Literature / Journey to the River Sea

Journey to the River Sea is an adventure novel for children written by Eva Ibbotson and published in 2001. It is set mainly in the Brazil of The Edwardian Era.

The story takes place mainly in Manaus, where the protagonist Maia has moved from England. Maia is a pre-teen orphan who lives and studies in a boarding school in London until her guardian Mr. Murray finds her relatives who are willing to adopt. Said family, the Carters live in Brazil, in the Amazon region. Along with a governess, Miss Minton, Maia goes to Manaus, Brazil to start a new life with the Carters. So you think she'll be Happily Adopted, right? Wrong.

The family turns out to be greedy and apathetic to her at best. But Maia soon falls in love with the surrounding rainforest and life in Brazil, finding a Parental Substitute in her Cool Teacher and new friends.

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This novel provides examples of:

• Anger Born of Worry: Ms. Minton chews out Maia and Finn for drifting together for several weeks without telling anyone that Maia in fact survived the arson. The poor woman was desperate to find her alive and was sinking to depression. She also scold them for neglecting their hygiene and education, at the point that quite humourously, Maia for a moment wished Minty deserted her.
• Animal Motifs:
  • Finn reveals the Carters' Native servants call the twins pigs for their gluttony and horribly spoiled manners. Maia reflects it suits them perfectly.
  • Maia quickly nicknames the men sent to bring Bernard Taverner's son to England the Crows. That's mainly for their black clothes, but they also carry a bit of a sinister connotation since they're chasing after a young boy who really doesn't want what they offer to him.
  • Professor Glastonberry is associated with the giant sloth, as he often worries about the one skeleton in his museum and dreams of finding a living specimen.
• Aristocrats Are Evil: Lady Parsons doesn't hesitate to treat her impoverished relatives as servants, while the Taverners as they were in Bernard's youth were a bunch of bullies who mistreated their White Sheep son to the point he ran away and never looked back.

• Batman Gambit: Finn and Maia exploit the twins' greediness to act on their plan to make Clovis impersonate Finn. Clovis even gives Maia acting lessons on how to look worried and circumspect so the twins will catch on her supposed secret.
• Be as Unhelpful as Possible: The entire city of Manaus (the police, the natives, the museum staff) try to get the Crows on the wrong track with Blatant Lies and Plausible Deniability which the detectives are too dumb and xenophobic to catch on.
• Better as Friends: Prof. Gladstoneberry proposes to Ms. Minton after the adventure they spent together. She gently lets him down because she doesn't believe she's suited for marriage.
• Big Fancy House: Westwood, which isn't exactly a prison as Maia thought, but rather a mansion.
• Chekhov's Gunman: Bella was Bernard Taverner's Only Friend, a maidservant who read the books instead of dusting them. Bernard named his boat after her. She later was fired, started to work as a governess and ultimately was assignated to Maia. She's Ms. Minton, whose first name is Arabella
• Chekhov's Gun: The insecticide bought by Mrs. Carter is an highly inflammable one. Guess what accidentally sets their house on fire.
• The Chew Toy: The Crows, who are fooled all the time by pretty much all the city.
• Chick Magnet:
  • Clovis, who is the picture of the Princely Young Man. All three of Finn's cousins are looking forward to marry him when they grow up.
  • We never see girls paying attention to him due to circumstances, but Maia speculates that the older girls in her school would definitely crush on Finn.
• Chubby Mama, Skinny Papa: Mr and Ma Carter are respectively Lean and Mean and Fat Bitch.

