippy heroine from Nulton's other books. She's not particularly strong, physically or emotionally, and her entire life has been controlled by her evil father.

The more I think about it, the more I like the approach Nulton took. It reminds me of the debates people have about the original Cinderella tale: is it a bad story for little girls because it shows a woman allowing herself to be abused for years until a man rescues her? Or is it an empowering story about a woman who found the strength to survive years of abuse until she could find a way out? Personally, I suspect both sides may be reading a bit too deeply into a bedtime story. But I think that these sorts of questions could be explored more deeply with a book like Rivers of Gold, where Amy is a character who needs help from others because she has been raised in a golden cage and has no idea how to help herself (especially not without seeing the people around her tortured in retribution).

As for the characters themselves, I really like most of them. Amy is a bit bland, but that's part of her story: she hasn't had the space to find her identity yet. Zale is a bit more fleshed out, though to be honest I don't really care particularly for him. He's a pretty standard character - funny, charismatic, moral, etc. He's also a sailor, which seems to pop up in a lot of these fairytale retellings. I don't know what's so romantic about all these men who want to whisk people away to a smelly boat, but I guess it works for people. The king is suitably evil and manipulative (though to be honest, I wish he'd been a bit subtler at times when he'd manipulate Amy), and the other characters were all interesting in their own rights. I won't go into detail, though, since they don't really come into focus until later in the book.

All in all, an interesting read that I got sucked into more than I expected to. It's a very solid addition to the series, and probably the best Midas retelling that I've read (not that this means much, considering how sparse the competition is). If you're interested, give it a go. And if you know of any other Midas retellings, let me know! I'm always looking to find new retellings.