• Collector of the Strange: Mr. Carter has a hobby of collecting glass eyes, and he seems to value his collection more than his own family.
• Commonality Connection: Finn, Maia and Clovis bond over the fact that they are orphans.
• Cool Teacher: What Miss Minton turns out to be. One thing doesn't exclude the other, after all. She just needed to find a kid who actually wanted to learn.
• Creepy Twins: Beatrice and Gwendolyn are completely amoral Spoiled Brats.
• Dances and Balls: Olga Kaminskiy celebrates her birthday with a huge ball where Maia carries on her plan to help Finn.
• Dude Magnet: Maia is a pre-teen example. Clovis and Finn sometimes compete for her affection, and there is also Sergey Kaminsky who is very chivalrous to her, to Finn's annoyance.
• The Edwardian Era: The novel is set in the first decade of the 20th century.
• Family of Choice: Essentially Ms. Minton becomes a second mother to Maia, and she's the daughter she never had. She also takes Finn (her deceased friend's son) under her wing, and the ending implies that they are going to live together.
• Fat Bastard: Mrs Carter is noted to be plump with a double chin upon Maia's first meeting with the family. Beatrice and Gwendolyn themselves are also hinted to be overweight, with descriptions of their 'plump legs', 'plump fingers' and short necks along with their gluttony and frequent comparisons to pigs.
• Foreshadowing:
  • When Maia meets Clovis for the first time he's doing rehearsal for his role in Little Lord Fauntleroy, playing beautifully his character save for the times his voice gets deeper - he's hitting puberty already. Clovis is worried that it could happen on stage. And it totally happens, sinking his child acting career - not that he's saddened.
  • Also Clovis hopes that Maia's foster twin sisters are nice, otherwise she would get double pain. He's proven right when the twins turn out to be horribly spoiled.
  • Finn's boat is named the Arabella, and he's quite interested when Maia mentions Miss Minton's name starts with a A too. She's later identified as Bernard Taverner's maid friend, whom all of Westwood called "Bella" because Arabella was too posh for a servant.
  • Mr. Carter tells Maia that if his house was ever set on fire, he would definitely save his collection of glass eyes (after his wife and kids, he adds later). Indeed is what he does when a fire destroys his home, he goes back to save the collection, but forgets to save Maia. Fortunately for her, she survives on her own.
• Fostering for Profit: The only reason why the Carters accepted to adopt Maia was because their debts threatened to crush them and they needed a regular source of money to stave off the ruin - the salary to care for her.
• Green-Eyed Monster: Beatrice and Gwendolyn were never nice to Maia to begin with - they are never nice to everyone - but become absolutely vicious when they learn from their mother that they are essentially living off from Maia's allowance because she's an heiress and they're poor. Also they hate her because she's nice and easy to like, but the thought that it may be their fault if people don't like them never dawns on them.
• Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: Clovis tends to complain and whine, but he's a genuinely good friend to Maia and later Finn.
• Happily Adopted: Clovis by his adoptive mother, regretting immensely leaving her. Maia eventually is adopted by Miss Minton.
• Heartwarming Orphan: Maia heartwarms pretty much the city of Manaus except her adoptive family.
  • Clovis is a child actor who plays Little Lord Fauntleroy
  • Again, Clovis heartwarms Finn's grandfather Sir Aubrey pretending to be Finn.
• Heir Club for Men: The reason why Sir Aubrey wants his unfavorite son and later his grandson to come back in England. His designated heir Dudley perished in a riding accident, his daughter went on having four daughters, and he refuses to let some unknown inherit his ancestral property, so better the disappointment of a son to succeed him.
• Henpecked Husband: Mr. Carter spends most of his time locked in his studio to avoid being nagged by his wife.
• Identical Stranger: Sir Aubrey is quick to accept Clovis impersonating Finn as his grandson because of a weird likeness between him and a long-dead ancestor.
• Immediate Self-Contradiction: Minty states that she's not the type prone to Fainting a second before she faints after learning that Maia supposedly died in the fire at the Carter's bungalow.
• Intimate Hair Brushing: Ms. Minton brushes Maia's hair the first night they spent at the Carter's, when Maia is visibly disappointed by their apathy and the twins were cold to her.
• Jerkass Has a Point: Ma Carter ultimately decides to confiscate her own daughters' money. That's because forty thousand millreis would wipe clean a huge amount of debt, and the twins do nothing but counting it again and again.
• "Just Joking" Justification: Clovis tries to reveal to Sir Aubrey that he's not his grandson, but the old man has an heart attack and Clovis has to reassure him that it was just a joke out of pity.
• Kissing Cousins: Joan Smith née Taverner intends for one of her daughters to marry their cousin Finn, to keep the claim legitimate. Ultimately subverted, since the boy they believe to be Finn has no blood relation to them.
• Laser-Guided Karma: The Carters only wanted Maia for her money and never even tried to make her feel welcome. The female Carters are forced to become servants to Lady Parsons who cares not a whit for their blood relation.
• Like a Daughter to Me: Ms. Minton comes to see Maia as a surrogate daughter and almost goes mad with grief when Maia disappears the only night she spent elsewhere, and goes to insane lengths to find her. She eventually becomes her adoptive mother as Mr. Murray agrees to co-parenting with her.
• Maligned Mixed Marriage: Finn's parents. His dad was happily married to a native woman from the Xanti tribe, and she was pregnant with their son. Unfortunately she died of childbirth because white doctors refused to visit a Native woman.
• Master Actor: Clovis is very, very good at his job. His impersonation of a reserved, properly-mannered young gentleman is so flawless that Sir Aubrey never once suspects a deception.
• My God, What Have I Done??: A chain of circumstances leads Maia to be left all alone with the Carters while the house burns and no one is particularly interested in saving her. When Ms. Minton learns about it, she naturally jump to the worst conclusion, feeling painful guilt for not being with her that day.
• Neat Freak: Ma Carter is constantly warring against bugs, invasive plants and dirt, which inconveniences her whole family.
• Of Corset Hurts: Miss Minton is really unhappy about wearing a tight garment in the hot Brazilian climate. She ultimately decides to throw it in the River Sea.
• Parental Substitute: Miss Minton becomes one to Maia and is eventually allowed to adopt her.
• Platonic Co-Parenting: Mr. Murray decides at some point that Maia needs a mother figure in her life, and that Ms. Minton could be the right person.
• Politically Incorrect Villain: Per the norm for the Edwardian era, several antagonistic characters are unapologetically racist and xenophobic towards the Brazilian Natives. Sir Aubrey actually worries about his mixed ancestry grandson not knowing English and living naked, and it's implied the Crows refuse to consider an identity impersonator as the boy they ultimately bring back to England is much more acceptable due to his white skin and blond hair.
• Raised by Grandparents: Clovis at the end, but by Finn's grandfather.
• Rejecting the Inheritance: Finn isn't interested by the prospect to become an English peer, mainly because of all the horror stories his dad told him about his family. He eagerly swaps places with Clovis and never regrets his decision.
• Rich Bitch: Lady Parsons, Mrs. Carter's cousin. Jerkassery definitely runs in the family. Despite being quite affluent she decides that having her impoverished relatives as servants is better than having to pay competent ones.
  • The Carters are actually a subversion; they certainly act like it, mistreating Maia and their servants and refusing to eat food that hasn't been imported from England, but they're deeply in debt.
• Scenery Porn: Readers will wish they could go to the rainforest and see it with their own eyes.
• Succession Crisis: Sir Aubrey Taverner owns a fancy estate. He has two sons and a daughter. The youngest son is a disappointment and gets disowned. The other son unexpectedly dies. The daughter gets married but gives birth to girls only, and in this Edwardian setting daughters can't inherit titles (like the main plot of Downton Abbey). Sir Aubrey eventually learns that his estranged son is dead and left a son, and the old man goes to look for his grandson.
• Surefooted Barefooter: The Xanti people — a tribe of Earthy Barefoot Characters — are explicitly stated to be able to use their senses of touch and unhindered mobility to navigate their terrain better than shod characters.
  Maia could never get over how quiet the Xanti were, how careful of the land. They treated every clump of trees or trickle of water as though they were old friends. They could walk barefoot over thorns and through swamps and piles of leaves which might easily have concealed a snake, but somehow they knew that it didn't. "They have wise feet," the professor said.
• Took a Level in Kindness: Sir Aubrey was nothing short of an Abusive Parent for Bernard, but losing almost all his heirs and old age managed to marketedly soften him, with Clovis actually enjoying being raised by him.
• The Un-Favourite: Bernard to the Taverner family, for being a "sissy" - meaning, a decent human being with manners and kindness. He ended up running away and no one even cared until his brother's demise launched a Succession Crisis.
• Two Guys and a Girl: Maia, Finn and Clovis. And both the boys have feelings for the girl.
• Unwanted Rescue: The Manaus police force admirably braved the River Sea to rescue several English people held captive among a native tribe. They only manage to freak innocent Indians who welcomed a beloved nephew and his friends for several weeks.
• Villain Decay: Sir Aubrey Taverner is depicted as an haughty, unforgiving, formidable man in his younger. Clovis finds out that old age and the loss of his sons have considerably mellowed him, and he dotes very much on whom he believes is his grandson.
• What the Hell, Hero?:
  • Miss Minton brutally chews out Maia and Finn for running away on the River Sea without telling anyone, right after the Carter house burned to the ground and let Arabella believe her student had died.
  • Mr. Murray, Maia's guardian isn't impressed when he learns that Minty allowed Maia to live with the natives for several weeks and didn't report that she survived the fire right away. He was so incensed that he sacked her on the spot, although eventually Minty could explain how much Maia was benefiting from her times in the wilderness.